The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-07-25
NUMBER ~.
UNDER THE LIBERTY TORCH.

UNDER THE LIBEhI1s 1OhCh.
Greeting orthe Colossal Goddess at Home
The Story RetOld in Brief of the War
Ships Notwithstanding Cruise.
p s ESPECIAL coRREsPoNDENcE.l
New YORK. U. s. Enterprise.-Up
from the Southern seas, through the
waters of the Atlantic and along the
American sea. board our ship made her
way on her homeward voyage, having
sailed more than twelve thousand miles
since leaving Australia. The low Bra
lillian coasts, cut asunder by the great
Amazon, and rich in vegetation, swept
past her on the larboard side. Tropical isl
ands, covered with luxuriant foliage
and inhabited by dark-skinned people,
sprang from the ocean and faded away
in purpling shades on the horizon. The
Barbadoes bade us welcome, and the
forts of St. Thomas responded to our
salute. The lights of Cape Hatteras sent
out their warnings against the danger.
Gus reefs off the coast. The low reaches
of the shore at Sandy Hook and at Fire
Island came in sight, and signaled our
near approach to New York. As we en-
ter the channels of the lower bay, and
passed through the Narrows into The
harbor, the colossal statue of liberty rises
up against tine outlined city, poising aloft
in her strong right arm the beacon light
that shines for all the world. On every
side sea of moving crafts is spread out,
and, the great metropolis, with its walls
lifted high in the air and its streets
crowding down TO the waters edge,
marks the boundry of Manhattan. In
the shadow of the bronzed goddess of
liberty our ship drops anchor, while
her guns send out Yoicing of her glad
ness in the smoke that curs above her
gunwales. 1t is beautiful sight, and a
fitting termination of long cruise in
distant seas. ,.....
1t was from such scene that we
parted company, nearly four years ago,
when our ship turned her Prov eastward.
Through the same channels we passed
out into the sea, and sailed across the
Atlantic, with the instructions from the
government to carry the stars and stripes
into as many ports as possible on our
cruise to the Orient. Sighting the beau
tiful Azores, we anchored at Fayal in
the shadow of the snow covered Pico,
where we were greeted by the quaint
people of the Portuguese city of Horta.
On to Gibraltar we sailed with the flo
tilla of the worlds marine, where we
wandered through the chambers of the
rock, climbed to its summit and enjoy
ed the picturesque scenery of the i'm
pregnable stronghold, bristlng with
guns and bayonets of the garrison.
Through the Mediterranean we passed
to the stone-built Malta, rich in historic
associations and crumblng palaces,
where the spirit of the past still reigns
in the memorials of the proves and
piety of the knights. Proceeding to AL
exandria and then to Port Said, we drift
ed through the canal to the dirty and
sun-burnt Suez, and looked out upon
the Red Sea where the hosts of lsarel
crossed. Between the desolate shores
of Egypt and Arabia, in view of Mount
Sinai, past Joppa and Mocha and Perrin
Island, under broiliDg sky our sails
| fluttered down the sea to Alden, the
dreary and barren crater Cruising along
the sands of the Arabian peninsula. we
entered the mountain walled harbor of
Muscat, and sailed away into the Per-
sian Gulf amid fishing and pirate boats,
to the little city of Bassora on the Shat
el-Arab, and to the Persian ports of Bu-
shire and Bunder-abbas, and to the Indian
Karrachia and Bombay. In the beauti-
full city we saw something of the wealth
of that storied land, the strange customs
of the Hindoos and Parsees, the tower
of silence and the burning gnauts and
then we dropped down the Malabar
coast in the furious monsoons to the
spicy isle of Ceylon, where Colombo,
Randy and Trlncomalae lay embowered
in rich tropical luxuriance.
Rounding the great peninsula, we
steamed along the surf-washed shores
of Hindustan, stopping at Nagapatam
and Pondicherry and Madras, with its
temples and nautch girls, visiting Vi
zagapatam and winding our way through
the channels of the Hoogly to the city
of palaces. On the Shores of Farther
India we come upon the en-forested Ran
goon, with its quaint houses and gold
covered dagoba, where Buddhism sits
enthroned, and passing Penang and Ma
lacca, arrived at the cosmopolitan Singa-
pore, where the whole world seems to
touch elbows, and the east and the west
Join hands, and point the way up the
seas to the Flowery Kingdom, to the
Land of the Rising Sun, and to the in
Vulnerable islands of the Pacific,
Up the Sea of China we bOwled along,
the oriental sights crowding down upon
us on all sides, and the maddened ty-
phoon tossing us like cookie shells upon
its crests, and drew near to Hong Kong
and Its beautiful city, its waters covered
with Sam-pans, its forts manned by
noble-lookng Sheik soldiers, and Its
streets pulsating with business. The
broad Bocca TigIis leads the way up to
the ancient Canton, the type of Chinese
city, with its myriads of boats lashed to-
gether along the water-f front, its filthy
streets, shambling houses and glittering
temples, all walled and guarded, with
Shameen in the foreground, the home
of its merchant princes of foreign race
who are objects of native hatred. Fur
ther up the sea we sailed past the Chinese
forts, garrisoned with native troops who
beat gongs and howled to freightel away
their foes, stopping at Swatow, with al
mond-eyed celestials, and approached
Shanghai on its brighter side, whose
broad streets and magnificent buildings
lay in sight, with the old pent-up quar-
ters behind the grimy walls in the dis
tance, and with opium dens, tea saloops,
concert halls and theater on its borders.
Turning from Chinese scenes, we made
our way over the Yellow Sea and enter
ed the portals of that wonderful land,
whose gates for so many centuries were
closed to the world. At Chemulpo, the
principal port of COrea, we found those
strange people living after their quaint
customs, and in Seoul, the capital city
Of the land, we were in tie very heart
of a world, of which few years ago
scarcely nothing was known, whose
novel sights in shop, home and palace
were of deep interest. Doping down
the sea we sought out the kingdom of
Japan, and entered the land-locked and
terraced harbor of beautiful Nagasaki,
visited Kobe and Osaka, and sailed away
to Yokohama in the north, admiring