TRAVELS OF DR. AND MRS. HELFER.*
PESSIMISTS are in danger of forgetting the really enormous progress the world has made during the last forty years. A not inconsiderable step in that progress is closely associated with the amount of light cast on the dark places and-dark doings of the earth, till the "melancholy Jacqueses " of modern life have occupied themselves in analysing and deploring the darkness, forgetting that it is the advent of the light which has made manifest, and must, in its further advance, dispel the gloom. But if any middle-aged man or woman desires to be reminded of the advance in physical comfort, in useful invention, and in all the arts which tend to diminish the separation of nation from nation on the face of the earth, and to bring about, as far as the rapid progress of civilisation may, a sense of brotherhood among differing races, he or she could not do better than spend an hour in accompanying Dr. and Mrs. Helfer on their travels ; transport themselves in imagination back forty years, and once more visit Calcutta under the rule of John Company, when rail- ways and telegraphs were scarcely even a dream of the future.
* in Syria. Mesopotamia, Burnish, and other Lands. Narrated by Pauline, Countess Nostitz (former Madame Helfer); and rendered into English by Mrs. George Sturge. London: Richard Bentley and Sons. 1878.
Madame Helfer (now Countess Nostitz) has long delayed the giving of her narrative to the world, out of consideration (among other reasons) for her husband's promise to General Chesney, commander of the Euphrates expedition in 1835-6, not to publish any account of that expedition till his own report should have appeared ; but Chesney's narrative was delayed till 1868, for reasons which he himself gives in the preface to his remarkable work. " The Euphrates route " to India had occupied the attention of his life. We are not about to discuss the question here, though the events of the day seem rapidly tending to a reopening of the subject ; but hitherto all his efforts had ended in disappointment, and it was, he says, to obtain a simple answer to the question,—Why ? that he put his narrative of failure at last before the world. Madame Helfer, released from her promise of silence, has followed, with the account not only of the part taken by her husband and herself in the unfortunate expedition, but with a most entertaining history of their joint experience in their travels in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Burmah.
Johann Wilhelm Helfer was among the number of those who from very early boyhood, have been able to remember,— "There were those beetles to collect ;"
and to find in that remembrance, and the action consequent upon it, a solace for many of the graver ills of life. A new variety of some insect or flower was more to him than home or country, profession or fortune. Happily for him, he met with a wife who, if not exactly climbing to the height of his enthusiasm, yet loved him well enough to undergo the hardships of his life, and count light the sacrifice of her pleasant home, so that she might share his wanderings. Educated as a doctor, he turned away with disgust from the practical work of his profession, to serve his brethren in other ways, as entomologist and botanist ; and yet not altogether did he decline medical work, but his thoughts turned towards
the East, where he knew his skill as a &aim would be a suffi- cient passport. Through much of the ground passed over in
their wanderings, Madame Helfer and her husband both as- sumed the garb and style of Mamelukes. Madame Helfer, being determined to share all her husband's pursuits, and find- ing in those days that to accompany him as his wife would be scarcely safe or practicable, was disguised as a younger brother ; but she did not pass through this transformation-scene till acci- dental circumstances determined them to explore, if possible, the interior of Asia. Before arriving at this determination, they made some stay at Smyrna, whither a devoted friend and servant (Lotty) had accompanied her mistress. This woman is a con- siderable figure in the earlier pages of the book, and there is an amusing incident recorded of her innocent sinning against English notions of sabbath-keeping, which nearly cost the Heifers their pleasant home in the house of the English mission- ary at Smyrna. They had found a cordial welcome in the house of Mr. Jetter, where for the first time Madame Helfer made acquaintance with English family life, and she had strictly en- joined on Lotty conformity to all the customs of the house, especially with reference to Sunday ; but Lotty was a Bohemian of the Bohemians by nature :-
" She generally sat, poor thing, sadly weary, under the shade of the plane-trees outside the door, with a devotional book by her side, but she was not given to read long together. One Sunday she was joined by the Greek servant of the house, on whom solemnity was also en- joined. They sympathised with each other as well as they could by moans of words and gestures about the melancholy Sundays; each told the other how different it was at home, and Lotty, overcome with the memories of many a country dance, and wishing to show her fellow-sufferer the delights of a jig, sprang from her seat, struck up a Vienna country-dance tune, and whirled and swung herself in time to it, making quite a clatter on the smooth pavement. Suddenly a sten- torian voice called Stop !' to her, in which, though hidden from view, she recognised that of the strict master of the house. His face flushed with anger, he overwhelmed her with reproaches about immorality, Sabbath-breaking, and similar expressions, which sent the poor thing in tears to me. I had great difficulty in appeasing the reverend gentle- man ; he would not listen to my assurances that she meant no harm ; he considered it an insult to his pious household and his spiritual call- ing. Finally, his wife and Helfer came to the rescue, and by our united efforts peace was again restored. But I never saw my Lotty merry in that house again.'
Here in Smyrna, the Heifers were imposed upon by two young men in rich Turkish costume, "with the fine features and contemplative look of the dark eyes, shaded by long lashes, peculiar to the Asiatic." To the fine, curly beard, the swelling lips, and beautiful teeth, was superadded "that expres- sion of mental activity, indicative of European culture, which is usually wanting in the Asiatic." Helfer • could have detected the most microscopic difference in any variety of his isItidopera, but does not seem to have known a rogue under the specious disguise in which he here encountered him. The young " princes " represented themselves as nephews of the celebrated Dost Mahommed Khan, ruler of Cabul. The world of Smyrna was completely taken in, and our friends finally determined to accompany the young princes to the home of their uncle, taking the caravan route through Baghdad to Basrah,intending thence to take ship for the Indus, and go up the river to Cabul. The latter part of the programme was never carried out, but we are indebted to the roguery of the young "Afghans" (who proved to be sons of a European indigo-planter and an Indian woman, who had run away from justice, and were arrested as soon as they set foot again in India), for many of the most interesting pages of this enter- taining narrative, for at their pressing solicitation the Heifers threw up their home in Smyrna, and once more started on a voyage of discovery. Touching at Beyrout, and exploring the city, a few incidents in its ancient history crossed their minds, —remembrances of the festivals in which many hundreds of criminals were slaughtered for the amusement of the spectators, and the manner in which Titus had here celebrated his father's birthday !—days happily passed away, for ever, we had nearly said, but that visions of Bulgaria rise up between ourselves and our sentence. Beyrout, says Madame Helfer, " entertains hopes that if a regeneration of the East should take place, it would again be one of the most important points of these classic shores." Here in Beyrout they were detained in quaran- tine, studied Persian and Hindostanee till circumstances necessitated their breaking quarantine (always a dangerous ex- periment), and taking speedy flight. After a hairbreadth escape, they embarked on board a Turkish vessel, foul with horrible smells, and whose rusty compass did not move, and so with happily a fair wind made for Latakiah. There they were hospitably entertained by an old monk, who for fifteen years had lived alone in his convent, his breviary and missals for sole companions, save and except an old gazetteer in Italian, which he diligently studied, and so " lived in a world he had never seen." Here, as elsewhere, the Christians suffered cease- lessly from the fanaticism of the Mussulmans, and were obliged to take refuge in the island of Ruad, which Madame Helfer describes as a little rocky island, rising abruptly out of the waves, and believes to be identical with the Arvad mentioned as allied to the Phoenicians by Ezekiel, xxvii., 8-11,—" The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners," &c. She describes the island as quite destitute of vegetation, as surrounded by a colossal wall, built of huge blocks of stone, and as the nursery of a hardy race of brave, liberty-loving seamen, who have maintained their independence against all assailants. In . the course of their wanderings the Heifers fell in with a party belonging to the celebrated Euphrates expedition, and with them proceeded to the banks of the far-famed river, where they became acquainted with General Chesney, who was in command of the expedition, and were persuaded by him to give up the land journey to Basrah and make the voyage by steamer, Dr. Helfer placing his knowledge of natural history at the service of the expedition. And even at this distance of time it is easy to enter into the enthusiasm with which the little band watched the launching of the ` Euphrates,' and its companion ship, the ill-fated ' Tigris.' More difficult, perhaps, it is to realise the arduous labour and almost endless obstacles involved in getting the vessels constructed from the iron plates sent out from England. The graphic picture which accompanies General Chesney's narrative has made us familiar with the scene of the arrival of that " last boiler " at Port William, but few readers of that history ever have, perhaps, taken into consideration that those boilers and iron plates had to be conveyed by land 110 miles, over roads first made for them, through rocky defiles and over high mountains ; it is a chapter in the history of the indomitable courage and industry of Englishmen which ought not to be forgotten. But Madame Helfer's narrative is chiefly con- cerned with the manners and customs of the people dwelling on the borders of the great river, and with her husband's explora- tions in search of specimens. We have an interesting notice from Dr. Helfer's pen of a visit to the salt lake, El-Malak, which supplies the greater part of Syria with salt, which is obtained, according to this account, by the simplest means :— " During the summer heat the water evaporates and retires, leaving in the deeper parts the pure crystals of salt, which are collected, and carried on the backs of camels to the various dis- tricts of Syria." He remarks that much of the scenery reminds
him of the Rhine, and says General Chesney is right
COM-
paring the upper part of the Euphrates with the Rhine, the middle with the Danube, and the lower part with the Nile. But our space forbids our following the travellers much farther, though we could willingly linger with them over many a famous ruin, as, for instance, those of the ancient Nice- phorium, whose " shapeless mounds mark the site where Haroun-el-Rashid built himself a palace, and then an obser- vatory for his son, whence the first meridian line was mea- sured." Here a lieutenant belonging to the expedition took his astronomical observations, "the first perhaps which had been taken there for a thousand years." At last the voyage was accomplished,—the problem of the navigability of the Euphrates by steam was solved. Fifteen hundred miles on an untried river had been traversed, and with deep regret the Helfers parted with friends whose struggles they had shared for many months. Their first intention was to go on to Bushire, and settle down there ; but soon after their arrival there they were convinced of the impracticability of this scheme, and they sailed from thence to- Calcutta. One sentence will suffice to show the difference which forty years has made in the customs of the Europeans of Calcutta. Madame Helfer remarks :—" European feet [in Calcutta] never touch the ground, partly because the white gentlemen love their ease too well, and partly because they think it beneath their dignity."
Calcutta was not, however, our travellers' final destination.. Helfer, while lingering there, endeavoured to awaken the atten- tion of the Government to some subjects in natural history,. which seemed to him of commercial value as well as scientific interest, as, for instance, the cultivation of the silk-worm ; but. he found it difficult to get a hearing, till a lucky chance revealed his wife's rank. Poor human nature ! Government House at once threw open its doors to the strangers, and Helfer was entrusted with a mission to explore the provinces in the penin- sula of Malacca, "collect specimens in every department of natural history, investigate the nature of the soil, send in seeds, plants, and specimens of wood for the botanical gardens, visit the vast teak forests and the old tin-mines," &c. Helfer's work was cut short by his untimely death, though his mantle happily fell on able shoulders. But all who are interested in the history of the early days of the English settlement in British Burmah_ will find a glance at Madame Helfer's interesting narrative well. rewarded.
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