REV. DR MACGREGOR ON HIS WAY TO AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8557, 27 July 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

REV. DR MACGREGOR ON HIS WAY TO AUSTRALIA.

In the Scotsman of the sth June is publishe a letter written on board the Shaw, Savill, an Albion Cos. steamer Tainui by our recen visitor, the Rev. Dr James Maegregor, froi which we make the following extracts • — We are getting near the Cape. For a wet' past we have had roughish weather, with stroui head winds. I have just come on deck to find fresh, breezy morniDg, and deliciously cool. Th ship has ceased rolling, so, after " swithering' for a while, I am tempted to take your advia and write a little letter to tell you and my othe numerous friends that we have got thus far al well. Of course there is nothing new to sai about a voyage like this—nothing which has no" been told over and over again much better that I can. As, however, even in these days of rapic and incessant locomotion, when men run to anc fro on the face of the earth, there are multi tudes to whom the sea is still a terror, and a! thia dread of the sea and it's supposed dig' comforts and dangers is so far a deterrent to many who have thoughts o) emigrating, I should \\h'., if I CdU, to say a word which may in any measure help to remove it. Before Igo further, it is only just to my readers to say that the sea and I "agree." It may be a matter of constitution, bnt it has no terrors for me. My spirits rise the moment I find myself on board a steamship with her bows seaward. Wheh) therefore, t made up my mind to visit New Zealand and Australia, out of all routes I purposely chose this one, for the Bimple reason that it gave the longest sea voyage and the longest immunity from work and worry. Among the 18 saloon passengers now on board there are four who, for pretty muoh the same reason, are making the long round of 13,345 miles to Wellington, and the 11,948 miles from Wellington to Gravesend via Cape Horn and Rio Janeiro, the cost of the whole round being 100 guineas, for those who, from pressuro of work or any other cause, feel themselves a little run down, there can, I think, be no more thorough or enjoyable cure. . . . If- the element of discomfort is reduced to a minimum, so also ia the element of danger. All that you can say of it is, that it may be a little more by sea than by land. Once outside the fogs of-the narrow and crowded channel, and away from the risk of collision, which on the high seas is, or ought to be, quite infinitesimal, the thought of danger may be left out of the question. We have had, as I have said, pretty rough weather of late, but it is wonderful how little effect those ponderous waves have on this great mass of steel. How contemptuously does this ship hurl them from her! How steadily and proudly does she plough her southern way! How full and steady the throb of that mighty heart which beats night and day without a moment's weariness or intermission, bearing the great ship and its precious cargo to the other ends of the earth ! At this moment, as I write these lines, I have asked the chief engineer, and he tells me that the revolutions of her screw number 1,604,280 since we left Loudou. It will bo a very exceptional storm indeed, which, in the case of a shiplike this, can give the slightest ground for alarm so long as her fires keep in and her engines keep going. Of course, there have been and there will be storms which may prove dangerous. I would rather not have been on board that night wheu the huge gangway ladder was lifted up by a wave and hurled upon the bridge; but as an old Irish woman on board said to me, " God is as near us on the sea as on the dry land." One other thing I must say. There is not one of my readers, nor is there a passenger on board this Bhip, who has any adequate idea of the infinite precaution which has been taken not only by the owners but by tho Board of Trade for securing the safety of the ship and its living freight, and of every steamer which leaves our British shores. Her engines, her seven watertight compartments and their sluices—under the care of prudent aud hard-headed Scotsmen, — her screw, her compasses, her commissariat, nnilu her health departments, have all been minutely and carefully examined before a single passenger set foot on board. . When man has done his best, man can do no more ; the rest we must leave where we leave all; and so God-speed this good ship. Our voyage hitherto has been a very pleasant one. We'are a very hnppy little party in the first saloon, and I have seen enough of thesecoud saloon, as well as the steerage, to say the same of them. For young men, or for any men indeed, there can be no better education. There is a great deal of human nature in man, especially on board ship. When people are thrown so closely together their best comes out, and their worst too. Here there has been no " worst" so far as I have seen ; and on board ship I have always found it so. Everyone is kinder than another. People helpful to one another in the laßt degree; and we have among us those wonderful brighteuers of human life, little children, whose laughter—the purest aud sweetest of hII earthly music—is ringing in my ears as I write these words. We left tome of our passengers at Santa Cruz, in Teneriffe, which is becoming a favourite. wintering place for our invalids, and I should think it is admirably adapted for a health resort. There is nothing more difficult tc. describe than scenery. Somehow or other I had got an idea that the great peak of Teneriffe— the Pico doTeyde— had a sugar-loaf form, and was rather astonished at the massive pyramid which, as we steamed along, rose above the intervening hills to a height of 12,180 ft, showing large masses of snow on its northern sides We were 12 days in the tropics—from Saturday, 27th ult', 16 Weudcsday; Btli iust. inclusive. It was the only part of the voyage to which one looked forward witti any apprehension, and, like so much cUe in this world, it has been much worte iv anticipation than in reality. It is a pleasure for me to record my experience that, with an awning overhead protecting you from the direct rays of the tun, and with a good head wind blowing all the time, there is not one single hour wheu it has not been a delight and a luxury to sit on deck ae.d breathe. The trouble of course begins when you go down to your manli), and the worst terror comes at night. Even with the portholos open and with wind shoots to direct inwards every breath of air, you must make up your mind to ooze and swelter with nothing on but a sheet, or, better Btill, with no covering at all. There Beems to be h general idea on board that this tropical week has left us all much thinner than it found us—in tome casee, I think, a decided advantage. On that same Sunday we passed to the south of the sun. At noon on that day the ship was in latitude 14 deg. 20 mm. N., and the suu in latitude 14deg 28min N. Thenceforth wo were to look at him and his attendant luminaries, the moou and the planets, with our back to tho south instead of tbe north. Lovers of Dante may remember how that universal genius, at a time when the southern regions were practically unknown, placed the Mountain of Purgatory in the antipodes, and how in the opening of the Paradiso, he makes Beatrice turn to the left to look upon the setting sun. So, too, in his" Ancient Mariner," speaking of the southern sun, Coleridge frays:— The sun now rose upon the right, Out of the sea came he, Stilt hid in midst, and on tbe left Went down into the sea. I have often dreamed of seeing this very simple phenomenon, and yet rr I looked it waa very difficult to believe that there was the sun setting where it ought to rise. It was difficult to get some of my fellow passengers to believe their eyes. Aud so with the moon. I suppose in all languages there are form ':1a for finding at a glance whether tho moou is a waxing or a waning moon. The Italian one is very pretty, but it has the serious defect that you must first kuow where the east aud the west are. My formula, which I recommend all my young readers to commit to memory, is a very simple oue, and needs no such previous knowledge. Here it is:— When it's increasing It's a D, When it's Decreasing it's a C. Here, however, the formula is reversed an* simplified:— When It's Increasing it's a O. When it's Decreasing ifa a U. We have now been 22 days at sea. Since leaving Teneriffe there has been abso'utely nothing outside the ship to break the monotony save a siuule whale wbicb one day came blowing by, a bird or two now aud then, and, for some days, I was going to spy coveys of those siugularly graceful creatures—flying fish. It was a pretty sight to watch them breaking away from the bows of the ship aud flying exactly like birds, a little way above the surface of tho water, to a distancepttheoutsideof about 300 ft. I wasnot prepared for anything so bird-like and beautiful Their motion is singularly graceful as they glide along with their bl iish bucks and white belliee, tbeir fins outspread like wiugs, but never moving unless they strike tho water. Their flight is quick, undulating, and swallow-like. There seems no doubt that it is thu dread of the steamer thut rnnkrs them rise and get out of the wny. Wheu heavy seas wash on deck they are often left in large quantiticp, and nro considered excellent eatiug. Oue came on board tin: othtr day, and being caught, I had a good look at it, hut, unfortunately, not till a sailor cut off its beautiful wing-like fins, which they press and preserve us tiny fans, it bad a beautiful iridescent eye, ai.d iv sizj and shape might be. thken lor a cross between a mackerel and a herring. With tho cxcipiion of a small barque which passed us this morning and a large steamer some days before, these, have been the only indications of external life. Day after day one looks out on the same vast waste of waters; on the same round circle of the untrodden si:a. And U not all this drearily monotonous ? Not a bit of it. I have not had ono weary or idle moment since I came on board, and, I think I may say thu same for all my fellow passengers. For one thing, there is the " immense convention of tho .sen;" and wbat a delightful talker it is! How is it possible to weary with tuch a companion at your side 'l I'te.n, again, there is a great deal tukwrntuat is new and interest ing iu'our littie, nfclf-contaijitd world. Think, too, of the long stivteliC-s of unbroken time in which to get up your reading, and it" you do not, ct.r« for'rendinf, there ar.; xmascrae:<ts eftr going on iv which men nnd uom;n can join—quoit raid cricket matches by iliy, and by niynt tocial entertainments, concerts, waxworks, recitations,

and plays. Last night, for instance, the first saloon returned the compliment paid them by the second saloon by asking them to an entertaiment of the kind. There was a regular stage with curtains and all the rest of it, a well-filled gallery, and acting which would have dode no discredit to profes* sional actors. The steerage passengers gave a similar concert to-night. On Sunday forenoons there is the regulation service, when the bell rings for church, and, when weather permits, a large attendance from all parts of the ship. The pulpit is a cushion covered with a " Union Jack," the service is. short and hearty lasting less thttn an hodr. Iv the after-deck there is a Sunday, evening service of song conducted by the passengers themselves, at which every unoccupied man, woman, and child on board seem to be present, and which they who have taken a part in it will never forget as long as thejrlivs; One of the greatest charms of these tropical regions is the glorious nooturnal sky. It has been a nightly occupation and delight to go over the heavens and point out, especially to iriy young friends on board, the various constellations. It is only on clear, crisp, frosty nights that one at Home can revel in a star-spangled sky; and a few hurried glances are all that one can afford if they have any regard for health. But here, in the balmy evenings of the tropics, a great ship like this forms a splendid observatory, where not only in comfort, but in positive enjoynient, you can spend hours together spelling out the heavens with no chauco whatever of a chill. We have been in great luck, as the " Plough " was well south of the Pole, and therefore a brilliant object in the northern heavens. One has a feeling of pridu in it as peculiarly the property of the north. I have watched it and loVed it since childhood. •jßut never, even in our most frosty winter evenings, have I seen it in greater splendour than here at the equatoi. Since leaving our own shores I have never missed a night without looking for the Pole Star. Night by night I have watched it as it sank lower and lower in the heavens and nearer and nearer the wave. And there beside it, only a little south of the zenith, blazed night by night, what, even with Arcturus and Splca on the east) Orioo, Sirius, and Oanopus on the west—the most brilliant stars in the firmament—must be considered the gem of the equatorial as it is of the northern heavens, our own glorious and beloved Plough. On this same Sunday night, after taking what I suspected would be, and what in point of fact turned out be, our last look at the Pole Star for some months to come, I turned round and saw for the first time the Southern Cross. The two Mghts were almost simultaneous. I reckon that one of the memorable moments of life. There, near the northern horizon, dwindled to a mere speck of light, whs the etar of our northern homes, the fond and familiar Pole Star. I gazed at him till I was weary; and there was a little lump in my throat, and a little dew in my eyes, as 1 thought of the emigrants on board. I would fain have gone and p.sked them to come and have a look at what I know to many of them would be the last sight of the star which (shone over their cradles. There are many on board who will never see that star again. Turning to the south, thero on the port-bow, inclining with a slight angle west lay the Southern Cross, with that dark starless patch beneath the two lowest stars known as the " coal ho!e." I was not prepared to see a constellation so thoroughly cruciform. Though ndt to be named beside the " Plough " it is a brilliant little group of stars. To the left and a little below were Alpha and Beta Centauri, the former believed to be the star nearest to our own solar system. I think it is worth mentioning, as I have never seen it noticed, that if you lift up yon eyes suddenly to the Eouthern heavens when a moonlight night has hidden the stars of a lesser magnitude and you light on the Southern Cross with these two stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, you are struck in a moment with the strong resemblance which they bear to the Northern Plough ; only tho square of the "cross" is smaller and diflcrently arranged, and the star in the tail of tho " plough" next to the square is wanting. These stars bear pretty much the same position in the southern sky as the "Plough" does in the northern, and in ximilar conditions of moonlight they have, as in the case of the " Plough," their own quarter of the sky pretty much to themselves. As to-morrow is Sunday, our stay at the Capo will be very short. Then comes the longest, and, if all tales be true, the worst part of tho voyage. From the Capo to Hobart there are 19 days of steady steaming without ever sighting laud. I hope that on this passage the Tainui may have better luck than on the last, when for nine successive days she passed through unbroken fog, and for 13 never saw the suu. Excuse this hurried scrawl, and believe me, yours truly, James Macorkgob.