Boy Scouts Beyond the Seas

Boy Scouts Beyond The Seas BOY SCOUTS BEYOND THE SEAS “MY WORLD TOUR” BY Sir Robert Baden-Powell 1913 Page 1 Boy Scouts Beyond The Seas Downloaded from: “The Dump” at Scoutscan.com http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/ Editor’s Note: The reader is reminded that these texts have been written a long time ago. Consequently, they may use some terms or express sentiments which were current at the time, regardless of what we may think of them at the beginning of the 21st century. For reasons of historical accuracy they have been preserved in their original form. If you find them offensive, we ask you to please delete this file from your system. This and other traditional Scouting texts may be downloaded from The Dump. CONTENTS Preface I. West Indies and Central America II. America III. Canada IV. Japan V. China VI. In the Cannibal Islands VII. Australia and New Zealand VIII. South Africa IX. Europe Page 2 Boy Scouts Beyond The Seas PREFACE THE present volume is the outcome of my recent tour of inspection among the Boy Scouts, not only in our overseas dominions, but also in the United States, Japan and China, and the following European countries: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. I cannot describe the kindness and cordiality with which I was received by those responsible for the Movement as well as by the general public wherever I went. In all centres visited, that which particularly struck me was the good spirit which has attracted so many men to devote their time and energies to carrying out the work of organising and training Scouts in all parts of the world. Everywhere, too, the leading representative men have shown a genuine interest and belief in the Movement, and have thus given it a standing in the eyes of the public which has enabled it to accomplish so much in so short a time. The enthusiasm and loyalty of all working in the Movement was very remarkable and most encouraging, and I am glad to have had the opportunity of making the personal acquaintance of those who are working so well in the cause, even though my trip had necessarily to be a hurried one and my visits very short. GUARD OF HONOUR SOUTHAMPTON A small Scout was wearing the medal for gallantry. I asked him what he had got it for: he replied, standing very stiffly to attention and looking straight to his front: “For saving a policeman, Sir.” Page 3 Boy Scouts Beyond The Seas CHAPTER I WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA The Atlantic ONLY four days after leaving the gloomy gray of England in its cold and muddy winter, we reached the Azores, the little group of hilly islands far out in the Atlantic. St. Michael’s, where the ship stops to land some passengers, is quite a big town— said to be the third largest in Portugal. It is an assemblage of pink and yellow houses, stretched along the brown, rocky shore, with a small harbour in front, and steep hills behind, and everywhere long lines of glass-houses in which pineapples are grown for the London market. As we drop this island in the bumpy gray sea behind us, we part with Europe, and sail at once into the bluer sunny seas which lead us to the Spanish Main. As day after day we steam across these endless plains of sea, we begin to think more and more highly of the bravery of those old sea-dogs of the Middle Ages, who, in their lumbering little sailing ships, and with their primitive maps and compasses, were not afraid to venture far across the seas to seek adventures greater than the home seas offered. Gales had for them no terrors, their ships were tidy sea-boats, their rigging good, and they themselves had stout hearts and strong hands to work them. But what they had to fear far more was the fine, calm weather, when never a breath of wind disturbed the shining surface of the oily sea. There they would be idly rolling on the long, smooth swell without making a yard of progress from day to day. And they did not carry tinned provisions, or stores of meat in freezing chambers, nor engines for condensing and turning salt water into fresh, as we do to-day; they only had a few barrels of pork preserved in brine, and water stowed in casks. The danger was ever before them that if a breeze should fail to come in time they had the risk of running out of food, and thus of slowly drifting to death through thirst and starvation. But the glorious dreams of adventure, of riches and loot, and of green islands and blue seas of the Spanish Main, drew them on to face the risks. Here, out west of the Azores, in the centre of the Atlantic Ocean, is that part of it which is known as the Sargasso Sea. it is the point where all tides and currents seem to cease. It is marked by masses of yellow seaweed floating in bunches for miles and miles. It is hither that deserted, half foundered ships seem to drift And never to move away again, until they rot and sink into the depths for ever. As we steamed across this great ocean in our powerful twin-screw liner with its comfortable airy cabins, its great dining-hall and restaurant, its laundry, and its tiled and marble swimming-bath and gymnasium, it seems impossible to bring the past into touch with the present, and yet on the fo’c’sle, half under the awning and half in the blazing sunshine, one sees a group of sailors, lounging and playing cards on the deck, many of them half clad or with handkerchiefs tied round their heads, and one could very easily imagine their forefathers looking much the same as buccaneers aboard the sailing craft in the olden days. Cabin-boys there were in those vessels, cabin-boys who rose to be great sailors; and to-day there are cabinboys still, and they may rise to be great men if they make up their minds to it. Page 4 Boy Scouts Beyond The Seas The Spanish Main The “Spanish Main” was the Caribbean Sea, which lies between North and South America, where, were it not for the narrow neck of land which joins them (and which is called the Isthmus of Panama), North and South America would be separate continents. Across the great bay thus formed lie a number of islands, some big, some little. These we know as the West Indies, and in the old times they were much used by the pirates and buccaneers as their lairs and hiding-places. The countries all around the Caribbean Sea were first seized and occupied by the Spaniards, after the great scout, Christopher Columbus, had discovered them. These lands were not only wonderful for their fertility in producing all kinds of plants, fruits, and corn, but also they held enormous wealth in gold and silver and precious stones. So when the Spanish ships began to arrive in Europe laden with the richest cargoes from the West, adventurers from every nation began to appear upon the scene, eager to get some of it. The British were especially to the fore, probably because at that time (in Henry VIII’s reign) many ceased to be Roman Catholics, and so had nothing but hatred for the Spaniards, who were particularly eager about pressing their religion on to other people, whether they liked it or not. So it was not long before our old sea-dogs, Raleigh, Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and others, were to the fore with their ships in the Spanish Main, eager to check the increasing power of the Spaniards by cutting off their supplies and to gain some of their booty for their own country. In addition to these, a great many adventurers from all nations got together in the West Indian Islands and made looting expeditions on quick-sailing vessels with which they used to board Spanish galleons and steal their valuable cargoes. These men stuck at nothing. Murder came quite easy to them. They were known as “buccaneers” and pirates. A “buccaneer” originally meant a man who used a “buccan,” that is, a kind of frame for drying and smoking meat, and so preserving it for use on long voyages. A large number of people found this a profitable profession in the West Indian Islands, as the Caribbean Sea became a resort for ships ; but they also found it still more profitable occasionally to take a turn at ship-looting themselves, so the term “buccaneer” very soon came to mean much the same as pirate. The aim of our commanders of those days was not quite so high as it would be now, for they combined a good deal of piracy with their patriotism-but it was the way of the world at that time ; and it certainly produced a breed of daring adventurers who gave to our nation the spirit and hardihood which have stuck to us for hundreds of years since, and which., let us hope, will go on among us for generations to come. The Southern Cross Soon after leaving the Azores my early rising (for I am generally up before half-past five) was rewarded by a fine view of the Southern Cross as it appeared above the horizon. It made me feel back in South Africa again to see the old familiar sign which had guided me on many a night’s march.

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