《Around the World In 80 Days》 CHAPTER22
by Jules Verne
The `Carnatic', setting sail from Hong Kong at half-past six on the
7th 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 huong 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 mas??ò÷àe
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 apologize 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 hiituation. 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; 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 way-station 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 doublets, 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 col-ours 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 symbolize long life and prosperity.
As he was strolling alone, 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 rosin 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!'
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