Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World

She was not quite what you would call refined. She was not quite what you would call unrefined. She was the kind of person that keeps a parrot. —Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.

About four days out from Victoria we plunged into hot weather, and all the male passengers put on white linen clothes. One or two days later we crossed the 25th parallel of nort...

On the seventh day out we saw a dim vast bulk standing up out of the wastes of the Pacific and knew that that spectral promontory was Diamond Head, a piece of this world which I...

He had had much experience of physicians, and said “the only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd druther not.” —P...

Also, in a speech, Reformer Lionel Phillips informs the public that the Reform Committee Delegation has “been received with courtesy by the Government Commission,” and “been ass...

We were driven over Sir Colin Campbell's route by a British officer, and when I arrived at the Residency I was so familiar with the road that I could have led a retreat over it...

Next to Mr. Rhodes, to me the most interesting convulsion of nature in South Africa was the diamond-crater. The Rand gold fields are a stupendous marvel, and they make all other...

You soon find your long-ago dreams of India rising in a sort of vague and luscious moonlight above the horizon-rim of your opaque consciousness, and softly lighting up a thousan...

It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you. —Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.

Simple rules for saving money: To save half, when you are fired by an eager impulse to contribute to a charity, wait, and count forty. To save three-quarters, count sixty. To sa...

We sailed from Calcutta toward the end of March; stopped a day at Madras; two or three days in Ceylon; then sailed westward on a long flight for Mauritius. From my diary:

On the Train. Fifty years ago, when I was a boy in the then remote and sparsely peopled Mississippi valley, vague tales and rumors of a mysterious body of professional murderers...

Suppose we applied no more ingenuity to the instruction of deaf and dumb and blind children than we sometimes apply in our American public schools to the instruction of children...

The Duke of Fife has borne testimony that Mr. Rhodes deceived him. That is also what Mr. Rhodes did with the Reformers. He got them into trouble, and then stayed out himself. A...

SATAN (impatiently) to NEW-COMER. The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most numerous. —Pudd'nhead...

In one of those Benares temples we saw a devotee working for salvation in a curious way. He had a huge wad of clay beside him and was making it up into little wee gods no bigger...

We left Bombay for Allahabad by a night train. It is the custom of the country to avoid day travel when it can conveniently be done. But there is one trouble: while you can seem...

That note recalls an experience. The passengers were sent for, to come up in the bow and see a fine sight. It was very dark. One could not follow with the eye the surface of the...

One is sure to be struck by the liberal way in which Australasia spends money upon public works—such as legislative buildings, town halls, hospitals, asylums, parks, and botanic...

November 1—noon. A fine day, a brilliant sun. Warm in the sun, cold in the shade—an icy breeze blowing out of the south. A solemn long swell rolling up northward. It comes from...

It was in Benares that I saw another living god. That makes two. I believe I have seen most of the greater and lesser wonders of the world, but I do not remember that any of the...

When your watch gets out of order you have choice of two things to do: throw it in the fire or take it to the watch-tinker. The former is the quickest. —Pudd'nhead Wilson's New...

MONDAY,—December 23, 1895. Sailed from Sydney for Ceylon in the P. & O. steamer 'Oceana'. A Lascar crew mans this ship—the first I have seen. White cotton petticoat and pants; b...

October 23. Got up at 6, left at 7.30; soon reached Castlemaine, one of the rich gold-fields of the early days; waited several hours for a train; left at 3.40 and reached Bendig...

Sept. 2. Flocks of flying fish-slim, shapely, graceful, and intensely white. With the sun on them they look like a flight of silver fruit-knives. They are able to fly a hundred...

EVENING—14th. Sailed in the Rosetta. This is a poor old ship, and ought to be insured and sunk. As in the 'Oceana', just so here: everybody dresses for dinner; they make it a so...

February 15. Up with the sun. A brilliant morning, and frosty. A double suit of flannels is found necessary. The plain is perfectly level, and seems to stretch away and away and...

You notice that Mrs. Praed knows her art. She can place a thing before you so that you can see it. She is not alone in that. Australia is fertile in writers whose books are fait...

The journey to Benares was all in daylight, and occupied but a few hours. It was admirably dusty. The dust settled upon you in a thick ashy layer and turned you into a fakeer, w...

We sailed for America, and there made certain preparations. This took but little time. Two members of my family elected to go with me. Also a carbuncle. The dictionary says a ca...

Yes, the city of Benares is in effect just a big church, a religious hive, whose every cell is a temple, a shrine or a mosque, and whose every conceivable earthly and heavenly g...

Do not undervalue the headache. While it is at its sharpest it seems a bad investment; but when relief begins, the unexpired remainder is worth $4 a minute. —Pudd'nhead Wilson's...

Before I saw Australia I had never heard of the “weet-weet” at all. I met but few men who had seen it thrown—at least I met but few who mentioned having seen it thrown. Roughly...

Captain Wawn is crystal-clear on one point: He does not approve of missionaries. They obstruct his business. They make “Recruiting,” as he calls it (“Slave-Catching,” as they ca...

When one glances at the map the members of the stupendous island wilderness of the Pacific seem to crowd upon each other; but no, there is no crowding, even in the center of a g...

When I scribbled in my note-book a year ago the paragraph which ends the preceding chapter, it was meant to indicate, in an extravagant form, two things: the conflicting nature...

The aphorism does really seem true: “Given the Circumstances, the Man will appear.” But the man musn't appear ahead of time, or it will spoil everything. In Robinson's case the...

after it was left on the loft, he went to have his head shaved by a barber named Sambhoo Raghoo, who lives only one door away from me. My mother and myself then remained in the...

The next picture in my mind is Government House, on Malabar Point, with the wide sea-view from the windows and broad balconies; abode of His Excellency the Governor of the Bomba...

The train was now exploring a beautiful hill country, and went twisting in and out through lovely little green valleys. There were several varieties of gum trees; among them man...

It was Junior England all the way to Christchurch—in fact, just a garden. And Christchurch is an English town, with an English-park annex, and a winding English brook just like...

There is no such thing as “the Queen's English.” The property has gone into the hands of a joint stock company and we own the bulk of the shares! —Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.

The old saw says, “Let a sleeping dog lie.” Right.... Still, when there is much at stake it is better to get a newspaper to do it. —Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar.

The next picture that drifts across the field of my memory is one which is connected with religious things. We were taken by friends to see a Jain temple. It was small, and had...

Royal Hotel. Comfortable, good table, good service of natives and Madrasis. Curious jumble of modern and ancient city and village, primitiveness and the other thing. Electric be...

From Diary:—For a day or two we have been plowing among an invisible vast wilderness of islands, catching now and then a shadowy glimpse of a member of it. There does seem to be...

The successor of the sheet-iron hamlet of the mangrove marshes has that other Australian specialty, the Botanical Gardens. We cannot have these paradises. The best we could do w...

April 20.—The cyclone of 1892 killed and crippled hundreds of people; it was accompanied by a deluge of rain, which drowned Port Louis and produced a water famine. Quite true; f...

We soon reached the town of Nelson, and spent the most of the day there, visiting acquaintances and driving with them about the garden—the whole region is a garden, excepting th...

We left Adelaide in due course, and went to Horsham, in the colony of Victoria; a good deal of a journey, if I remember rightly, but pleasant. Horsham sits in a plain which is a...

There is a Moral sense, and there is an Immoral Sense. History shows us that the Moral Sense enables us to perceive morality and how to avoid it, and that the Immoral Sense enab...

Necessarily, the human interest is the first interest in the log-book of any country. The annals of Tasmania, in whose shadow we were sailing, are lurid with that feature. Tasma...

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice ei...

On Monday and Tuesday at sunrise we again had fair-to-middling views of the stupendous mountains; then, being well cooled off and refreshed, we were ready to chance the weather...

Toward midnight, that night, there was another function. This was a Hindoo wedding—no, I think it was a betrothal ceremony. Always before, we had driven through streets that wer...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 11. In this world we often make mistakes of judgment. We do not as a rule get out of them sound and whole, but sometimes we do. At dinner yesterday evening-pres...

After visits to Maryborough and some other Australian towns, we presently took passage for New Zealand. If it would not look too much like showing off, I would tell the reader w...

November 11. On the road. This train-express goes twenty and one-half miles an hour, schedule time; but it is fast enough, the outlook upon sea and land is so interesting, and t...

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down...

Monday. Three days of paradise. Warm and sunny and smooth; the sea a luminous Mediterranean blue . . . . One lolls in a long chair all day under deck-awnings, and reads and smok...

WAUGANUI, December 3. A pleasant trip, yesterday, per Ballarat Fly. Four hours. I do not know the distance, but it must have been well along toward fifty miles. The Fly could ha...

The air was balmy and delicious, the sunshine radiant; it was a charming excursion. In the course of it we came to a town whose odd name was famous all over the world a quarter...

There are those who scoff at the schoolboy, calling him frivolous and shallow: Yet it was the schoolboy who said “Faith is believing what you know ain't so.” —Pudd'nhead Wilson'...

When we consider the immensity of the British Empire in territory, population, and trade, it requires a stern exercise of faith to believe in the figures which represent Austral...

We spent part of an afternoon and a night at sea, and reached Bluff, in New Zealand, early in the morning. Bluff is at the bottom of the middle island, and is away down south, n...

We can secure other people's approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that. —Pudd'nhead Wilson's Ne...

Captain Cook found Australia in 1770, and eighteen years later the British Government began to transport convicts to it. Altogether, New South Wales received 83,000 in 53 years....

We were a mile from shore; a little steam-tug put out from the land; she was an object of thrilling interest; she would climb to the summit of a billow, reel drunkenly there a m...

One day during our stay in Bombay there was a criminal trial of a most interesting sort, a terribly realistic chapter out of the “Arabian Nights,” a strange mixture of simplicit...

Sail from Calcutta to Madras—Thence to Ceylon—Thence for Mauritius —The Indian Ocean—Our Captain's Peculiarity—The Scot Has One too—The Flying-fish that Went Hunting in the Fiel...

An Absorbing Novelty—The Kimberley Diamond Mines—Discovery of Diamonds —The Wronged Stranger—Where the Gems Are—A Judicious Change of Boundary—Modern Machinery and Appliances—Th...

Judicious Mr. Rhodes—What South Africa Consists of—Johannesburg—The Gold Mines—The Heaven of American Engineers—What the Author Knows about Mining—Description of the Boer—What S...

A Curious Way to Secure Salvation—The Banks of the Ganges—Architecture Represents Piety—A Trip on the River—Bathers and their Costumes —Drinking the Water—A Scientific Test of t...

On the Road Again—Flannels in Order—Across Country—From Greenland's Icy Mountain—Swapping Civilization—No Field women in India—How it is in Other Countries—Canvas-covered Cars—T...

On the Road to Benares—Dust and Waiting—The Bejeweled Crowd—A Native Prince and his Guard—Zenana Lady—The Extremes of Fashion—The Hotel at Benares—An Annex a Mile Away—Doors in...

To Horsham (Colony of Victoria)—Description of Horsham—At the Hotel —Pepper Tree-The Agricultural College, Forty Pupils—High Temperature —Width of Road in Chains, Perches, etc.—...

The Steamer “Arundel Castle”—Poor Beds in Ships—The Beds in Noah's Ark —Getting a Rest in Europe—Ship in Sight—Mozambique Channel—The Engineer and the Band—Thackeray's “Madagasc...

India the Most Extraordinary Country on Earth—Nothing Forgotten—The Land of Wonders—Annual Statistics Everywhere about Violence—Tiger vs. Man—A Handsome Fight—Annual Man Killing...

Royal Hotel Durban—Bells that Did not Ring—Early Inquiries for Comforts —Change of Temperature after Sunset—Rickhaws—The Hotel Chameleon —Natives not out after the Bell—Preponde...

Jameson over the Border—His Defeat and Capture—Sent to England for Trial—Arrest of Citizens by the Boers—Commuted Sentences—Final Release of all but Two—Interesting Days for a S...

Pyjamas—Day Scene in India—Clothed in a Turban and a Pocket Handkerchief—Land Parceled Out—Established Village Servants—Witches in Families—Hereditary Midwifery—Destruction of G...

From Sydney for Ceylon—A Lascar Crew—A Fine Ship—Three Cats and a Basket of Kittens—Dinner Conversations—Veuve Cliquot Wine—At Anchor in King George's Sound Albany Harbor—More C...

The Botanical Gardens—Contributions from all Countries—The Zoological Gardens of Adelaide—The Laughing Jackass—The Dingo—A Misnamed Province—Telegraphing from Melbourne to San F...

The Gum Trees—Unsociable Trees—Gorse and Broom—A universal Defect—An Adventurer—Wanted £200, got £20,000,000—A Vast Land Scheme—The Smash-up—The Corpse Got Up and Danced—A Uniqu...

To Lahore—The Governor's Elephant—Taking a Ride—No Danger from Collision—Rawal Pindi—Back to Delhi—An Orientalized Englishman —Monkeys and the Paint-pot—Monkey Crying over my No...

Steamer Rosetta to Bombay—Limes 14 cents a Barrel—Bombay, a Bewitching City—Descriptions of People and Dress—Woman as a Road Decoration —India, the Land of Dreams and Romance—Fo...

Rail to Calcutta—Population—The “City of Palaces”—A Fluted Candle-stick—Ochterlony—Newspaper Correspondence—Average Knowledge of Countries—A Wrong Idea of Chicago—Calcutta and t...

Methods in American Deaf and Dumb Asylums—Methods in the Public Schools —A Letter from a Youth in Punjab—Highly Educated Service—A Damage to the Country—A Little Book from Calcu...

Bad Health—To Melbourne by Rail—Maps Defective—The Colony of Victoria —A Round-trip Ticket from Sydney—Change Cars, from Wide to Narrow Gauge, a Peculiarity at Albury—Customs-fe...

Official Thug Book—Supplies for Traveling, Bedding, and other Freight— Scene at Railway Station—Making Way for White Man—Waiting Passengers, High and Low Caste, Touch in the car...

Jameson's Raid—The Reform Committee's Difficult Task—Possible Plans —Advice that Jameson Ought to Have—The War of 1881 and its Lessons —Statistics of Losses of the Combatants—Ja...

Description of the Town of Christ Church—A Fine Museum—Jade-stone Trinkets—The Great Moa—The First Maori in New Zealand—Women Voters —“Person” in New Zealand Law Includes Woman—...

Bound for Bendigo—The Priest at Castlemaine—Time Saved by Walking —Description of Bendigo—A Valuable Nugget—Perseverence and Success —Mr. Blank and His Influence—Conveyance of a...

Leaving Honolulu—Flying-fish—Approaching the Equator—Why the Ship Went Slow—The Front Yard of the Ship—Crossing the Equator—Horse Billiards or Shovel Board—The Waterbury Watch—W...

Hospitality of English-speaking People—Writers and their Gratitude—Mr. Gane and the Panegyrics—Population of Sydney An English City with American Trimming—“Squatters”—Palaces an...

The Discovery of Australia—Transportation of Convicts—Discipline —English Laws, Ancient and Modern—Flogging Prisoners to Death—Arrival of Settlers—New South Wales Corps—Rum Curr...

The British Empire—Its Exports and Imports—The Trade of Australia—To Adelaide—Broken Hill Silver Mine—A Roundabout road—The Scrub and its Possibilities for the Novelist—The Abor...

When the Moment Comes the Man Appears—Why Ed. Jackson called on Commodore Vanderbilt—Their Interview—Welcome to the Child of His Friend —A Big Time but under Inspection—Sent on...

Still in Benares—Another Living God—Why Things are Wonderful—Sri 108 Utterly Perfect—How He Came so—Our Visit to Sri—A Friendly Deity Exchanging Autographs and Books—Sri's Pupil...

The Party—Across America to Vancouver—On Board the Warrimo—Steamer Chairs—The Captain—Going Home under a Cloud—A Gritty Purser—The Brightest Passenger—Remedy for Bad Habits—The...

Public Works in Australasia—Botanical Garden of Sydney—Four Special Socialties—The Government House—A Governor and His Functions—The Admiralty House—The Tour of the Harbor—Shark...

The Fiji Islands—Suva—The Ship from Duluth—Going Ashore—Midwinter in Fiji—Seeing the Governor—Why Fiji was Ceded to England—Old time Fijians—Convicts among the Fijians—A Case Wh...

Close to Australia—Porpoises at Night—Entrance to Sydney Harbor—The Loss of the Duncan Dunbar—The Harbor—The City of Sydney—Spring-time in Australia—The Climate—Information for...

Arrival at Bluff, N. Z.—Where the Rabbit Plague Began—The Natural Enemy of the Rabbit—Dunedin—A Lovely Town—Visit to Dr. Hockin—His Museum —A Liquified Caterpillar—The Unperfect...

Port Louis—Matches no Good—Good Roads—Death Notices—Why European Nations Rob Each Other—What Immigrants to Mauritius Do—Population —Labor Wages—The Camaron—The Palmiste and othe...

A lesson in Pronunciation—Reverence for Robert Burns—The Southern Cross—Troublesome Constellations—Victoria for a Name—Islands on the Map—Alofa and Fortuna—Recruiting for the Qu...

Tasmania, Early Days—Description of the Town of Hobart—An Englishman's Love of Home Surroundings—Neatest City on Earth—The Museum—A Parrot with an Acquired Taste—Glass Arrow Bea...

Fifty Miles in Four Hours—Comfortable Cars—Town of Wauganui—Plenty of Maoris—On the Increase—Compliments to the Maoris—The Missionary Ways all Wrong—The Tabu among the Maoris—A...

A Jain Temple—Mr. Roychand's Bungalow—A Decorated Six-Gun Prince—Human Fireworks—European Dress, Past and Present—Complexions—Advantages with the Zulu—Festivities at the Bungalo...

The “Weet-Weet”—Keeping down the Population—Victoria—Killing the Aboriginals—Pioneer Days in Queensland—Material for a Drama—The Bush —Pudding with Arsenic—Revenge—A Right Spiri...

God Vishnu, 108 Names—Change of Titles or Hunting for an Heir—Bombay as a Kaleidoscope—The Native's Man Servant—Servants' Recommendations—How Manuel got his Name and his English...

Murder Trial in Bombay—Confidence Swindlers—Some Specialities of India —The Plague, Juggernaut, Suttee, etc.—Everything on Gigantic Scale —India First in Everything—80 States, m...

Melbourne and its Attractions—The Melbourne Cup Races—Cup Day—Great Crowds—Clothes Regardless of Cost—The Australian Larrikin—Is He Dead? —Australian Hospitality—Melbourne Wool-...

Road to Ballarat—The City—Great Gold Strike, 1851—Rush for Australia —“Great Nuggets”—Taxation—Revolt and Victory—Peter Lalor and the Eureka Stockade—“Pencil Mark”—Fine Statuary...

The Town of Nelson—“The Mongatapu Murders,” the Great Event of the Town —Burgess' Confession—Summit of Mount Eden—Rotorua and the Hot Lakes and Geysers—Thermal Springs District—...

The Bay of Gisborne—Taking in Passengers by the Yard Arm—The Green Ballarat Fly—False Teeth—From Napier to Hastings by the Ballarat Fly Train—Kauri Trees—A Case of Mental Telegr...

Honolulu—Reminiscences of the Sandwich Islands—King Liholiho and His Royal Equipment—The Tabu—The Population of the Island—A Kanaka Diver —Cholera at Honolulu—Honolulu; Past and...

The Government House at Malabar Point—Mansion of Kumar Shri Samatsin Hji Bahadur—The Indian Princess—A Difficult Game—Wardrobe and Jewels —Ceremonials—Decorations when Leaving—T...

A Hindoo Betrothal, midnight, Sleepers on the ground, Home of the Bride of Twelve Years Dressed as a Boy—Illumination—Nautch Girls—Imitating Snakes—Later—Illuminated Porch Fille...

On the Road Again—The Hand-Car—A Thirty-five-mile Slide—The Banyan Tree—A Dramatic Performance—The Railroad Loop—The Half-way House—The Brain Fever Bird—The Coppersmith Bird—Nig...

Continued Description of Aboriginals—Manly Qualities—Dodging Balls —Feats of Spring—Jumping—Where the Kangaroo Learned its Art—Well Digging—Endurance—Surgery—Artistic Abilities—...

The Poems of Mrs. Moore—The Sad Fate of William Upson—A Fellow Traveler Imitating the Prince of Wales—A Would-be Dude—Arrival at Sydney —Curious Town Names with Poem

Starting for Allahabad—Lower Berths in Sleepers—Elderly Ladies have Preference of Berths—An American Lady Takes One Anyhow—How Smythe Lost his Berth—How He Got Even—The Suttee