In which Passepartout finds
out that, even at the Antipodes,
it is convenient to have some
money in one's pocket
The Carnatic, setting sail
from Hong Kong at half-past six
on the 7th of November, directed
her course at full steam towards
Japan. She carried a large cargo
and a well-filled cabin of passengers.
Two state-rooms in the rear were,
however, unoccupied--those which
had been engaged by Phileas Fogg.
The next day a passenger with
a half-stupefied eye, staggering
gait, and disordered hair, was
seen to emerge from the second
cabin, and to totter to a seat
on deck.
It was Passepartout;
and what had happened to him
was as follows:
Shortly after Fix left the opium
den, two waiters had lifted the
unconscious Passepartout, and
had carried him to the bed reserved
for the smokers. Three hours
later, pursued even in his dreams
by a fixed idea, the poor fellow
awoke, and struggled against
the stupefying influence of the
narcotic. The thought of a duty
unfulfilled shook off his torpor,
and he hurried from the abode
of drunkenness. Staggering and
holding himself up by keeping
against the walls, falling down
and creeping up again, and irresistibly
impelled by a kind of instinct,
he kept crying out, "The Carnatic!
the Carnatic!"
The steamer lay puffing alongside
the quay, on the point of starting.
Passepartout had but few steps
to go; and, rushing upon the
plank, he crossed it, and fell
unconscious on the deck, just
as the Carnatic was moving off.
Several sailors, who were evidently
accustomed to this sort of scene,
carried the poor Frenchman down
into the second cabin, and Passepartout
did not wake until they were
one hundred and fifty miles away
from China. Thus he found himself
the next morning on the deck
of the Carnatic, and eagerly
inhaling the exhilarating sea-breeze.
The pure air sobered him. He
began to collect his sense, which
he found a difficult task; but
at last he recalled the events
of the evening before, Fix's
revelation, and the opium-house.
"It is evident," said he to
himself, "that I have been abominably
drunk! What will Mr. Fogg say?
At least I have not missed the
steamer, which is the most important
thing."
Then, as Fix
occurred to him: "As
for that rascal, I hope we are
well rid of him, and that he
has not dared, as he proposed,
to follow us on board the Carnatic.
A detective on the track of Mr.
Fogg, accused of robbing the
Bank of England! Pshaw! Mr. Fogg
is no more a robber than I am
a murderer."
Should he divulge Fix's real
errand to his master? Would it
do to tell the part the detective
was playing. Would it not be
better to wait until Mr. Fogg
reached London again, and then
impart to him that an agent of
the metropolitan police had been
following him round the world,
and have a good laugh over it?
No doubt; at least, it was worth
considering. The first thing
to do was to find Mr. Fogg, and
apologise for his singular behaviour.
Passepartout
got up and proceeded, as well
as he could with the
rolling of the steamer, to the
after-deck. He saw no one who
resembled either his master or
Aouda. "Good!" muttered he; "Aouda
has not got up yet, and Mr. Fogg
has probably found some partners
at whist."
He descended to the saloon.
Mr. Fogg was not there. Passepartout
had only, however, to ask the
purser the number of his master's
state-room. The purser replied
that he did not know any passenger
by the name of Fogg.
"I beg your pardon," said Passepartout
persistently. "He is a tall gentleman,
quiet, and not very talkative,
and has with him a young lady--"
"There is no young lady on
board," interrupted the purser. "Here
is a list of the passengers;
you may see for yourself."
Passepartout scanned the list,
but his master's name was not
upon it. All at once an idea
struck him.
"Ah! am I on
the Carnatic?"
"Yes."
"On the way
to Yokohama?"
"Certainly."
Passepartout had for an instant
feared that he was on the wrong
boat; but, though he was really
on the Carnatic, his master was
not there.
He fell thunderstruck on a
seat. He saw it all now. He remembered
that the time of sailing had
been changed, that he should
have informed his master of that
fact, and that he had not done
so. It was his fault, then, that
Mr. Fogg and Aouda had missed
the steamer. Yes, but it was
still more the fault of the traitor
who, in order to separate him
from his master, and detain the
latter at Hong Kong, had inveigled
him into getting drunk! He now
saw the detective's trick; and
at this moment Mr. Fogg was certainly
ruined, his bet was lost, and
he himself perhaps arrested and
imprisoned! At this thought Passepartout
tore his hair. Ah, if Fix ever
came within his reach, what a
settling of accounts there would
be!
After his first depression,
Passepartout became calmer, and
began to study his situation.
It was certainly not an enviable
one. He found himself on the
way to Japan, and what should
he do when he got there? His
pocket was empty; he had not
a solitary shilling not so much
as a penny. His passage had fortunately
been paid for in advance; and
he had five or six days in which
to decide upon his future course.
He fell to at meals with an appetite,
and ate for Mr. Fogg, Aouda,
and himself. He helped himself
as generously as if Japan were
a desert, where nothing to eat
was to be looked for.
At dawn on the 13th the Carnatic
entered the port of Yokohama.
This is an important port of
call in the Pacific, where all
the mail-steamers, and those
carrying travellers between North
America, China, Japan, and the
Oriental islands put in. It is
situated in the bay of Yeddo,
and at but a short distance from
that second capital of the Japanese
Empire, and the residence of
the Tycoon, the civil Emperor,
before the Mikado, the spiritual
Emperor, absorbed his office
in his own. The Carnatic anchored
at the quay near the custom-house,
in the midst of a crowd of ships
bearing the flags of all nations.
Passepartout
went timidly ashore on this
so curious territory
of the Sons of the Sun. He had
nothing better to do than, taking
chance for his guide, to wander
aimlessly through the streets
of Yokohama. He found himself
at first in a thoroughly European
quarter, the houses having low
fronts, and being adorned with
verandas, beneath which he caught
glimpses of neat peristyles.
This quarter occupied, with its
streets, squares, docks, and
warehouses, all the space between
the "promontory of the Treaty" and
the river. Here, as at Hong Kong
and Calcutta, were mixed crowds
of all races Americans and English,
Chinamen and Dutchmen, mostly
merchants ready to buy or sell
anything. The Frenchman felt
himself as much alone among them
as if he had dropped down in
the midst of Hottentots.
He had, at least, one resource
to call on the French and English
consuls at Yokohama for assistance.
But he shrank from telling the
story of his adventures, intimately
connected as it was with that
of his master; and, before doing
so, he determined to exhaust
all other means of aid. As chance
did not favour him in the European
quarter, he penetrated that inhabited
by the native Japanese, determined,
if necessary, to push on to Yeddo.
The Japanese quarter of Yokohama
is called Benten, after the goddess
of the sea, who is worshipped
on the islands round about. There
Passepartout beheld beautiful
fir and cedar groves, sacred
gates of a singular architecture,
bridges half hid in the midst
of bamboos and reeds, temples
shaded by immense cedar-trees,
holy retreats where were sheltered
Buddhist priests and sectaries
of Confucius, and interminable
streets, where a perfect harvest
of rose-tinted and red-cheeked
children, who looked as if they
had been cut out of Japanese
screens, and who were playing
in the midst of short-legged
poodles and yellowish cats, might
have been gathered.
The streets were crowded with
people. Priests were passing
in processions, beating their
dreary tambourines; police and
custom-house officers with pointed
hats encrusted with lac and carrying
two sabres hung to their waists;
soldiers, clad in blue cotton
with white stripes, and bearing
guns; the Mikado's guards, enveloped
in silken doubles, hauberks and
coats of mail; and numbers of
military folk of all ranks--for
the military profession is as
much respected in Japan as it
is despised in China--went hither
and thither in groups and pairs.
Passepartout saw, too, begging
friars, long-robed pilgrims,
and simple civilians, with their
warped and jet-black hair, big
heads, long busts, slender legs,
short stature, and complexions
varying from copper-colour to
a dead white, but never yellow,
like the Chinese, from whom the
Japanese widely differ. He did
not fail to observe the curious
equipages--carriages and palanquins,
barrows supplied with sails,
and litters made of bamboo; nor
the women-- whom he thought not
especially handsome--who took
little steps with their little
feet, whereon they wore canvas
shoes, straw sandals, and clogs
of worked wood, and who displayed
tight-looking eyes, flat chests,
teeth fashionably blackened,
and gowns crossed with silken
scarfs, tied in an enormous knot
behind an ornament which the
modern Parisian ladies seem to
have borrowed from the dames
of Japan.
Passepartout wandered for several
hours in the midst of this motley
crowd, looking in at the windows
of the rich and curious shops,
the jewellery establishments
glittering with quaint Japanese
ornaments, the restaurants decked
with streamers and banners, the
tea-houses, where the odorous
beverage was being drunk with
saki, a liquor concocted from
the fermentation of rice, and
the comfortable smoking-houses,
where they were puffing, not
opium, which is almost unknown
in Japan, but a very fine, stringy
tobacco. He went on till he found
himself in the fields, in the
midst of vast rice plantations.
There he saw dazzling camellias
expanding themselves, with flowers
which were giving forth their
last colours and perfumes, not
on bushes, but on trees, and
within bamboo enclosures, cherry,
plum, and apple trees, which
the Japanese cultivate rather
for their blossoms than their
fruit, and which queerly-fashioned,
grinning scarecrows protected
from the sparrows, pigeons, ravens,
and other voracious birds. On
the branches of the cedars were
perched large eagles; amid the
foliage of the weeping willows
were herons, solemnly standing
on one leg; and on every hand
were crows, ducks, hawks, wild
birds, and a multitude of cranes,
which the Japanese consider sacred,
and which to their minds symbolise
long life and prosperity.
As he was strolling along,
Passepartout espied some violets
among the shrubs.
"Good!" said he; "I'll
have some supper."
But, on smelling them, he found
that they were odourless.
"No chance there," thought
he.
The worthy fellow had certainly
taken good care to eat as hearty
a breakfast as possible before
leaving the Carnatic; but, as
he had been walking about all
day, the demands of hunger were
becoming importunate. He observed
that the butchers stalls contained
neither mutton, goat, nor pork;
and, knowing also that it is
a sacrilege to kill cattle, which
are preserved solely for farming,
he made up his mind that meat
was far from plentiful in Yokohama--
nor was he mistaken; and, in
default of butcher's meat, he
could have wished for a quarter
of wild boar or deer, a partridge,
or some quails, some game or
fish, which, with rice, the Japanese
eat almost exclusively. But he
found it necessary to keep up
a stout heart, and to postpone
the meal he craved till the following
morning. Night came, and Passepartout
re-entered the native quarter,
where he wandered through the
streets, lit by vari-coloured
lanterns, looking on at the dancers,
who were executing skilful steps
and boundings, and the astrologers
who stood in the open air with
their telescopes. Then he came
to the harbour, which was lit
up by the resin torches of the
fishermen, who were fishing from
their boats.
The streets
at last became quiet, and the
patrol, the officers
of which, in their splendid costumes,
and surrounded by their suites,
Passepartout thought seemed like
ambassadors, succeeded the bustling
crowd. Each time a company passed,
Passepartout chuckled, and said
to himself: "Good! another Japanese
embassy departing for Europe!"
|