The Overland Guide-book

Two gentlemen and two children.

A lady and her husband, with two children.

A double cabin cannot be appropriated to more than —

Three ladies.

Two gentlemen.

Four children.

A lady and three children.

Two ladies and two children.

A gentleman with two children.

A lady and her husband, with one child.

A single cabin cannot be appropriated to more than —

Two ladies.

One gentleman.

Three children.

One lady and two children.

Passengers in a steamer that may from accident or other cause be obliged to return to port, will be entitled to the refund of the amount that has been paid, deducting therefrom a sum for the table allowance of the commander, according to the number of days that the vessel may have been at sea, calculating the average time occupied in a voyage to or from Suez to be eighteen days, and Aden ten days.

For the convenience of passengers from the Red Sea to India, the commanders of the Honourable Company's packets are authorised to receive payment of passage-money at Suez, or any port between Suez and Bombay, in sovereigns, Spanish dollars or German crowns, at the following rates of exchange, viz.: —

Each cabin-passenger may, if he pleases, put all his baggage into his cabin. The saloon and deck-passengers will be allowed to keep one box or bag above. The rest of the baggage is to be in the baggage-room, and passengers will be allowed access to it twice a week, on a day and hour fixed by the commander, who will appoint a person to have charge of the baggage.

Any applicant may be refused a passage without any cause being assigned, either by the authorities at Bombay or by the commander of the vessel when away from Bombay; but a report of the rejection is to be communicated to Government.

All persons who take passage, either themselves or through their agents, will be considered as thereby binding themselves to comply with these rules, which will be shown by the master-attendant or by the commander of the vessel to parties who engage a passage.

ROUTE VIÂ FRANCE, GERMANY OR ITALY

An impression is abroad that parties leaving England for India may travel through France, Germany or Italy, embarking for Alexandria at either Marseilles, Trieste, or Naples, at as reasonable a cost, and with as little trouble as if they had taken their passage in the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers from Southampton.[9 - There have been instances of passengers being detained at Trieste, in consequence of there being only three or four wishing to proceed; – the steamer did not start.]That such routes have their advantages, in the information and experience which travelling on the continent imparts to the intelligent, no one can deny; but that they are, in other respects, less troublesome or more economical than the sea-trip cannot by experience be maintained. In truth, no person can even compute with accuracy the actual expense of a land-journey; for, though the charges for posting by diligence, eil-wagon, vetturino, or rail, may be easily ascertained, it is impossible to estimate probable hotel charges, the extortions of gendarmerie, custom-house officers, passport employés, &c., or to foretell what detentions may take place en route; detentions which, if for only one hour beyond the time for the departure of the steamer, involve a prolonged stay of another month. We, therefore, feel justified in discarding all minute particulars respecting the routes we have indicated, simply mentioning that parties who do not seek the accommodation of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's boats until they reach Malta or Alexandria, will have to pay (rateably) a higher sum for their passage to Ceylon, Madras or Calcutta, than would be charged them, were they to embark, in the first instance, at Southampton. We may add, however, that should any parties, in the face of the difficulties and objections, still prefer proceeding by the continental route, they will do well to limit their luggage to the least possible supply, and always refer, before deciding on the trip, to parties in London, who can give them the latest and fullest information on the subject.

THE HOMEWARD PASSAGE

To the "homeward bound" who engages his passage in the Peninsular Company's steamer right through to England, we may address the following information: —

We will suppose him to be at Calcutta, or the provinces under the Bengal Presidency. Having made up his mind to proceed to England, and settled the period of his departure, he addresses the Agent of the Company in Calcutta, requesting him to secure a passage in the steamer appointed to proceed to Suez in the month he may have selected. The advertisements published in the Calcutta papers will indicate the arrangements made for the departure of the steamers, and the plans which the Company's agents can supply will assist the intending passenger to select a cabin. The prices of accommodation which we have given in pounds sterling do not vary in India. The conversion of pounds sterling into rupees at the current exchange of the day will at once give the amount.

If the party be bent upon making a prolonged stay in Egypt, it will only be necessary to engage a passage to Suez, taking a certificate from the captain that the voyage has been made in one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's vessels, in order to ensure a passage from Alexandria to Southampton, at some future period, in one of the vessels of the same establishment, by paying the amount (exclusive of desert transit) that would have been exacted in Calcutta for the entire passage. If, however, the traveller, after remaining in Egypt, purpose visiting the Continent of Europe prior to his return to England, he need not trouble himself about the certificate.

Having engaged his passage, the homeward-bound will next think of his equipment for the trip. What we have said on this subject, in the instructions to outward-bound passengers, will equally apply to him. No cabin furniture whatever is required, nor will anything be needed in addition to the ample wardrobe which a resident in India generally possesses, beyond a couple of blouses, or light jean shooting-coats, and a sola hat.

Should the traveller be resident at Madras, or under the Fort St. George government, he should address his application to the Oriental Company's agent at the Presidency, who will give him all necessary information as to the time when the steamer may be expected at Madras. He will be required to be perfectly ready to start, as the stay of the vessel in the Madras roads seldom exceeds the few hours requisite in coaling.

Officers on the Bombay establishment will, it is presumed, for the most part, leave their own Presidency in the East-India Company's steamers, the regulations regarding which will be found in a preceding page.

The accommodation of the government boats terminating at Suez, the Bombay officer will be thrown upon his own resources for the remainder of his trip. He will accordingly do wisely, if he wish to get rapidly to England, to address himself a month before-hand to the agent of the Peninsular and Oriental Company in Egypt, to book him a passage thence to Southampton, and to arrange for his transit across the desert.[10 - See Appendix A. (#pgepubid00008)]

Officers on sick-leave or furlough very frequently arrive without certain necessary documents, and are consequently subject to great inconvenience and expense. They should be provided with —

Certificate of length of service.

Certificate of being allowed a furlough.

Certificate of date to which pay has been issued.

If from Bengal, a certificate from the pilot in duplicate of the date of the ships leaving the Sandheads; and, if it be intended to claim income-allowance from the military fund, a certificate from the secretary to the fund of being entitled to such an allowance.

The voyage from India to Suez, as far as the attractions of the intermediate ports are concerned, presents very few charms for the traveller; and, even if they were numerous, the stay at each place is so brief, that there is scarcely any opportunity of enjoying them; but every change is acceptable to the landsman confined for several days on shipboard, more particularly if the scenes he beholds have a dash of novelty in them. Arrived at Madras, therefore (we speak now to the Bengal officer), he will pull ashore in one of the Mussoolah boats, whose peculiar construction and safe navi gation through the surf that perpetually rolls upon the shore at that port has always been a subject of surprise to the novice. If he have a friend at the Presidency, he will probably get the use of a carriage for the day, if not, he will be able to hire a "shigram" (palanquin carriage), or a "a bandy" (gig), and drive to all the most striking parts in the town. The Mount-road, with its numerous European shops, and monument to Sir Thomas Munro, the fort and the arsenal, the college, the public stables, the government house, the Athenæum library, the Black town, &c., will furnish subjects of inspection enough to occupy a few hours very pleasantly.

Ceylon. – The next point on the route has its attractions for the Madras, as well as the Bengal, officer. An idea of these may be gathered from the following lively and intelligent description of a visit to Point de Galle, the coaling port, derived from "The Monthly Times," and written by a gentleman who had touched there in the "Hindostan," on his way to England: —

"On the seventh day, including our twenty-four hours' detention at Madras, after leaving the Sandheads, we found ourselves, in the morning, approaching the beautiful Island of Ceylon, and anchored about noon in Point de Galle harbour. The entrance to the harbour was pretty enough – low rocks, over which the waves were beating and bounding, extended to the left, and a point of land seemed to jut out prominently to them, on which is built the Dutch fort of olden days, and which still retains its characteristic look of Dutch solidity and unavailing massiveness. There is no appearance of town from the ship; and very few habitations visible, or indications of much cultivation. The old Dutch church forms the principal object in the fort. You know I had letters from a family long resident at Galle. I proposed to see them on the following morning, but they would not hear of my remaining on board; so I landed in the afternoon, and soon found all was kindness and hospitality on the part of my new Cingalese acquaintances. The residence was formerly the old Government House, in the days of the Dutch. It was a large, roomy, substantial building; the doors were lofty, and the walls panelled in stucco, and painted with white and ochre; the fittings-up and furniture were plain, but substantially made, of carved ebony and satin-wood.

"On the following day, after a most gloriously comfortable night's rest in a very clean bed and cool, capacious room, we started, after breakfast, in a small palkee-garree and pony, always easily obtainable on hire, to visit a country-house on a hill about three miles from the fort. The drive was through a beautiful and open, well-shaded road, with frequent interspersings of small cleared patches of rice and other cultivation. The road itself was narrow, with ditches on either side, but well metalled with broken granite. The comfortable houses of the burghers rose occasionally by the road side, on little shady eminences, here and there, and seemed neat and peculiarly cozy. They were chiefly oblong, tiled buildings, with a verandah to the front. These burghers are descendants either from the former Dutch or Portuguese possessors of this coast; and many that I saw were not a little darkened in their descent. On reaching the hill, which we had to walk up, I found the sun sadly oppressive; but we were amply repaid for the ascent, for the view from it was superb. The sea was visible, and almost everywhere open to us along the horizon, through the different hills; and every here and there, in our vicinity and below us, were beautiful valleys and richly cleared spots, with well-defined roads running through them, and occasionally cottages and huts dotted in every direction; the grand distant mountains forming afar a tall and varied background.

"I returned to the ship, after dinner, in the evening, much gratified with my visit. The mode of living at Ceylon is more English, in all respects, than at Calcutta; the table more simple – the servants fewer – and the whole character of domestic economy less Oriental than we are accustomed to on the Indian Continent; but the scenery of the island itself is far from partaking of this un-Oriental appearance; it realises, in everything, all we fancy and read of in descriptions of tropical islands. The closeness and abundance of the vegetation, the variety of Eastern jungle trees, the palm-like characteristic towering of the cocoa and beetle-nut tree, everywhere prominent in the luxuriant woods around you, all tend to give to Ceylon a picturesque and Eastern style of beauty, very different from the low plains and unvaried flatness of the country in Bengal.

"The dresses of the natives are different from Bengal; men wear combs like the women of other countries, and have a loose cloth round their legs, vastly resembling a petticoat. Their language is the Cingalese; an open and gentle sort of well-vowelled dialect, which sounds prettily and euphoniously enough, like the Malayan language.

"Trade altogether is not very extensive in Ceylon. At Galle there are but three or four merchants, forming the entire mercantile community of the place. At Columbo there are, perhaps, twenty merchants and agents, and there is a Ceylon bank. The local trade is confined to three articles, viz., coffee, cocoa-nut oil, and cinnamon, though a few folks are beginning to turn their attention to sugar. Coffee is reared in plantations on the higher lands, and in chosen spots in the interior. Some of the plantations have done well, and, after the third year, are described as having paid more with the one season's produce than all the preceding and preliminary outlay and price of block put together. Several concerns, however, are losing, the soil being unsuitable; the present low prices for Ceylon coffee, in England, must utterly ruin them. It has been proved, that the only chance of success is with clearances on the forest and large tree lands: the plant thrives in these, though it takes three years to bear, and attains maturity only after the fifth year; it is expected to last ten years. Like all other concerns, those under proprietors themselves fare the best, and are easily distinguishable from those superintended by agents; but all managers live very uncomfortably. The superintendents get about 150 rupees per month, which is little enough, for supplies of the commonest necessity reach only from Kandy, or from a distance, and they are frequently without supplies at all, subsisting then on rice and the poorest produce of the villages around them. The Ceylon coffee itself ranks next to Mocha in the English markets; but recent prices must be insufficient to meet the charges of production. It is planted much in the same manner as with tea in Assam. After clearance, they set the plants at certain distances, when they grow to about the same height as the tea-tree. After blossoming and ripening, and before falling, the fruit is gathered; when there is a simple process, by some wheels and cheap machinery, to clear the berry from the pulp and skin.

"There are cinnamon gardens, near Galle, but they are not pleasing to look at, and assuredly there is no spicy and aromatic odour on the breeze, as the poets would fain establish in reference to this island, the famed Taprobane of old! When you bruise a twig or shoot of the cinnamon-tree and break off a small bit of the bark, the scent of the cinnamon is powerful and pleasant. The cocoa-nut oil is expressed much in the same manner as in Bengal, but it surprised me that, for domestic use at Galle, it was so expensive; they asked sixpence for two quart bottles of it, or, at this rate, about five rupees and more per maund. I should have expected it to be cheaper in Ceylon.

"The Rifle corps seemed to be a fine, well-disciplined body of men, chiefly Malays or their descendants. The regiment is officered like the line, and the dress, appointments, setting up and look of the soldiers were excellent.

"The salaries and receipts of the public functionaries and others in Ceylon are not quite so good as under the Company, but the habits of living, as I have before remarked, are more economical, and, I dare say, there is more money comparatively saved in Ceylon, than in the Company's wider and more imperial territories."

The new arrival at Ceylon is sorely beset by pedlars, who tempt him to invest a small portion of his capital in ivory snuff-boxes and knife-handles, tortoise-shell combs, card-racks, &c. A very few of these articles, purchased at a third of the price asked for them, may prove acceptable to friends in England, but we would recommend the Ceylon visitor to abstain from too large an indulgence in his generous inclinations, for ivory pays a heavy duty in England, and, after all, the articles brought home may be procured in England at as cheap a rate.

After leaving Ceylon and passing through the Maldive islands, which, though very low and level, are green and picturesque, no object of interest presents itself until the port of Aden is reached.

Quitting Aden, the shores of the Red Sea are frequently seen, but rarely approached during the upward voyage. In six days Suez is reached, and, as soon as boats can come off to the steamer, the passengers are landed and almost immediately conveyed by van (see previous details on this head) across the desert.

The town of Suez offers no kind of inducement to prolong one's stay. Small, dirty and destitute of any architectural beauties or antique remains, it exhibits the worst specimen of a Mahomedan city in the whole Ottoman empire.

Arrived at Suez, it will be for the passenger who has not contracted for the entire trip home, to select his own method of getting to Cairo. The vans of the Transit Company offer unquestionably the most convenient and expeditious mode of carrying the traveller across the desert; but there are not wanting persons who prefer the romance and independence of a tedious trip on the back of a horse, donkey or camel. If there were any objects of interest worthy of an occasional halt in the desert, the inconvenience of this slow progress would have its counterpoise; but when we assure the traveller that there is not one single fragment of antique remains, one solitary picturesque spot, nay, nothing, beyond one tree, seven station-houses, and a multitude of rat-holes and camel-skeletons, to diversify the broad, glaring, sandy waste, he will not hesitate about the prudence of paying his £12 – the whole cost of transit to Alexandria – or £9 to Cairo only, and joining the bulk of his fellow-travellers in the omnibuses.