Ralph Denham's Adventures in Burma: A Tale of the Burmese Jungle Page 7

  CHAPTER VII

  MOULMEIN

  Ralph was sitting, languid and feeble, in a long chair in front of thehospital, where he had lain ill for some weeks.

  The hospital was a mile or two inland from Moulmein; a comfortableplace, but Ralph was weary of it. Everything had a parched, burnt-upappearance; the little pagodas, to be seen on the surrounding hills,were all alike; the punkah was working, yet there seemed to be no air tobreathe; nothing suggested freshness, or gave him a start towardsrecovery.

  A grove of palm trees rose majestically on one hand, interspersed withtamarinds, and trees of strange form covered with brilliant flowers.

  Along the road came a girl in native dress, carrying a huge basket ofroses, on her way to sell them in the bazaar. She had the flowers of awhite, purple-striped orchid nestled coquettishly in the coils of herhair; and was smoking a huge green cheroot.

  Then a long procession of yellow-robed "phoongyees," or monks, came by;each clasping his lacquered begging-bowl, and staring before him intovacancy, with rapt concentration of thought.

  An open carriage appeared. "Come along, Denham," cried Mr. Gilchristfrom it, "the doctor orders a drive for you, and we will go out to theBattery Point, to see whether there is not a breath of air to be metwith there."

  "It will be very nice if there is," said Ralph; "this place is like afurnace. Is it always as hot as this here, Mr. Gilchrist?"

  "Not always. The rains are at hand; after that it will be cooler."

  They drove out to the Point, watching the native boats, light,square-sailed, fitted with thatched houses, rowed with great difficultyagainst the stream, by men standing, instead of sitting, to row.

  They looked out over Washing Head Island, with its pagoda mounting guardover the Holy Well, whence, it is said, is drawn the water in which theking once a year cleanses his sacred head.

  It was a pleasant evening, and Ralph felt its refreshment.

  "I am very anxious," he said presently,--"I am very anxious to get quitewell; for, unless I can get something to do, it will be 'up a tree' forme. I don't know how I am to pay all the expenses I am costing now, orto get a new outfit, or earn my living at all. I lie and fret dreadfullyabout this."

  "You have not been yet in a fit state to bear much talking," replied Mr.Gilchrist, "or I would have relieved your mind. Your uncle wrote to mebefore he sailed for home, desiring me to let you want for nothing.Herford Brothers are disposed to be very liberal; and the captain'spossessions, at least, were insured. Compensation will, I believe, bemade to you; and there is little doubt but what this will take the formof a clerkship in the Rangoon house--a much better thing than the placeyou have lost. Your luck will be great if you get a berth in that house,for it is quite the first in the trade. But, Ralph, this must awaitletters from England. I also must await the replies from home, for allmy scientific apparatus must be replaced there, and sent out to me; inthe meantime the Rangoon house makes itself responsible for ourexpenses."

  "It is very liberal of the Messrs. Herford," said Ralph. "I have noclaim whatever on them."

  "That I dispute," replied his friend. "You did your share of work foryour passage, and did it so well and willingly that it quite entitledyou to a claim upon them, for they made the agreement to let you go onthose terms. You have suffered nobly; never a complaint whatever thehardships, for which you never bargained. You have lost everything youpossess in their ship; and, besides all this, what can we not say ofyour attention to me, nursing me day and night, as you have done sokindly, and which was certainly not in the letter of your agreement. Iam not ungrateful, my boy."

  "You have been so kind to me, sir, teaching me, and all that. One wouldhave been a brute to do less."

  "Well, that is your way of putting it; mine is not exactly the same.But, Ralph, I am feeling better than I have done for years. This climatesuits me, and will, I hope, suit you now that you have taken the turn. Iwill tell you what my plan is for you. I want you to go with me upon myorchid-hunting expedition. It will give your brain a rest, and set youup after this illness. The best time for the plants will come on whenthe rains are over, and the season be at its coolest. I mean to get whatappliances I can here, and make a short expedition into the junglearound this place; then sending what I can collect to Rangoon to beshipped home. And by that time, having received better appliances fromEngland, also having learnt to speak the language a little better,--wemust study _that_, Ralph,--I shall make my way to Rangoon around thehead of the bay; searching the various likely habitations for rareplants, at different elevations and in different kinds of soil. Theweather will then be growing very hot, but we shall be seasoned to it. Ihope thus to obtain an extremely valuable collection,--perhaps ofinsects as well as of flowers,--for we shall be collecting in everyvariety of weather and locality. Mr. Augustus Herford will not grudgemoney to this end; he gave me, virtually, _carte blanche_ to make whatarrangements I found desirable when I got here; and if we do well,_there_ is your claim upon him."

  "I should like it of all things," cried Ralph, with sparkling eyes.

  "Well, you must be my assistant; and, as we shall need hands as well asheads, I have spoken to the rest of our poor raft's crew, and we havedetermined to keep together, hoping that our bad luck there will followus no further. We feel that we all showed pluck enough over that affairto be able to trust each other in the future."

  "I am sure, sir, that I would trust you anywhere, and should look uponit as a very jolly thing to go with you. I like the men, too; we shouldbe ever such a comfortable party of us. But, Mr. Gilchrist, I don't seethat we had _all_ bad luck with that raft. I am sure it was very goodluck that it never upset. Those sharks swimming about us, like silentdeath waiting for us, have bothered me dreadfully since I was ill. Andit was very good luck to be picked up when we were. Has anything beenheard of the boat, sir?"

  "Not yet, but the very absence of news is some hope. No wreck of it hasbeen seen, no vestige at all. Ralph, when I think that we were cutadrift on purpose, from malice, I think sometimes it may be as well ifthat boat's crew never turns up."

  "Oh, don't say so, don't say so! It was the doing of one only, and hemight have been half mad at the time. Perhaps--most probably--he hasbeen very sorry since."

  "You are a good fellow, Denham, but it would never do to put more livesat the mercy of a person who could have doomed six unoffending people toall but certain death to gratify his own wicked spite. What theCommissioner may do were he to appear here, I cannot say. If they doturn up, I wish it might be anywhere else than here. I do not want toappear against him, yet it would be my duty to do so. The Commissioneris aware of the fact, and the severed line is in his keeping. If I hadnot spoken of it, old Wills and Osborn would have done so. They are veryfaithful to 'Miss Amy's chield,' Ralph. But see, there is the steamerfrom the Andamans in the offing."

  A long slender line of grey smoke was plainly visible upon the horizon,becoming more distinct each minute; and all the European officers andgentlemen in the place were congregating, in their white garments, uponthe quay to see the vessel come in. Amusement was not too plentiful forsuch people in Moulmein in those days; an arrival of any sort wasinteresting.

  Mr. Gilchrist left the carriage to take Ralph home, and sauntered downto join the groups that were forming. Ralph was glad to be alone for atime, he was fatigued by the conversation, and much excited by thethought of making this expedition with his friends. The prospect wasdelightful to him, and on reaching home he resumed his former seat,thinking of all he might see, until thought became dreamy, anddreaminess sleep.

  He was aroused by a familiar cheery voice.

  "Hurrah! There he is! He has only left half of himself in the bay!"

  It was Kershaw. Ralph sprang up to seize him by both hands in eagerwelcome.

  "Oh, Kershaw! How glad I am, how very, very glad to see you again! Howwere you saved?"

  "The steamer for the Andamans, with passengers from Rangoon, picked usup, and carried us straight on there. It had some sor
t of big bug onboard who could not be hindered on his way for such a trifle as theannouncement of our safety, and we have been brought back here as fastas our own news could have flown. So, like the clown in the circus,'Here we are again.' But, Denham, I'll go back to the Andamans, if theyexpect us _all_ to practise Banting here. What have you done toyourself? You are as thin as a whipping-post, and your face is alleyes."

  "Oh, I've been ill! but I shall pick up fast enough now. People are sokind to us. It is a very good world, after all, that we live in,Kershaw, in spite of what some folks say."

  "'It is a very good world that we live in, To lend, or to spend, or to give in; But to beg or to borrow, or get a man's own, 'Tis the very worst world that ever was known,'"

  sang Kershaw.

  "Oh, most wise and sapient third mate," cried Ralph, "you are easilyhoisted with your own petard! If folks lend, spend, and give, do notother folks receive?"

  "Let me be among the other folks then. I have lost all the locks of hairof all the young ladies,--the dear creatures who adored me. There's aloss, Denham! Black, brown, golden, grey,--they have all gone todisagree with the sharks."

  "Ugh! don't talk of sharks, they haunt me in my dreams yet."

  "They use them for policemen in the Andamans. Fact!--the blue ones,because of the colour like the uniform, you know. They loaf about, roundand round, just like bobbies on their beat; and if any poor devil of aprisoner tries to escape, and swim to the mainland,--hey, presto! theynip him up, and have him in a tight place in no time!"

  "Your experience of life has been enlarged since I saw you, evidently."

  "Yes, sir; nothing like foreign travel for enlarging the mind andperfecting the manners. Perfecting even the most charming naturalmanners, sir," said the mate, drawing himself up, and saluting with onefinger.

  It was good for Ralph to have this atmosphere of boyish nonsenserestored to him. Between its bright influence, and the relief of findinghis friends alive and well, he improved wonderfully fast.

  All the officers and men of the _Pelican_ came to see him, and allappeared to be drawn more closely together from remembrance of thehardships through which they had struggled. There was but one exception,that of Kirke, and why he did not form one of that friendly group mustbe explained later.

  The friends went to walk in the bazaar, amused to see the shops, orbooths, so simply arranged by throwing upwards the side of the house,and propping it up with a pole; and the odd conglomeration of articlesexposed for sale beneath this primitive awning.

  Here, in a hole simply dug in the ground before the houses, were Burmesewomen cooking rice in the joints of the bamboo.

  There were others selling "pickled tea," and other abominations, bymeans of weights fashioned after the semblance of the sacred duck.

  Silver trinkets, lacquer ware, earthen jars and pots of nativemanufacture, were oddly mixed up with the commonest glass andearthenware from Staffordshire and St. Helens; stuffs of Oriental makeand pattern lay beside Manchester coloured handkerchiefs and Madrasmuslin jackets; images of Guadama wore a suspiciously Brummagem air, andmight be seen--though never sold--side by side with lamps of nativepottery with distinctly classical shape, in the establishment of someChinaman, over whose booth the picture of his patron saint presided.Mats, baskets, cylinders of gold, ornamented more or less, and worn bythe ladies as earrings poked through the universal hole in the ear, wereon every side,--together with Peak and Frean's biscuits and Bryant andMay's matches,--looking oddly out of place.

  The people who bought and sold were as mixed a lot, and as queer to theunsophisticated boy's eyes, as the goods in which they trafficked.

  Burmese men and lads, whose close-fitting blue-patterned garments turnedout to be their own skins tattooed; women, their abundant tressesdressed with exquisite roses or orchids, but displaying one leg bare tothe knee beneath their gracefully-draped "tameins"; children, evenbabies in arms, smoking cheroots; bullock-carts, saffron-robed priests,officials; half-naked children everywhere, under everybody's feet; gongssounding, bells tinkling, laughter echoing, strange calls and cries andspeech on all sides,--formed a never-ending entertainment for Ralph, whohad not previously seen more of the world than the rather dull andprosaic streets of mercantile Liverpool. All was new to him, allamusing, nothing more so than the idleness and merry temper of thenatives, coming so suddenly upon him after so stern an early strugglewith the grave realities of civilised life.

  The rains were now over, and the pious Burmese, with great tendernessfor the little fishes left behind in many pools, collected them in jars,and carried them in procession down to the river, that they might bethus carefully restored to their native element.

  The fish would doubtless have proved to be as grateful for this humanityas the fish was to the queen in the old fairy story, did it not happenthat they were nearly all dead before they reached the water.

  Their would-be saviours then ate them, and all ends were secured. Pietyand hunger were equally satisfied, and both "nats" and men pleased.