This is an interesting allusion to the 19th century analysis of the American people as being somewhat bold, adventurous, perhaps reckless and daring (as well as innovative and enterprising). Was this a correct analysis and, if so, is it true today?

adjective: strongly displeased at something perceived as unjust, offensive, harmful

Passepartout is indignant, as is explained in the next paragraph, by the loss of speed in the steamship since he is already in agony about the speed of travel due to the necessity of a prompt arrival time because the next phase of his journey with Fogg depends on a punctual arrival time.

Water is feed into the engine to create steam. If the controlling water feed screw is jolted loose, as it may be with a sudden jarring, twisting, lurching movement ("pitch") of the steamship because of rough seas, then the hot steam that the water converts to would escape out the nearest opening, which in this case seems to have been the feed screw hole, now freed of its screw.

In steam ships, it was possible for passengers to descend to a lower level to watch the workings of the relatively newly developed and innovated steam engine powered steamship (Richard Wright's "SS Experiment" first Atlantic Ocean passage, July 1813). A Hollywood version of this can be seen in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie, Shall We Dance (1937) in which Astaire's character does a song and dance below deck in the engine room.

This allusion is a veiled confession that Passepartout is swayed emotionally by the inner and outer beauties of Aouda, who has not swayed any emotions except gallantry and protectiveness in Fogg.

reverie, noun
dreamy or fanciful musings about someone or something

In the extended astronomical metaphor, Aouda is alluded to as "a disturbing star" because of the romantic feelings she might have aroused in Fogg, who gallantly spent such long spans of time with her.

The narrator here launches an extended astronomical metaphor (astronomy: the science of the position, nature and movement of the stars and planets) in which Fogg is a great and "majestic" heavenly body "above" while Fix and Passepartout are "lesser" heavenly bodies that seem to be gravitationally pulled toward Fix.

noun: someone who knowingly and willfully helps another commit a crime, e.g., robbing the Bank of England in London

The English Empire stopped to eastward with China. After Hong Kong, China, Fogg's next stop was Yokohama, Japan.

Therefore, "the last foothold of English territory" means the last territory on Fogg's journey that is part of the British Empire, Hong Kong,

adjective: a plan capable of being done or put into action

To tell the truth and to be direct and forthright.

In other words, Fix has decided to tell Passepartout about who he really is and about what he is really doing there aboard the Rangoon.

This idiom means to think about something or a set of related things and examine them from every angle and perspective to try to find understanding, revelation, enlightenment or epiphany.

idiom, noun: a culturally used expression that is universally understood in that culture and that has a figurative meaning that is not literal; idioms begin as figurative metaphors that, once they become well known and over-used, become trite cliches that, once they become culturally universal, become idioms, which is a figure of speech that everyone in a given culture understands though the meaning is hidden in figurative language.

This idiomatic cliched expression means: Is my deception and trickery discovered?

Fix has decided that Passepartout has fathomed the secret that Fix is a police detective who is interested in Fogg (i.e., "his master") for some criminal reason. Fix thinks that, presumably, Passepartout is aware that Fogg has wealth that is unusual and that cannot be accounted for. Therefore, Fix supposes that Passepartout associates Detective Fix with that unaccountable money. [In truth, you recall, Passepartout believes Fix was hired by the Reform Club to make sure Fogg does not cheat during his journey.]

To allow oneself to give into mental reflections about a prospect, pleasure, puzzle or predicament. In this case, to give into reflective thoughts and musings about the perplexing puzzle of Passepartout's allusions and jestings.

reflections, noun: fixing the thoughts on something; careful consideration; thoughts occurring in contemplation or meditation

verb: perplexed condition; bewildered; frustrated or confounded regarding understanding something

heartily, adverb
cordially, sincerely, genuinely; without restraint; exuberantly, vigorously

Since there is good luck and bad luck in such things as his "present occupation" (i.e., following Fogg), he learns some but doesn't learn enough: for instance, he sees what Fogg's present activities are but not what his overall plan is.

This turn of phrase means that Passepartout is asking whether Fix's current (i.e., present) round of activities (i.e., occupation) has gained him (i.e., made) much added information or much new knowledge: if he made much by his present occupation.

verb, to chaff, present tense: to tease or jest in a good-natured way; to banter

Passepartout is playfully alluding to what he believes is Fix's secret idea of following Fogg all the way back to England while pretending to be doing something else.

allusion, noun: mentioning something indirectly in order to communicate an idea that is different from and larger than the one stated (e.g., going from Bombay to America to Europe alludes to following Fogg to keep record of his enterprise).

banter, noun
bantering, adjective
the playful and friendly exchange of teasing remarks

"Bantering tone" means that pleasantly teasing remarks were exchanged in a playful and friendly tone of voice: a tone of voice intended to build pleasant friendship, not a tone to bully.

This is because Passepartout believes Fix is really a spy sent by the Reform Club to check on Fogg's honest execution of the terms of the wager.

This is because Fix suspects Fogg to be the London bank robber.

"Hot impatience" is an allusion to the euphemism of "land of pepper": the "hot" land of Hades (or of pepper-deck Singapore).

This is a technique of minor flashback to keep readers focused on the originating points of the story, a wise ploy on Verne's part since he has taken through so many places and so many adventures that we need a reminder, through flashback, of where the story is grounded.

This may be a reference to the Malaysian islands they have just left behind where pepper does in fact grow, or it could be a euphemism (nice way to say something less nice) for the land of Hades of Hell: consign them all the burn with the sting of pepper in Hades.

These "unusual precautions" might range from slowing steam engine speed, trimming sails to catch less wind, shifting ballast, to providing passengers with life preservers and lifeboat assignments.

This "defective construction," of course, could cast our protagonist and his loyal companions--and Detective Fix--into much peril, so adding suspense and anxiety to the progression of the story, a suspense and anxiety Passepartout feels though Fogg does not.

Correctly spelled, "Cochinchina," this is the portion of Vietnam that lies to the north of the Annam portion. The central city of Cochinchina was called Saigon but is now called Ho Chi Min City.

This tells us that the Rangoon is making rapid progress through the South China Sea on its way to Hong Kong.

The name "Anam" is not in use currently, but "Annam" (the correct spelling of "Anam") is a name of French origin used for the southern-most portion of Vietnam prior to 1946 while it was a French imperial protectorate.

The coast of Anam is therefore the southern coast of Vietnam.

The Rangoon is a steamer, propelled by steam engine, yet is decked out in sails to take advantage of fair winds as they came up. [Fair winds are those, like their southwesterly, that push the ship in its desired direction while "foul winds"--which Fogg has not yet encountered--push a ship away from its desired destination.]

The steamer Rangoon was traveling northeast toward Hong Kong, so the "south-west" originating wind blew from behind them, speeding them to their destination in the northeast.

This is the last quarter phase of the moon, occurring about three weeks after the new moon, and it leads into the full moon phase. The full moon phase is when the moon exerts its greatest gravitational influence upon ocean conditions. The implication the narrator makes is that the moon's last quarter phase is precipitating rough seas for the Rangoon and its travelers (recall that in the 1800s, ships were still given the pronoun "she" akin to what other foreign languages, like French and Spanish, still do today: le bateau, el barco). [For more on the moon, see EarthSky.com.]

To stay on his schedule pertaining to his bet with the Reform Club, Fogg needed to speed along with no disturbances to be in Hong Kong to meet and board the steamer bound for his next destination, Yokohama, japan.

The Mountains of Malacca, where the tigers roam, that are seen from Singapore, which is at the extreme southerly tip of the large island of Malaysia, and from the deck of the Rangoon as it rounds out of the Straits of Malacca and up the east side of Malaysia on its way northerly toward Hong Kong.

gourmand, noun
a person who is fond, possibly indiscriminatingly, of good eating and drinking

There are many mango varieties. The variety described here is different from the variety presently mostly available throughout America, which are variegated yellow to red coloring outside with a cantaloupe-orange colored fruit inside.

Mango fruit is grown on very tall angular trees, having branches that tend straight upward rather than tending outward, that grow up to 130 feet (40 meters); it is called Mangifera indica L. Most mangoes are elongated fruit, though there are round apple mangoes, with a sweet but stringy fruit threaded through with tough fibers. Eating mangoes is sweetly and refreshingly rewarding, but the stringy threads make mangoes unsatisfying to some.

They re-embarked by re-boarding the steamer bound for Hong Kong, their next destination, indeed, Aouda's hoped for final destination.

While this description seems vague to us, we must suppose it describes houses that are built with heavy beams and roofs and that show asymmetrical designs in which parts of the house are not equally balanced by opposite parts of the house. Contrast this image to Japanese houses that are built of light weight materials and are symmetrical in design.

adjective (also used as a preposition)
lacking something; deficient in something

In other words, "nor were tigers wanting" means there were plenty of tigers in the jungles: the tiger population was not lacking in numbers, nor was it deficient in the presence of robust tigers.

The nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, yields the nutmeg spice from the seed of the nutmeg fruit and mace, a cinnamon-peppery like spice, from the reddish covering of the seed.

Also called sago palm, "sago-bushes" are an evergreen shrub that are native to Japan and that have fronds similar in appearance to palm tree fronds. [These plants are poisonous to dogs and cats.] The narrator describes them as "large ferns" because the fronds of the plant are fingered and veined like ferns, though they resemble more closely the fronds of palms rather than the fronds of ferns.

Hedges--long edging rows of plants grown at roadsides, at the edges of fields and around grazing common to act as barriers and as boundaries--were "prickly" because in England and Europe many hedges were grown of plants that had thorns, thus were prickly, such as blackthorn, hawthorn, quickthorn and whitethorn hedges.

Hawthorn hedges have been the "universal rural hedging plant" in England since the enactment of England's Enclosure Acts requiring the hedged enclosure of grazing commons in Wales and England (there were more than 5,000 separate Enclosure Acts). Thus "prickly hedges of European fields" alludes to hawthorn hedges.

rural hedging plant

rural hedging plant

rural hedging plant

It is probable that the "pepper plant" referred to here was the black pepper spice vine that was cultivated as a hedge. The English, who had imperial control of Singapore during Fogg's journey, planted hedges along roadsides and as agricultural field boundaries. In Singapore, the pepper plant, a traveling vine, which takes root wherever a tendril touches earth, makes an ideal and fragrant substitute for the English hedge row.

The narrator specifies the cloves form part of the "half-open flower" because, to get the clove spice, the blossom must be picked when just ripe but before blooming since the bloom includes what would otherwise have been the clove.

The clove tree is Syzygium aromaticum and was one of the sought after spice-bearing trees of the Spice Wars between European powers struggling for Far East trade supremacy. The Chinese have used cloves for medicines and culinary spices for centuries.

The clove spice is the inner part of the blossom, but, to get the clove, the ripe buds must be picked just before blooming. If the bud blooms, the inner hard spice becomes part of the blossom. The ripe, pink-on-green buds are picked and set out to dry; the drying process yields the clove spice.

"New Holland" is a old horse breed name that is no longer listed as a breed but was probably the same as the Friesian horse, which originated in Friesland in the northwest of the Netherlands, thus the Anglicized "Holland" in the horse's breed name.

Contemporary Friesian horses resemble light draft horses though their ancestors were bigger and stronger and in demand in the Middle Ages as war horses because their size and strength allowed them to wear armor and to carry a knight clad in armor. Almost extinct at one point, Friesians are gaining in numbers and popularity because of the way they combine beauty and elegant features with strength and power while maintaining nimbleness and gracefulness [Wikipedia, "Friesian Horse"].

A "park checkered" means Singapore is a park-like island with lush trees and other vegetation that is crisscrossed in regular horizontal-vertical fashion by pleasing roads and tree lined avenues.

A view of maps drawn in the 1800s--one by John Murray of London in 1830 and one drawn by George Dromgold Coleman in 1839--are available at these links and are provided by Mok Ly Yng of the International Map Trade Association (IMTA).

Page 10, Murray 1830: http://www.imtamaps.org/docs/pdfs/History_of_Mapping.pdf

Page 13, Coleman 1839: http://www.imtamaps.org/docs/pdfs/History_of_Mapping.pdf

Something that is "not imposing in aspect" is something that does not look grand or impressive in feature, aspect, nature or quality.

**imposing, **adjective
grand and impressive in appearance

aspect, noun
feature of something; appearance to the eye or mind; nature; quality; character

not, adverb
used to express negation

verb: to reveal unconsciously

Aouda unintentionally revealed that she would enjoy a walk on shore, maybe by a sigh, maybe by a chance admiring remark, etc.

The journal we are acquainted with in which Fogg keeps a record of his itinerary with arrivals, departures and gains or losses of hours duly noted. So far, Fogg has lost no time on his itinerary timetable.

This means that the Rangoon was half a day ahead of schedule, giving Fogg a gain of half a day on his timetable of travel.

This is an interesting error made by Jules Verne--or his translator--in this detail laden (having profuse detail, many details) novel. To "weigh anchor" is a nautical term that means to lift or to heave up the anchor in preparation for sailing.

What Verne meant to say was the less glamorous sounding but accurate "dropped anchor," a nautical term that means to drop anchor at moorage in a harbor or at a dock in preparation of staying still for a time.

verb: cut off the expected view or destination

Those passing the islands could only see the mountains and crags without getting a view of the interior of the islands.

Now called simply "Malay," the peninsula was formerly called Malacca.

The narrow waterway passage between Sumatra and the Peninsula of Malay, which leads to the South China Sea, then to Hong Kong.

Passepartout will "chaff" Fix without giving away the idea that he suspects Fix is a spy sent by the Reform Club.

Unexplained references to things that Passepartout intends to cause distraction and confusion to the "spy."

verb, outdated: to mock, tease or jest but in a good humored way

Those members of the Reform Club who oppose Fogg's assertion of traveling round the world in 80 days and have bet against him.

*adversaries, ***noun: opponents; enemies; those who attack against

verb, transitive: to firmly decide; to firmly determine a set course

Since "resolve" is transitive (needing to take an object), "to say" introduces an infinitive clause that fills the Object slot in the "resolve to do something" pattern (Longman Dictionary Online).

Here, "discovery" refers to what Passepartout thinks he has discovered but which is really only mistaken conjecture based upon insufficient information.

Passepartout is implying that the members who are spying on Fogg will regret their underhanded actions and have to give some sort of recompense for thinking so little of Fogg's honor, his worth, distinction and merit.

adjective: characterized by high principles and noble values; having honesty, fairness, integrity

This is unusual syntax to modern readers because current usage requires the phrasal verb "spying on": to be spying on Mr. Fogg.

verb, outdated usage: to make certain; to make definite; to know precisely

This inversion of negative ideas (something being far form true and something being unreasonable) means that Passepartout's idea was in fact very reasonable.

Paraphrases: had in mind; had as his object; had as his aim, goal or end result

phrasal verb: coming to a decision, a solution, an answer

The phrase "hitting upon the real object" refers to Passepartout discovering, with what little information he had, the real reason Fix was fixated with Fogg (fixation gives the symbolism behind Detective Fix's name).

rhetorical or literary device: hyperbole (exaggeration)

Of course Passepartout cannot live for a century nor can he, therefore, cudgel his brains for a century to figure out what Fix is up to.

figure of speech, idiom: to try hard to comprehend something, to deduce something, to recall something

Situational irony: Passepartout is with Fogg because of Fogg's wager, now Passepartout is willing to make his own wager regarding Fix.

Ironic turn of phrase: bought as a result of a religious sacrilege and assault, they are now religiously kept safe and preserved.

religiously, adjective: carefully; devotedly; exactly; conscientiously

preserved, verb: maintained in something's existing or original condition

The beautiful slippers that he bought after having lost his shoes at the Malabar pagoda as a result of the attack of the outraged priests.

noun: goal or purpose; end result to which feeling and action is directed

verb, present tense form: to follow along a path; to continue or proceed along a path or route

verb, infinitive form: to form an idea about something based upon incomplete information; to form an opinion or supposition based on partial information

The omniscient third-person narrator is now switching from Detective Fix's point of view (Fix's thoughts, idea, emotions and motives) to Passepartout's point of view.

Fogg's favorite, silent, card game played with two sets of partners.

The cards dealt to a player during a rubber or round of card play is called a "hand."

This is a **synecdoche **(the specific representing the general) in which the hand that holds the cards represents the cards dealt and played in a card game.

verb, past tense form: restricted one's movements;* e.g., Fogg restricted his movements to his cabin, not going on deck.*

adjective: withholding personal information; *e.g., Fix's reserved manner meant that he did not make Passepartout his confidant.
*

Fix's reserved manner kept Passepartout from learning of Fix's plans.

noun: usually a formal meeting during which ideas are discussed usually with one person examining the other for some purpose

While Fix approached their conversation with a secret formal objective thus saw it as an "interview," it is probable that Passepartout might have described it as a friendly "conversation." This difference indicates that the narrator is still narrating from Fix's point of view.