CHARLES DICKENS AT SEA. 5 



add slightly to the choice; perhaps when Russia civilises the whole of Central Asia it 

 may open up a new route as far as China; but till that happy period, unless the traveller 

 is willing, and at the same time able, to become a dervish, or something of that sort, like 

 M. Vambery, he had better not take the chance of risk in these regions. Many attempts 

 have been made to pass from India to China, and vice versa, but as yet no one has succeeded. 

 The difficulties of such an enterprise are very great, not so much from the races of people 

 as from the physical character of that region of the earth. These difficulties can, however, 

 be overcome ; and in evidence of this, we have perhaps one of the most wonderful expeditions 

 of modern times in the journey of the two Jesuit missionaries, Hue and Gabet, from Peking 

 to Lhassa. When they were ordered to leave the capital of the Great Lama, they wished 

 to do so in the direction of Calcutta, as being by far the nearest, and, at the same time, 

 the easiest way; but in vain. By a policy rigidly insisted upon by the Chinese Government, 

 no one is allowed to pass anywhere along the frontiers between China and India/' This 

 writer adds, that when travelling in Tibet he heard of many parties who wished to cross 

 the frontier in that quarter, with the purpose only of having a few days' shooting of some 

 particular animal which they wanted to bring home ; but he never knew of any one who 

 was able to gratify his wish. One man told him that he had taken some pieces of very 

 bright red cloth and other tempting bribes for the officials on the Chinese side, but it was 

 all to no purpose. " It is not easy to understand why this intense jealousy should exist, 

 but about the fact there can be no doubt.'" 



But dismissing any and all ideas of journeying by land through Europe, Asia, or 

 Africa, our trip will be almost entirely by sea, the trans-continental route across America 

 being excepted. Practically that route is to-day the best if you would reach quickly and 

 pleasantly any part of the Pacific. The great railway is an enormous link binding the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans together. The Suez Canal and the Panama route have been men- 

 tioned in these pages the first very fully ; and place must certainly be had for a description 

 of a railroad which is so intimately connected with the sea. But first we must reach it. 



The passage across the " Great Atlantic Ferry " is now one of ease, and in the case of 

 first-class passengers almost luxury. How different was it about forty years ago, even on the 

 best steamships of that period ! Charles Dickens has graphically described his experiences on 

 board the Britannia, one of the earliest of the Cunard fleet, in one of his least-read works* 

 at least in the present generation. The little cupboard dignified by the name of "state- 

 room ; " the dingy saloon likened " to a gigantic hearse with windows in the sides ; " 

 the melancholy stove at which the forlorn stewards were rubbing their hands ; the stewardess, 

 whom Dickens blesses "for her piously fraudulent account of January voyages;" the excite- 

 ment before leaving the dock ; the captain's boat and the dapper little captain ; the last late 

 mail bags, and the departure, are all sketched from nature, as the great novelist alone could 

 depict them. And now they are off. 



" ' The sea ! the sea ! the open sea ! 



That is the place where we all wish to be, 



Rolling about so merrily ! ' 



So all sing and say, by night and by day, 



* "American Notes for General Circulation." 



