New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-07-04
ROYAL GLOBE TROTTING.
THE CRUISE OF II. NJ. s. BACCHANTE.

~.
Macmillan a Co Illustrations and piana
These two handsome and ponderous volumes. with
their fifteen hundred and odd pages. contain. 1t Is
impossible to say how much original observation on
the part Of the two young Princes. who, as naval
eadets and later, as midshipmen on board H. NJ 3.
Baccbante. visited many lands saw many cities
and people. and with the presumably generous help
Of their tutor the Rev. Mr.. Dalton. have thus
recorded their travels In the first volume they
visit the Mediterranean. Teneriffe, the West
Indies the Bermudas, Vigo, Ferrol. St Vincent,
the Plate. the Falkland Islands. the Cape Of Good
Hope, Australia and Fiji. In the second volume
they journey to Japan, China the Straits
Settlement. Ceylon. Egypt. Palestine. and
90 home again. 1t an extensive and
comprehensive itinerary, and two bright lads,
specially favored in their opportunities of
sight seeing. might very we'll have plenty
to say about their varied experiences. But
though these thick volumes certainly packed
with observations" disappointingly large pro-
portion Of them smell only too loudly Of the guide
book and encyclopedia. while the royal authors
make no secret OF the fact that they have borrowed
copiously from the works Of other travellers archi
tects, psychologists aud specialists OF oil xmas;
and besides ali this extraneous matter the chaplain
OF the Bacchantc has emptled so many bue-oooKs
into the work tconscientiousy bracketing his con-
sweiled t. quite need less proportions.
The most natural parts of the work are perhaps
those in which the young Princes tell how they
amused themselves on board by Singing the mon
KEY. high cockolorum," and 80 forth. When the
lads whose enthusiasm monkey-slinging and
the like is clearly very genuine. apply
themselves to making over" learned dis
sertatons the mythology OF the Cingalese.
the antiquities of Japan, or the arena
ology of Palestine. a certain constraint, not
to say inepttude. becomes apparent. and is apt to
affect the reader some W hat uncomfortab HACK
cray in of his introduces young Prince,
who, under august supervision. is sent to certain
ball in high life. He describes the exist
ence of the prnceug as being most carefully
mapped out for him. The poor young
fellow has no volition. He cannot even choose his
partner in the dance. He only say what he has
been prlmed with Thackeray himself. as he
tells us, once met live prince at Suez There was
fire at night and all the guests of the hotel ran
down to it. The great author found himself stand
ing near a young man of quiet appearance and
addressed a question to him. The youth instantly
gave evidence of distress. and without replying
beckoned another young man, who proved TO be
his aide-de-camp, to come and answer Thackeray.
The Prince himself could not have opened his royal
lips in response to an centre stranger" He could
only talk through bis aide-de-camp in such an
unprecedented aud irregular case Now as there is
reason to suppose that the Sous Of the Prince of
Wales are subjected to the same discipline aud pre-
cautions which restrain and hedge about other
scions of royalty. perhaps 1t would be unreason-
able to expect that their travelling experience
would include any real fun or adventures. As
matter of fact it did rot. Their journeying from
place to place is in the nature OF royal progress
They were met everywhere by Populations with
( 1nA.,a Cd
at palaces and consorted. wherever practicable.
with other princes Everything was solemna aud de-
sorous and stately The boys must have su Tered
Q good deal, though probably they are used to the
kind OF thing by this time
At the time of their C. uise rumor limited about
wicked to the effect that they had had their
precious tattooed This wasnot true, but they
really did have dragons tattooed on their arms
when they IN Japan, aud the account seems to
show that they REGARDED tins as an INDULGENCE In
rather wild dissipation. Their japanese tour FUR
nshes the most interesting narrative IN the book,
for the reason that they permitted by the
kado to examine the vast treasures of art-obJects
which that sovereign possesses. and which very few
foreigners have seen. The description Of these
beautiful things, imperfect though il be. is of
great interest aud 10 little value 1t
shows that however Japan has been plum
dered of late years by travellers and collectors
she still retains priceless treasures of art and I'M
der conditions which render it certain that nothing
less ttan foreign invasion, such resulted in the
loot of the Chinese EmperOr's summer Palace. will
cause these gems to be scattered. The wonders of
lacquer work described by the Princes are extraor-
dinary In one of the palaces they saw literally
"acres of the most ella 5orate and costly work in
this kind They visited many Buddhist and ShiOto
temples and shriues, inspected the great bronze
statue Daibutsu, the beauty of which struck
them greatly; saw some OF the japanese
jupglers, top-spnners and dancers had a real Ja-
panese dinner served by pretty native maidens
whose grace and genteness evidently impressed our
travellers though they circumspect in their
comments; were treated to an exhibition of day
fireworks and altogether had pleasant and profit
able time
Then they went to Australia and underwent
scores of loyal addresses and attended parties III
the orthodox princely fashion, and shot some game
China Fiji and all the other places already named
received them Hospitality. At FIJI they saw some ma
tive dances under the electric ghto the Bacchante
a spectacle which must have surpassed any operate
ballet of the period They HOLM obbed with the ven
cradle ThakomDan the ex- King of the ex-Can nlbal
Islands The incident ont OF the commonplace.
which they encountered, was the mysterious
appartion spoken of IN by no means altogether a
testing way as the Flying Duchman. This story
has already been published influx TEIBrNF.l On
reaching Egypt they were met by Brugscl-Bey,
the distinguished Egvptologist, and conducted all
their researches under his guidance. he result is
that this part of the journal is unusually full and
also no DOUBT unusually accurate, for nearly all the
information il taken a; first hand from the erudte
superintendent of the Bouak Museum. Never
theess all this of archaeology is out of place
in book OF travel. and not less are the scores Of
pages devoted to accounts Of exploration and the
Identification of scriptural sites in Palestine. In
point of fact it almost seems as though The Land
and the Book and half dozen other works of
the kind had been emptied IN here-just as Mr..
FLINDERS Petrio and Professor Wilkinson have been
emptied into the dissertation on the Pyramids