ASIA Q^atmll Ittioetaitg Siibratg ati^aca, Hew ^atk CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library DS 809.081 A cruise in JapanSSfiiiSSillll 3 1924 023 219 573 M- ^ Cornell University Mi kj Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 92402321 9573 A CEUISE JAPANESE WATERS A CRUISE JAPANESE WATERS CAPTAIN SHEEAED OSBOEN, C.B. BOYAL NAVY AUTHOR OF •'leaves FBOM AN AECTTC JOURNAL," "DISCOVERY OF THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE," "QUEDAH," ETC. SECOND EDITION WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS EDINBUEGH AND LONDON MDCCCLIX ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. CONTENTS Relating to China and the Chinese Sailing from China 1 European Trade 2 Commercial Importance of Shanghai . 3 Chinese Commercial Activity. . . 4 Description of Entrance of Soo-chow- foo-Canal 5 Field for Miesionaries .... 7 Intense Heat ^8 Arrangement of Transit Duties by Court of Pekin 10 Unattractiveness of Waters of China. 12 Trade with Japan 15 Partial Similarity of Drese of Chinese and Japanese .... 27 J-apan alarmed at allied Operations against China 30 Efforts to open up China. . . 31 Commercial Relations of the Portuguese ..... 36 Vulgar Coloi\rin=r and Tinsel fork coiniion 40 JapansBe - more original and skill- ful 41 Dissimilarity between Chinese and Inhabitants of Southern Japan; Higher sooif-l Position of Japan- ese I'^oman 56 Chinese Junk 64 Colonists of Japan from China and the Corea or from Babel . . 69 Chinese claim Japan as Tributary; Invasion of Kublai-Khan . . 70 Japanese Pirates on Coast frosi ?\m- tov; to Shanghai Promontory , 71 Japanese still mora hostile to China 72 Strategy of Japanese in dealin?; with Chinese 75 Source of Pacific G-ulf Stream in China Sea ..... 102 Need of Interpreters .... 119 Chinese and Japanese reluctant to concede ...... .139 Contempt of Japanese for Chinese Traders 161,164 Millet Plant of China in Japan . 170 Banana Tree 171 Contrast of Chinese Mandarins and Japanese Functionary . . . 175 Temples in Japan and China used as Hotels for Travellers . . 179 China and Chinese unattractive . 209 CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Departm-6 from China— the treaty of Tientsin— the heat In Shanghai— its commercial importance — Chinese activity— scene on the Soo-chow-foo canal— Native shipping— European residents— climate— set sail for Japan— at sea once more — interest of Japan — ^imperfect information- Marco Polo— American pretensions, 1-14 CHAPTER II. Loneliness of the voyage — Miaco-Shnar— Gotto island— Fifando — Kiu-Siu— Japanese scenery— approach to Nangasaki — ■batteries — Government boats— former treaty with England — espionage— idie Papenberg — Ja- panese martyrs — a Hebe — Nangasald— scenery of the approach to it— Government officer and officious signalman — off UsTangasaki — Japanese steamer— Decima and the Dutch — Japanese officials on board— ^a "chief officer"— present to the Ambassador— ttie Dutch factory officials — ^views of the Government — efforts of the Americans, 15-32 CHAPTER III. Decima and Nangasaki — telegraphing by artillery— visit to Deeima — former patriotism— the Portuguese — degradation of the Dutch — ^Dutch and Japanese houses — ^general contentment — Government reporters — clothing— women and children— the Dutch bazaar and its attractions— the Russian bazaar— Japanese shopkeepers — ^regulations regarding cur- rency — manufactures — clocks — a boat race — ^intelligence and energy of the people — ^their enterprise — their Dutch instructors — military organisa^ tion— Govei-nment — ^resolve to proceed to Tedo, 33-52 CHAPTER IV. Visit of the Governor of Nangasaki — salutmg — the yacht Emperor— position of women — open-air baths — interest of Tedo— Nangasaki by moonlight — a Spanish galleon and its fate — ^restlessness of the seaman — Tom Hardy and his four wishes — at sea once more — native craft and coasting trade —site and history of Simbarra — a storai coming on, 53-68 CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Sketch of past histoi-y— Kublai-Khan repelled— Japanese pirates on the Chineae coast—the Portuguese in Japan— ravages in Chinas-daring of the pirates— persecution of the Christians, . 69-78 CHAPTER VI. Expedition of the Dutch— Will Adams and his career— losses and dangers —their arrival— reception and treatment by the Emperor— promotion of Win Adams- treaty with the Dutch— and with England— withdrawal of the English— the treaty with America, . ^ 79-91 CHAPTER VII. A storm — Cape Satanomi— want of sea-birds — sagacity of whales — ^the Abb6 Sidotti— renewed storm— the Suwo-nada Sea^-the Pacific gulf-stream — meteors— iirst view of Nipon — ^Fusi-hama—Simoda, 92-105 CHAPTER VIII. The earthqualce at Simoda^-wreck of the Diana — Simoda rebuilt — difficul- ties in buying and selling— taking notes — Japanese and British red-tapism —beauty of Simoda— Mr Harris, American Consul — Mr Hewskin the interpreter— land journey to Tedo— kindness of the Japanese^treaty with America — departure from Simoda, 106-121 CHAPTER IX. Japanese officials at sear— scenery of Gulf of Yedo — Kanagawa — arrival oflf Tedo — Japanese men-of-war — guard-boats — Tenoske — a mare's nest — Mori-hama the interpreter— the bay and town— fortifications^visit of Government Commissioners — the Lee gunboat — disembarkation of the Ambassador— notes on Yedo — a guard-boat captured— universal espion- age — Japanese officers, 122-145 CHAPTER X. Visit to Yedo — ^native boats — ^landing — aspect of the people-presidence of the Embassy — Japanese gardening— police court — ^purchases— Tenoske the linguist— sweetmeats — death of the Tai-koon — travelling "niebon" ^visit to the temple of Tetstze — tea-gardens — a peach-garden — scenery^ the temple — open-air bathing — ^return to Yedo-^crowds seen — absence of poverty — ^native curiosity — ■night — disturbance by an incarnation of Buddha— great temple at Yedo— gai-dens and nursery grounds^uses of paper— traffic — close of career of Will Adams— ^mutual salute — conclusion of the treaty — ability and honesty of the Commissioners — a conjuror — the buttei-fly trick — sensitiveness of the Government to European opinion — the Commissioners at dinner — ^presents to the Embassy — return presents — ^love of arms — Jack ashore — approaching departure — ^imperial feast— cookery— a travelled Japanese — ^treaty signed— native women — presentation of the yacht — ^last presents — departure — origin of Fusi- hama — farewell to Japan, 146-210 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. CHAPTER I. We left the north of China, and sailed from the im- portant city of Tientsin, bearing the cheering intelli- gence to Shanghai of a treaty of peace having been concluded between the Empires of Great Britain and China, and of the advent of a great era in the history of the latter nation. Henceforth, thanks to allied arms and allied diplomacy, China was open to the enterprise of the missionary, traveller, or merchant, and the ships of England might not only visit her seaboard and enter her harbours, but were at liberty to penetrate to her farthest borders, by means of that noble stream, the Yang-tsi-Keang, which flows by and through her rich- est, and hitherto most secluded, provinces. Many other valuable concessions were made; but the above-men- tioned were those most fraught with change to the " Central Land," and with promise to British interests, commerce, and policy. A 2 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. A thorough appreciation of the present unhealthy condition of the European niercantLle intellect located at the " Five Ports " in China, carried us through the anticipated ordeal of being told by the majority of our belligerent merchants, that we had not slaughtered half enough Chinamen, and enabled us to smile at captiousness, that seemed to think nothing was gained so long as they had to pay taxes or dues to contemp- tible mandarins ! Happily, people at home woidd think more wisely and more disinterestedly upon the subject, and England would rejoice that so much good had been wrought with so little violence, and that our arms, though they had punished severely, were free from the charge of injustice and robbery. All in Europe, who had ever known or read of China, would appreciate the humiliation that the proud and exclusive Court of Pekin must have endured, when it. yielded the points which have already been made public through the medium of the press. Therefore, Anglo- Chinese opinions did not press heavily upon our spirits — but the heat did ! What a constant exercise of in- genuity it is to procure a draught of fresh air — or, more correctly speaking, a draught of air only — during the July heat of a Shanghai summer ! There is nothing fresh or pure at that unhappy period ; all Nature stinks aloud ; and any one gifted with acute olfactory nerves in Shanghai, must necessarily suffer from nose-ache, until all sense of smell is lost, or thoroughly blunted. Unsavouriness and close-steaming heat apart, Shanghai is replete with interest. Situated A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 3 in a rich' and highly- cultivated plain, near the mouth of the " Son of the Ocean," as the Chinese figuratively style the Yang-tsi-Keang, and on the eastern seaboard of the great valley which stretches north to Pekin, and west to the mountains of Stychuen, closely connected with most of the important cities of this empire by means of a wonderful ramification of canals, Shanghai is, in fact, the Liverpool of China, and likely still more to rise in commercial importance as the results of the Treaty of Tientsin develop themselves. It was on Saturday the 18th June 1842 that the boats of the British fleet opened the port of Shanghai to the ken of the world ; and to-day, sixteen short years afterwards, the value of the European and Ame- rican exports and imports amounts to no less than twenty-six millions of dollars per annum, or, at the present rate of exchange, six millions sterling, of which the lion's share goes to or comes from Great Britain and her colonies. These figures give some idea of the progress of commerce in a city, even in this slow-moving country ; but the scene of bustle Shang- hai offers is still more striking. At this moment eighty odd sail of splendid clippers, fleet-footed racers of the deep sea, from London, Liverpool, Aberdeen, and New York, are riding at anchor off the quays ; flags and pennons, as varied in colour as their owners and con- signees are numerous, flaunt gaily in the fervid zephyrs that waft anything but ambrosial smells from the fields and gardens of a people who are far too practical to care for the filthy means whereby their vegetables are 4 A CKDISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. brought to market in such marvellous perfection. We • know that directly the monetary crisis in Europe has ceased to react upon the firms estabUshed here, and that the new crop of teas shall have arrived from the tea-growmg districts, every wharf which projects into the river wUl be inaccessible for the throng of lighters pressing around them, and that crowds of sweltering coolies or porters will wail over their burdens, ever re- peating their melancholy cry of " Ah-ho ! ah-ho-ho ! " Allah be praised that that busy scene has not yet com- menced, for then our only hours of rest, from four o'clock until seven o'clock in the morning, would be broken, and heat, stench, musquitoes, combined with cooUes, might drive us to desperation, and to take a passage home in the first Peninsular and Oriental mail-boat, and thus mar our anticipated visit to Japan. The Ixdl in European commerce does not appear to have checked Chinese activity wherever money-making is to be done ; and although, in their jargon, Messrs Smith, Brown, and Eobinson " have makee broke ! " or " that new chop tea no catchee yet, by-and-by can do," yet that in no way afiected the Chinaman's line of business. In the city, about the river-side, and in narrow pestiferous streets, there is a clang and din of commerce. Oily, strong-smelling men rush past you carrying loads of sugar or fusty bags of rice ; here piles of rattans im- pede the way, or bundles of dye-woods rattle about your shins; and then aU the conglomeration of foiil smells is suddenly mastered by tubs of some abomina- tion brought from the Eastern isles to tickle the A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 5 palates of the sons of the Plowery Land ! Put on a '^ pith hat, spread a thick cotton umbrella, take advan- tage of every streak of shade thrown by tree or wall, and let us watch the entrance of the Soo-chow-foo Canal. Numbers of boats are passing and repassing ; some carry native merchants or brokers, who have been doing, or are going to do, business in Shanghai. In spite of the unpretending appearance of their comfort- able boats, tens of thousands,, in dollars, are the figures in which their inmates carry on their mercantile trans- actions. Smooth, silver-tongued Asiatics as they are — adepts at lying, chicanery, and duplicity — they are commercially honest nevertheless. Good faith in mer- cantile transactions they have found to be advantageous ; and, being an eminently practical race, they adopt the advantageous virtue, and as a rule (not without exception) they practise it. But the same man who wUl, to the uttermost farthing, account to his bro- ther-merchant for thousands, or assist him in a com- mercial crisis, wiU unblushingly defraud his govern- ment by the grossest perjury, and subscribe remorse- lessly to a fund for procuring the heads of foreigners, or for destroying a European community with arsenic — Howqua and Canton to wit. Besides these boats full of passengers, there are barges carrying the greatest amount of goods, and drawing the smallest conceivable amount of water, and some months hence they will reach the remotest points of the empire with their precious freight of tropical or European produce. Such is the scene on the Soochow Canal. Now look up the ^ 6 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. river, above the fleet of clippers, steam-boats, and men- of-war, at that forest of masts like a mass of pine- trees stripped of branch and leaf ; they are the native i/ vessels of Shanghai. Only the pool below London Bridge can offer a similar sight. This season, certainly, these vessels are unusually numerous here. Fear of the allies, and the exaggerated reports of the " fierceness of the uncontrollable barTsarians" commanding her Bri- tannic Majesty's gunboats, have induced their owners to remain in port until peace was declared. Our news has evidently reached them, and the clang of gongs, much discordant music, and the noise of crackers, during the early watches of the past night, are demon- / strations of John Chinaman's delight. He has the prospect of again being able to push into the outer waters, under the slender protection of the smooth- faced Queen of Heaven, who, in her smoky little shrine under the junk's poop smiles approvingly on the poor junk-seaman's oifering of a cup of weak tea, and a candle of pork fat painted bright vermilion. All day, and aU night long, according as the tide serves, these industrious fellows are moving up or down the stream, ever heaving in cables, or hoisting and lowering their quaint-cut sails. Hardy must they be, as well as industrious ; they seem to have but one suit of clothes, and only a mat to sleep upon ; their food is simply rice, and salt-fish enough to swear by, and their pay is very small ; yet they face the tempests of a sea which is full of danger to our well-found barks and expert seamen. And then, after a long and toilsome voyage, A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 7 the junk-sailor often endures sad cruelties from pirates, whose ships are ever prowling about in the neigh- bourhood of the centres of commerce. Still, in spite of typhoons and pirates, and the competition of Euro- pean vessels that already have entered the field against them in the coasting trade, the native craft have appa- rently in no wise diminished in number ; and it is probable indeed, that more junks sail to and from Shanghai at the present day than prior to the opening of the port to European commerce. I may add that the " bund " or quay which forms the river-face of the European quarter, together with the magnificent abodes of the merchants, and the no less imposing consulates, convey an idea of the wealth and prosperity of the community, which is fully supported by their estab- lishments, yachts, horses, and mode of living. Even the ministers of the Protestant churches, judging by their dwellings, partake of the general wellbeing of Shanghai. Eectors at home on £600 per annum live not in such houses ; and poor curates in England, de- sirous of enjoying conjugal life, and bearing light to the benighted heathen, may, by enduring a considerable amount of heat and many smeUs, do far better in China (in a temporal point of view at least) than by slaving in the fever-haunted homes of the poor of an English city. The missionary in China may not expect, like the merchant, to make a rapid fortune and retire, but nevertheless it is a fine field for active sons of the Church. There is for them the prospect of promotion to vacant Eastern bishoprics ; or, if gifted with more / 8 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. questionable zeal for the interests of their country and their religion, they may become political agents or Grovemment interpreters. He who at the latter part of July, at Shanghai, found anything to admire or write of, might boast of some energy and good health. Personal comfort was then entirely hopeless. The temperature for a week ranged from 86° to 98° Fahrenheit, and on deck, in the shade of our awnings, often stood at 104°. Sun- / stroke was frequent. Even the Chinese labourers, employed in coaling the ship, were more than once struck down ; the men-of-war lost one or more men by this awful and sudden death ; and as late in the afternoon as 4 p.m., a European policeman was killed by coup-de-soleil, through incautiously exposing himself on the bund. Every one on shore or on board found a perfect state of mental and bodily quietude actually necessary for the preservation of health ; and we thought with a sigh of our brethren and kindred who, in as high a temperature, and almost as insupportable a climate — that of Oude or Eohilcund — were labouring for their country's honour in spite of sunstroke and , disease. If At this season all the residents of Shanghai look painfully unhealthy, sallow, and listless. Those afloat, and not acclimatised, sufl'er much from boils, rush, whitlows, and similar ailments, by which strong con- stitutions seek relief when tried by great heats and pestiferous exhalations. It is true that the mercantile community, feeding A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 9 and living in an artificial state, cooled by punkahs, and supported by the consolation that in three or four year's time they would return to Europe or America with fortunes, may be able, with Spartan fortitude, to smile at their sufferings ; we were otherwise situated, and can safely aver, after more than twenty years' wandering through one portion of the tropics or ano- ther, varying their heat occasionally with extremes of cold equally objectionable, that a hot calm off the Bonny Eiver in Africa, or the most sultry day Port-Royal or Saugor Island can produce, is Eden itself when com- pared with the foul stew called a hot day in Shanghai. We acknowledge that, for seven months — ^ay, and if you please, eight months — the .climate of Shanghai is delicious ; the ice, the mutton, and the game, all are unexceptionable ; but heaven preserve us from a third time visiting it in the dog-days of a Chinese summer ! Even the arrival of the English mail hardly served to rouse us from our lethargic discontent. Canton had become a horrid nightmare, and we were supremely indifferent as to the squabbles of Governor Bowring of Hong-Kong, and Mr Commissioner Hwang, Governor- General of the Quang-tung and Quang-si provinces. We could only listlessly glance over the terrible edicts they had each fulminated against the other. It was too much that hot day to attempt to read the tre- mendous despatches of a General in India, who, vsdth five hundred sailors, soldiers, sepoys^ and irregulars, ' had fought some twenty pitched battles with a numer- >/ 10 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. ous and desperate foe, whose flanks he enveloped, whose rear he threatened, whose columns he crushed, whose centre he pierced, whose line he enfiladed, rolled up, and came down upon perpendicularly ! But we could read and re-read Sir Colin Campbell's clear and soldier-like reports, and hoped that, after all, the real fight was where the gallant Highlander led. Shortly after the mail arrived, certain intelligence V reached Shanghai from the north of China, that the Court of Pekin, acting in perfect good faith, and in fulfilment of its contract, had already despatched two high ofBcers to Shanghai to arrange the terms of the future transit duties, and to revise the present tariff of taxes on foreign imports and exports. These func- tionaries could not arrive for some weeks ; and, in the mean time, a good opportunity offered for the British Ambassador to proceed to Japan, and there secure to Great Britain the same privileges the Americans and Russians had of late been so active in compelling the Japanese government to grant them. Then, amid clouds of coal-dust and a tumult of baggage and live-stock, we prepare to bid Shanghai good-by — not with a sigh, for who ever sighed or said / they were sorry to quit any port in, China ? We can sympathise with the poor Highflyer's officers and men, who will, like those of the frigate Kque, swing daily round over one spot, until beef-bones, old boots, and broken bottles, form a dangerous shoal under their keel. The great to-morrow, on which we sail for Japan, will next dawn upon us. We go to bed, and A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 11 dream, not " o' green fields," but of blue water and rattHng sea-breezes, bearing us fresh health and strength. The sun's rays were making a gallant fight with the malaria-laden yellow mists of the Yang-tsi-Keang Valley as we weighed for the once fabled shores of Cipango. A sleepy display of ensigns from the men- of-war of different nations showed that their officers of the watch recognised the departure of the British Ambassador, the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, with an escort of two steam-frigates, a corvette, and a gunboat.* Down a winding reach, through miles of turbid water, and past fleets of junks and boats, we sped, until the flat shore dropped abruptly out of sight astern. Then a solitary rock or storm-swept islet appeared in sight, and as quickly disappeared, as we rattled on to the east at a pace which made the fisherman, in his rickety craft, drop Ms line, and watch us with face indicative of wild astonishment. The reader knows assuredly what it is to suddenly come on sweet grass, and under cool trees, after a weary walk over a dusty highway. That same sen- sation of relief and pleasure was generally felt and expressed as we gradually left the muddy waters of a great river, which carries suspended in its stream, they say, earth enough, were it suddenly deposited, to form * The squadron of his Excellency consisted of the steam-frigate Eetribution, 28 guns, Captain C. Barker ; the steam-frigate Furious, 16 guns, Captain Sherard Osbom, C.B., on board of which ship his Excellency and suite were embarlced ; the gunboat Lee, Lieutenant Graham ; and the yacht Emperor, Lieutenant Ward. 12 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEKS. another England. The emerald green of the deeper t/ portions of the China Sea steadily darkened in tint, until we again, on the morrow of our leaving Shanghai, saw dear mother Ocean clad in her glorious robes of blue ! " Once more upon the waters ! yet once more ! And the waves bound beneath us, as a steed That knows his rider." After months — nay, more than a year — ^pothering about in the narrow rivers, creeks, bays, and dirty "^ water of China, it was pleasant again to see blue, bright-blue water, sparkling, laughing, and showing its white teeth under a rattling breeze ; and oh ! how cheering to look again upon a clear sky, and loose, fleecy, trade-wind clouds sailing athwart it ! The charm of novelty, too, enhanced the feelings we experi- enced. Our cruise to Japan was not avowedly one of discovery, but, after all, it was very like one. We were going upon a coast imperfectly surveyed. The only chart was by a German, Dr Siebold, who, whilst forming part of the Dutch commercial establishment closely imprisoned at Nangasaki, had compUed, from Japanese authorities, a very fair map and chart of the empire, though but poorly adapted for purposes of navigation. We were going to Yedo, the capital of Japan ; though it was said we should not 'approach it, because one clause of the treaty of 1854 stipu- lated that British ships should only go to Nangasaki, at the one extreme of the empire, and Hakodadi at the other. Our Ambassador was to present a yacht A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 13 from our Queen to an Emperor who we heard was, by the rules of his empire, never allowed to go beyond the walls of his palace ; and then he was, by moral force, to be induced to make a fresh treaty, in the face of a clause in that same treaty which runs as follows : " *Jth Art. — When this convention shall have been ratified, no high officer coming to Japan shall alter it." So that we might say there were as many unknown rocks and quicksands ahead of the diplomatic por- tion of the expedition as there were in the track of the executive. Information of the geography of Japan was most scant. Ksempfer and Siebold, though trustworthy in all respects, were ignorant upon the point on which we as seamen most sought for information. The ponderous volumes of the American expedition to Japan had little new in them beyond information about Yedo gulf Had Marco Polo, in August 1858, sprung from his grave, it is true that he might have been pleased to find that we did not, like his foolish countrymen, smile with incredulity at his wondrous tale of Zipangu or Cipango, but he would have been much astonished to find that, after a lapse of five centuries and a half, Europe knew very little more about Japan than he did when, in the year 1295, he pointed to the eastern margin of the Yellow Sea, and said, " There was a great island there named Zipangu," peopled by a highly civilised and wealthy race, who had bravely rolled back the tide of Tartar conquest in the days of Kublai Khan. 14 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. An eminent American, who goes off occasionally on the wings of that dreadful eagle with its claws armed with the lightning, and which is ever soaring over the Eocky Mountains, or sweeping across the western waters, &c. &c., seems to insist that it is the high mission of the United States to do chaperon to Japan, and introduce her to the ken of the western world,' all because Christopher Columbus — who, we maintain, was not the first American citizen, and cared no more for the Declaration of Independence than he did for General Washington — discovered the American continent in endeavouring to reach that Cathay and Zipangu, of which Marco Polo had written, but in which Columbus had alone the wit, in after years, to believe. However that may be, it is sincerely to be desired that, if she believes in her mission, the United States may go earnestly about it, and send her commodores, flag- ofiicers, consuls, missionaries, and envoys to do the work steadily and well, forbidding them to fly to and from China — of which we believe we have for a while heard enough ; and when Congress, revelling in surplus revenue, liberally pays the expense of publishing their servants' journals, they had best be tied down to write of Japan only, and not wander loosely to Singapore, Hong-Kong, the Cape of Good Hope, and St Helena, for the sole purpose of abusing a colonial system which still keeps Great Britain a neck and shoulders ahead of the whole world, and enables us to care but little what the opinion of the United States may be as to how we treated Napoleon Buonaparte. CHAPTER II. The valley of deep water, four hundred and fifty miles in a direct line from the shores of China to those of *^ Japan, delightful though it was to us river-sick seamen, is at present a very lonely sea. The interdiction of foreign trade by the Emperors of Japan included China as well as Europe, and during the centuries in which the flag of Holland alone crossed the sea we were traversing, China was only allowed to send thirteen junks annually to and from Nangasaki. We therefore saw no vessel in our track. Then (excepting great numbers of flying-fish) there was a dearth of animal life, whether fish or bird, where, from our proximity to land, it would have been natural it should be the reverse. On the afternoon of the 2d August 1858, we reached a group of rocky but. picturesque islets, the outposts in this direction of the Japanese empire. Miaco-Sima, or the " Asses' Ears," so named because their peaks run up in a manner not unlike the ears of that animal. Their coasts are bold and craggy, lashed by the rollers of a wild though narrow sea, whose spray has left a mark far up the polished wave-worn sides ; yet there 16 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. was green grass and stout pine-tree immediately above the wash of the sea, and vegetation made a bold fight to reach the - summits of the craggy peaks. How ' different from Chinese scenery ! we naturally ex- claimed, as our good ship sped past Miaco-Sima, and all declared themselves perfectly satisfied with his first instalment of Japan : it was evident we were determined to be pleased. The mountains of Kiu-Siu Island, on which the city of Nangasaki is situated, were next to rise upon the eastern horizon. The night proved dark and gloomy, and as in the middle watch the bold coasts of Gotto Island were seen to the north- ward, warning us that we were approachiag Japan faster than was prudent, in spite of our anxiety to be quickly into port the speed had to be very much reduced. Day-dawn showed this to have been prudent, for the land about Cape Nomo, the southern entrance of the bay leading to Nangasaki, was on our star- board bow ; and thence, stretching far away to our left, rose peak, mountain, and table-land, until lost in the distance. Away to the north, a channel, dotted with islets, was seen between Gotto and Kiu-Siu. It led to Hirando, or Firando, that port so well known to European mariners of centuries now long gone by, when Spaniards and Portuguese, Dutchmen and English, were struggling for a footing in Japan, and each doing his best to have his brother Christian extermiaated — how they eventually succeeded, and the Dutchman turned up the trump-card, we wiU hereafter relate. For the present, we must go at full speed for A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 17 a mark in the land ahead, which, the charts tell us, leads us to our haven. For a while heavy mists swept over land and sea, and we could only see a mile or so ahead. It was very tantalising. Those who had not witnessed day- dawn would not believe we had seen Japan, and growled out complaints of the nuisance, to use a seaman's phrase, of " being jammed in a fog off our port." The consola- tion was, that possibly the sun would master the fog ; and presently there was a play of light along the sur- face of the sea ; the hulls of our vessels came out sharp and clear. Then Japanese junks were seen ; presently their sails and masts showed ; — the fog was lifting, breaking, and dispersing. Down the mountains of Kiu-Siu rolled masses of cloud ; out of every vale and valley came dense mists sweeping down, wrathful at the enemy that was expelling them. Poor cloudland fought at a disadvantage with the lusty youth of a morning sun ; — his fierce glance pierced her densest array, and, in sullen showers and flying squalls of wind, night and darkness passed away ; whilst day, bright and beaming, burst fairly upon us with a shout of welcome. It was a glorious sight — mountain and plain, valley and islet, clothed with vegetation, or waving with trees and studded with villages — ^blue sea for a foreground, crisped with the breeze, and calm spots with sandy bays, , in amongst islands dotted with fishing-boats and native junks. We must not attempt it, for pen or pencil could never reproduce such a picture. B 18 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. Early in the forenoon, H.M.S. Furious was entering the charming series of channels leading through islands to Nangasaki. Cape Nome was now hidden from view, whilst on either hand lay the lovely spots known by the native names of Iwosima and Kamino-sima, "Sima" being Japanese for island. They looked like pieces of land detached from the best parts of the south coast of England, and it is impossible, we believe, to pay them a greater compliment. Their outline was marked and picturesque, clothed, wherever a tree could hang or find, holding-ground, with the handsome pine peculiar to the country. Villages and richly cultivated gardens nestled in every nook, and flowers, as well as fruit-trees, were plentiful. To our eyes, the multitude of guns and extraordinary number of batteries which covered every landing-place, or surmounted every height, on these islands, did not enhance their beauty ; and we regretted to see the men entering the batteries as we approached. We suspected then, what afterwards proved to be the case, that our Transatlantic friends had taken great care to work upon the fears of the Japanese, by spread- ing some marvellous tales of what we Britishers had' }/ done in China, and intended to do to them. The gar- risons of the batteries, however, appeared desirous only of showing how prepared they were ; and having gone to their guns, quietly sat down to smoke their pipes, while the officers, seated on the parapets, gracefully fanned themselves. Yet it will be well for all the world that the Japanese' are jealous of their liberty ; A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 19 and that its people will, if need should arise, gallantly defend the beautiful land God has given them. It would be hazardous to say how many guns are mounted on the islands and points commanding the approach to Nangasaki ; some of them may be of wood — merely quakers ; but we saw hundreds that decidedly were not. The majority were of brass, some of iron, all mounted on wheeled carriages, and seemed, from the gun-gear about them, well found in stores, and efficient. The batteries were very solid, and there wa,s a queer mixture of European and Japanese ideas in their construction — the result being, that although the lower portions would have stood a great deal of ham- mering from an enemy, the unfortunate gunners would have been too much exposed to have stood long to their guns. Our attention was now called from the land to a number of government boats, which were dotted about the water ahead of us : they were always in pairs, one, doubtless, selon les rlgles, watching the other. It was desirable to have no communication with these guard- boats — for such we easily recognised them to be— lest they should hand us the copy of some British Treaty, or Convention, by which some one had pledged Her Most Gracious Majesty's subjects not to do this, or not to do that. We happened to have found in an old book — the only old thing, except old port, that we ever liked — a Treaty of Peace and Amity between the Emperor of Japan and James the Pirst, of Great 20 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEBS. Britain, dated as far back as the year of grace 1613. By it, right of intercourse, commerce, and suchlike, was secured to us for ever ; and as only two centuries and a half had elapsed — a mere flea-bite in the records ' of such countries as Japan and China — it seemed natural we should stUl adhere to the privileges secured by bold Captain Saris, of the good ship Clove of London, belonging unto the Honourable and Worshipful Com- pany of Merchants trading to the East Indies — and ignore the folly of those who, in la.ter years, had lost the birthright their ancestors had won for them. In happy ignorance of any treaties made by Admiral Stirling and others, H.M. ships steamed on, pretending perfect unconsciousness of the existence of guard-boats and officials. However, it was soon very evident that if they could not stop us, it was quite as much as their lives were worth not to be able to report correctly upon who and what we were. Just as we had put the helm hard down to escape one pair of boats, two others skil- fully tumbled into the wash of our paddle-wheels, and ' the most expeditious short-hand writers at home could not have made their quills fly faster than did these Japanese in noting down facts that one of their party, who stood on tiptoe to peer into the ports, shouted out for their information. Next day we learnt that the spies had given a very excellent account of H.M.S. Furious, and had only missed one gun in the list of her armament. Past these impediments, and avoiding some sunken rocks which lie in the channel, the ship appeared to be A CEUISB IN JAPANESE WATERS. 21 running up against the shores of Kiu-Siu, which rose boldly ahead until they terminated in the now cloud- capped Peaks of Hi-kosan and Tarutagama. Was it that the Furious was tired of buffeting the wide sea, and had determined, like the Bounty of Otaheitian fame, to place herself in one of the lovely nooks ahead? No : the channel will show out presently ; the beautiful but sadly notorious island of Takaboko bars the view of the entrance to the inner harbour. Lovely, yet wicked Takaboko — better known as the Papenberg — how calm and smiling it looked down upon our wooden home as we swept past, almost touching it ! It so peaceful, so full of repose — we all throb and noise, routine and formality ! There, in that pretty nook, we should, we felt assuredly, find that rest, that peace which all men crave for, but so seldom find ! " A battery in amongst those trees ! sir," said the shrill voice of the signal midshipman, and " four brass guns in it." Brass guns and batteries in such an Eden ! what barbarism! We thought with a sigh of an equally bar- barous act perpetrated by those gallant Prenchmen, who had planted Vauban batteries among the bread-fruit and palm-trees of sweet Otaheite — the only spot that ex- celled the scene of beauty which now surrounded us. Beautiful Papenberg ! Yet, if history spoke true, deeds horrid enough for it to have been for ever blighted by God's wrath had been perpetrated there during the persecutions of the Christians in the seven- teenth century. It was the Golgotha of the many martyrs to the Eoman Catholic faith. There by day 22 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE 'WATEES. and by night its steep cliffs had rung with the agonised shriek of strong men, or the wail of women and chil- dren, launched to rest, after torture, in the deep waters around the island. If Jesuit records are to be believed, the fortitude and virtue exhibited by their Japanese converts in those sad hours of affliction, have not been excelled in any part of the world since religion gave another plea to man to destroy his fellow - creature ; and may it not be that the beauty with which nature now adorns that rock of sorrows is her halo of glory around a spot rendered holy by the sufferings, doubt- less, of many that were brave and good ? Yes ! let us think so, and forget the envy, hatred, and malice which once raged rampant there. Let us forget its past his- tory, and look at that Japanese Hebe who stands on the pathway up the face of the Papenberg, and stares at the frigate sweeping past under her feet. Uncon- scious of the admiration and the telescopes which are directed at her, gentle heathen ! of course she is per- fectly ignorant of all the compliments her grace and neatness are calling forth ; but she puts up her hand and rearranges the brilliant red flowers in her jetty hair. Now she laughs, and, throwing her head aside archly, displays such a glittering set of white teeth ! That angel of the Papenberg redeems aU the blemishes we might have seen in it ; and, like the lovely daughter in the legend of an Ogre's castle, shall she not perfectly reconcile all true knights to the crimes of the remorse- less giants who of old held their sway there ? " Hard a-starboard, sir ! " exclaims our Palinurus ; A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATBES. 23 and as the spokes of the wheel fly round, the ship turns sharply into the fine channel of water leading up to Nangasaki. That city faced us, spread round the base of a hill at the farther end of the harbour, and having immediately in front of it a rude collection of hybrid European houses, with a flagstaff on the artifi- cial island of Decima, whereon the Japanese had held the Dutchmen voluntary prisoners ever since the ex- pulsion of the Portuguese in 1613. The poor Dutch- men endured insult, restraint, and contumely, rather than forego certain advantages in carrying out Japanese copper and retailing it to Europeans at an enormous profit Long-suffering and enduring vendors of strong Dutch cheese, Zealand butter, and pleasant schnapps, relief came at last ! The Dame Partingtons at home trundled their mops in the face of Holy Mother "Eus- sia," when she felt her mission called her to trounce the Turk and take Constantinople. The Japanese Emperor was astonished to find the belligerents play- ing a game of hide-and-seek in his many bays and harbours, and wisely concluded that the orthodox old lady of Moscow, whose dominions approached suspi- ciously close to Japan, might one day think it as Christian-like to rob a Buddhist as a Mohammedan neighbour. He has very wisely departed from the ancient laws of his realm, and has sought for aid and protection where, strangely enough, he can find them, in the friendship of four or five nations who cordially dislike and are jealous of each other. But a truce to politics for a time — the ambition of men or nations. 24 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. the crimes of the Christian and heathen, may be studied elsewhere. Let us satisfy ourselves with simply inhaling healthful pleasure from the contemplation of the loveliness nature has spread over the harbour of Nangasaki. A long fiord of blue water stretches two miles inland between sloping hills which spring from the sea with a bold, rocky escarpment, and then roll gently back, rising to an altitude of a thousand feet or so ; and these are overlooked by still more lofty giants— every mountaia-side covered with all that can gladden a landscape, and down every ravine gladsome streams rushing on to the sea. Here a village, there a quaint bark anchored in a sandy cove ; now an official abode with square-cut terrace and upright fence, so properly stiff, starched, and queer, you felt sure you had only to knock and that one of the Barnacles of society would appear ; then, nestling in the midst of green trees and flowery gardens, were the prettiest chalets seen out of Switzerland ; children, with no clothes at all, rolling on the grass, or tumbling in and out of the water ; whOst their respected parents, with but few habili- ments to incommode them, gravely waved their fans, or sat gazing upon the newly-arrived vessels. Oh ! it was a goodly sight ; but we were all in the mood to be pleased ; and had the sky been less clear, the air less bracing, and the climate as bad as that of China, we should assuredly stUl have admired it. In former days, a chain of guard-boats used to extend across the gate of this Japanese paradise. One of our A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 25 men-of-war, during the Eussian war, nearly paddled over them ; and we too, it had been determined, were not to be stopped by them. The Japanese officers of the present day are far wiser in their generation than those who, when the frigate of Captain Sir Israel Pel- lew forced her way iato the harbour during the French war, disembowelled themselves rather than survive the disgrace. We found all the boats removed and made fast in by the shore. One officer more anxious than the rest to do his duty, or, Asiatic like, desirous of ascertaining to what lengths he might go, stood up in his boat as we came abreast of him, and mildly gesti- culated with his fan (the everlastiag emblem of office in Japan) for us to go back again ! We would fain not have seen it ; but of course the officious signalman im- mediately reported that there was a Japanese officer waving. A spy-glass was brought steadily to bear on him ; the wretch was about fifty yards off ; the action of the fan became at once less violent, then irregular, as if the waver of the fan was in a dilemma ; then a spasmodic jerk ; the glass was kept steadily on the wretch (we feared lest the ambassador should see him and cry halt !) — there was a pause, another flutter — htirrah ! he shut up his fan, and retired under his awning, beaten. He had only to perform Haki-kari or disembowelment, and we might proceed, giving the officious signalman orders not to make nonsensical reports of every Japanese who chose to fan himself ! We soon anchored oif Nangasaki, close to a gallant bark from Holland — ^just such a ship as should always 26 A CRUISE m JAPANESE WATERS. sail from stout Amsterdam ; none of your fly-away- newfangled vessels, lean as greyhounds and quite as fast — but full, round, and frau-like — exactly the craft, in short, that a vessel rejoicing in the name of the Zeevaart ought to be. Beside her rode gaily, at her anchors — which, with every disposition to be gallant to ships and ladies, we cannot say the Zeevaart did — a Japanese screw schooner, under the simple imperial flag, a red ball on a white ground. She had been purchased from the Dutch, for some fabulous sum in copper bars, unless rumour belied the honest burghers of Decima ; and all her officers and men were natives, from the engineer to the captain ; and from what we saw of their exercise aloft, and what we heard from their Dutch naval instructors, our impression was very favourable to the prospect of the Japanese shortly being again the able and skilful seamen they were three cen- turies ago, when they used to navigate their frail native craft as far as the ports of Indostan. An hour passed — no officials came near us. The native boats, before alluded to, had followed the ship, and now hung listlessly about her. The officers in them were evidently very inquisitive ; but as we did not invite their approach, they still kept aloof. The Dutchmen on shore seemed equally shy. Some half- dozen sailors, in red shirts, lolled about the landing- place of Decima ; but Decima showed no other sign of vitality, and smoke rose as steadily from the Dutch skipper's pipe as he leant over the rail of his argosy and peered at us, as it would have done in the sleepiest A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEBS. 27 landscape in watery Holland. It suddenly struck us that Decima had gone to bed, and that here, as in Batavia, the community dine about noon, and after dinner all the Mynheers, Fraus, and Frauleins retire to rest, rising from their second sleep about four or five o'clock in the afternoon. We were, we soon ascer- tained, right in our suspicions ; but an officer was sent on shore, remorselessly to stir up the sleeping burghers of Decima with the information of the arrival of his Excellency the British Ambassador. There was soon a general flurry, for the Japanese appeared to have been waiting for their Dutch friends to awake, to inquire if we might be visited. Japanese officials, with pockets full of paper, pens, and ink, hurried off— jolly good-natured-looking fellows, always ready to laugh, and in appearance resembling more the Kanaka races of the South-Sea Islands than the Chinese we had left behind us. Their dress, in some ♦^ respects, was Chinese, and their language sounding very like a mixture of the discordancy of that most discordant of languages, and the soft liquid sounds of the Kanaka tongue. But how they interrogated us ! — what was the ship's name, our name, the Ambassador !s titles^everbody's name and age — everybody's rank and business — what did we want — whither were we going — whence did we come — how many ships were coming — where was our .Admiral ? Indeed, a Kussian customhouse agent, or a British census paper, could not have put more astounding questions, whether in number or nature, than did these Nangasald "reporters. 28 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. We were as patient as naval officers, or angels, may usually be supposed to be under such circumstances ; — answered all their questions — allowed them to see, touch, smell, and hear everything, except the British Ambassador, who was in his cabin — and then dis- missed them with a glass of sherry and a biscuit. The captain and first-lieutenant had hardly congratu- lated themselves that, at any rate, that portion of the pleasure of visiting Japan was over, when another boatful of reporters arrived, tumbled up the ladder, were very well-behaved, but asked exactly the same questions, and went exactly through the same farce as the first party had done. They were, we learnt, dupli- cate reporters, whose statements served to check and correct those of the first set of inquirers. Directly they left us, a two-sworded official arrived — ■two swords in Japan, like two epaulettes in Europe, indi- cate an officer of some standing. He introduced him- self through a Japanese interpreter, who spoke English remarkably well, as " a chief officer," who had an official communication to make. Would he sit down — -would he be pleased to unbosom himself? Could he not see the Ambassador ? Impossible ! What ! " a chief officer " communicate with an ambassador ! We were truly horrified. The chief officer must be simply insane : did he couple the representative of the majesty of Great Britain with some superintendent of trade ? The chief officer apologised; he was very properly shocked at the proposition that he had made ; he saw his error, and, what was more to our purpose, the A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 29 Ambassador assumed a ske and importance in his eyes which it would have been difScult to have realised. The " chief officer" then put his questions — Did Lord Elgin intend to call upon the Governor of Nangasaki ? No ; he had not time to do so. Did he expect the Governor to wait upon him ? The Governor could please himself — the Ambassador would receive him if he came. If the Lieutenant-Governor called on Lord Elgin, would his Excellency receive him ? Yes. — This was all the chief officer had to say ; his mission was a special one ; he begged to wish us good-morning, merely adding that the Governor of Nangasaki hoped the Ambassador would kindly accept a small present which would shortly be sent. The present arrived shortly afterwards — a stout cob-built pig of three hundred- weight ; and such a quantity of pumpkins ! It looked at first very like a joke ; indeed, the infernal music of an animal never seen alive on board a man-of-war, added to the comicality of the affair ; but the fact is, that the Japanese ai'e a sober-minded, thrifty people, and nothing evinces it better than the following inter- esting custom, followed in this as in all other cases : — Whenever a Japanese makes a present, whatever the rank of the parties or the value of the gift may be, the donor encloses in an envelope, bearing his name and compliments, a small piece of dried salt-fish, emblematical of the poverty of their ancestors, and of the thrift whereby their present affluence has been attained ; and this is often wrapped in a piece of paper, on which is written the following favourite sentence, / 30 A CRUISE m JAPANESE WATERS. " Happy those wlio never depart from the wisdom of their ancestors," — a Confucian as well as protectionist doctrine, the widespread faith in which, in this remote part of the world, may be possibly confirmatory and. consolatory to some at home who will not believe that free trade and repeal of corn-laws can be beneficial to their country. After this little episode of pig, pump- kin, and salt-fish, the Dutch gentlemen belonging to the factory turned up. The secretary of the Dutch superintendent of trade came, accompanied by two naval officers, instructors lent by the government of. Holland to teach the Japanese the arts of navigation, gunnery, and nautical science generally. The former had to explain that the superintendent, Mr Donker Curtius, was absent on public business, and the latter told us that their senior officer or commandant was sick ; but they had a good deal of interesting infor- mation to give, which was to the following efiect : — The superintendent of the factory, Mr Donker Cur- tius, had been in Jeddo during the past sik months, as well as Mr Harris, the American consul-general from Simoda, a port on the opposite coast of Japan. Alarmed by the rumours of the allied operations against China, the Japanese government was at first very fair spoken upon the subjects of granting a treaty to Holland and America, opening her commerce and ports to them, admitting free intercourse with the people, and practising religious toleration. At one time the 14th April had been agreed upon as the A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 31 day for the final signature of a treaty ; then it was postponed : then rumours were spread of the priest- hood, the spiritual emperor, and certain independent nobles, having opposed insurmountable obstacles to any concession. The Tai-koon, or Temporal Emperor, as well as the Secretary of State for Poreign Affairs, the Prince of Bitsu, appeared w.eU aware of the neces- sity for some arrangement being made to pacify the Europeans ; but they doubtless delayed as long as they could, to see the issue of our efforts to open up China *^ before they yielded themselves ; and at last, althlDugh always most kindly treated and generously lodged, Mr Curtius and Mr Harris found it necessary to return to their respective posts, as empty-handed as they went. Mr Harris, having but a short distance to go, was doubtless by this time in Simoda, but Mr Donker Curtius, when last heard of, was still on the road, and could not arrive for a week or so. This news, at the first glance, looked unpromising : but there was this one point very certain, that if the Japanese intended to be guided as to their future policy by the conces- sions England and Prance should wring from China, '^ we could show that the Court of Pekin had yielded all, ^"^ and more than was expected from them ; and they, at any rate, were saved the humiliation of being the first to concede the point of the exclusion of strangers, &c. It seemed likely that the Americans would turn our operations to account, by working on the fears of the Japanese ; for the United States steamer Powhattan, 32 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. bearing the flag of Flag-officer Tattnal,* had gone direct from the Gulf of Pecheli to Nangasaki, bearing the news of our success, and spreading tales of our numbers and iatentions, which caused no small alarm amongst a people who for twelve months had been kept in a state of excitement by rumours of our doings in their neighbourhood. * Flag-officer is now the official designation of the American naval Commander-in-Chief. They find Commodore an inconvenient title, and have not as yet brought themselves to use the term Admiral. CHAPTER III. Passing showers of rain, wMch set in towards evening, did not deter the officers and many of the Earl of Elgin's staff from visiting Decima and Nangasaki* They returned delighted with the cleanliness and order of the towns, the civility of the people, and better still, the absence of aU those unmentionable smells which haunt the visitor on the shores of the neighbouring continent of China. About sundown the boom of three heavy guns twice repeated roUed from seaward over the hiUs aroimd our anchorage ; presently , the same sounds came apparently from some nearer point ; the battery above the town next took up the tune, and then the reports were heard again and again, until lost in the distance. When we inquired what all this noise was about, a Japanese interpreter informed us that two European sail had appeared in sight of the look-outs, and that these guns were signalising the fact through- out the interior up to Miaco, where the spiritual Emperor resides. Their method, in the absence of electricity, is a rapid mode of signalising ; but the * We have preferred to spell Nangasaki thus, because the g in Japan is usually pronounced like ng, C y 34 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. expense must be enormous, and can only be supported by a naturally thrifty government, through excessive jealousy and anxiety to know of the movements of Europeans. Next day the arrival of the naval Com- mander-in-chief, Sir Michael Seymour, in the Cal- cutta, towed by the Inflexible, Captain Brooker, proved that the Japanese look-out men's eyes were as correct as they were keen. It was early morning when we landed at Decima ; and in justice to the Dutch residents, whose post- prandial somnolence we have already mentioned, it must be owned, that they had risen with the lark, as men should who dine when the sun is in the zenith. Decima, the foreign quarter of Nangasaki, is an island, and dear old Ksempfer, the most charming of old Dutch writers upon Japan, compares it in form to an outspread fan without a handle. Its length cannot be much more than five or six hundred yards, and the settlement consists of one street of that extent, inter- sected at its centre by a short one leading to the only bridge which spans the canal that separates the once hated Christians from the good folks of Nangasaki. Along this street are the houses of the Dutch residents, and their Japanese agents and retainers, besides a number of native stores filled with articles of Japanese manufacture, and called by the name of the Dutch Bazaar. Decima and the residents were all awake and stirring ; a few porters were carrying bales of imported produce ; a store here and there was open, and boxes or packages were being tumbled about as if A OEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 35 some commercial movement was taking place ; but Decima, wide awake and stirring, had none of the rush and throb of buyers and sellers, such as we had seeij at the ports of China frequented by European mer- chants. How changed the scene wUl be (one involun- tarily exclaimed) a few years hence, when Cockney, Scot, and New-Yorker shall be competing who can make money fastest, or be the quickest to improve the Japanese off the face of the earth ! Whatever the future Decima may be, Decima as we found it was a solemn-looking, weird-like place, as if bearing the im- press of its past strange history, and as if haunted by the memory of the Portuguese and Dutchmen, whose jaU it had been. It seemed to say to you, " Yes ! here the contemned Pagan crushed and exterminated the professors and believers in your faith, oh Christian, and tempted with gold these poor Dutchmen to com- mit apostasy, and for its sake they did it ! '' Even the very stones bear witness to what depths of de- gradation nations will stoop to preserve some base commercial or political advantage ; and without any wish to throw stones at our Protestant neighbours, it would be well if all the reclamations against the Dutch in Japan, by the Roman Catholic writers, could be gainsaid. Could one forget, standing on Decima, that they tortured the Christians instead of merely expell- ing them the country, one's sympathies would all be with the Japanese. What could be more noble, more self-denying and energetic, than the course they pursued, when they 36 A CRUISE IN JAPANESK WATERS. found their independence as a free State was imperilled by the adoption of the Eomish faith of those days ? The Portuguese found the Japanese merchants trading to every part of the East Indies, and they had from the earliest times been in intimate commercial relation / with China, sometimes dependent upon her, at other times fiercely assailing her. Their country could not produce many of the luxuries, hardly the necessaries of life, and necessity as well as interest urged the Japanese merchant, in his fraU bark, to very distant ports. Yet when it was deemed requisite by their Emperor, the sacrifice was made — all foreign trade ceased — Japan recoiled from connection with every nation, and by dint of great exertions, not only vigor- ously carried out this system, but, judging by the pre- sent happy and contented condition of her people, has had no reason to regret it. " Not a Christian shall remain in Japan," said the edict ; and it was a sort of compromise when the Emperor Yeye Mitsu, after driving the priests from his dominions, putting their converts to death and expelling the Spaniards, caused a heap of rubbish to be piled up in shoal-water ofi" the town of Nangasaki, and in 1635 ordered the Portu- guese to confine themselves to that, the present Decima. Before this time these foreigners had been at liberty to wander about and establish themselves where they pleased on the shores of Kiu-Siu. On Decima the Portuguese remained a short time, subjected to every degradation, instigated, they deolared, in a great mea- sure by the Dutch, "^pho then were located at Firando. A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 37 First their wives and children were banished to Macao ; then they were compelled to abstain from the public services of their Church ; and, lastly, they were ordered to tread upon the emblem of their faith. Instead of flying the country, they raised a rebellion ; and under the bloody ruins of Simbarra, a city a short distance to the southward, the Portuguese, their converts, and priests, found a common grave ; the Dutch assisting in what the Church of Eome dignifies with the title of martyrdom, but which was nothing more than the bloody penalty of a religious insurrection. This hap- pened in 1640. Two short years afterwards, the Dutch, at Firando (for we English had voluntarily withdrawn, in consequence of difficulties arising from the Great Eebellion and other causes), were peremp- torily ordered to quit their factory, to erase the date of its erection from the portals, and proceed to Decima. " You will cease to observe the Sabbath," said the mandate ; " and on all other points be guided by the instructions you will receivefrom the Lords of Firando ! " The poor Dutchmen went tamely to their jail ; and though the most enterprising seamen of that day — though their stout burghers had shaken off the strong- grip of Spain — still Japanese gold kobangs, and Ja- panese copper bars, reconciled them to the contumely they must endure, if they desired to share ia those good things ; and they bore it with all the phlegm and patience of their race for two centuries. And now, when Americans, Eussians, and British have come to awaken them and their jailers to the necessities and 38 A CKUISB IN JAPANESE WATERS. obligations of 1858, they have roused up, looking rather cross, as if we had much better have let things be. The sun, however, was rising too fast over the Peak of Hi-kosan (giving already an earnest of a consider- ably hot day), for us to stand longer ruminating on the past or present of Decima. Wood enters largely into the construction of all Ja- panese dwellings ; those in Decima are no exception to the rule ; but the European houses, though probably very comfortable, are, without exception, formed on the ugliest models Holland ever produced. I need not describe them. The cottages in a box of Nurem- berg wooden toys represent them exactly ; small black cubes of wood, four white windows in front, as many behind, and a red door. It is, therefore, to the credit of the taste of the natives resident in Decima, that they appear in no way to have copied the Dutch mode of house-building, but have adhered faithfully to their own ideas of the comfortable — which seemed to be comprised under the two sound conditions of good ventilation and plenty of light. A Japanese house consists of a ground-floor and top-story. The front and back of the basement can be removed at pleasure, leaving it quite open, through the premises, for air and light, except where the posts supporting the first floor intervene. Usually, the front panels only are removed during the daytime, and the back panels, formed of a light, graceful, wood frame- A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. 39 work, covered with translucent paper, are left to screen the cooking departments and back premises. The floor of the basement is raised about three feet above the level of the ground, and is neatly boarded, and then laid over with 'a series of stuffed grass mats, on which the inmates walk, sit, feed, and sleep. If it is a shop, the arrangements are still the same, except that the boxes or drawers containing the goods are arranged on shelves on either side, and the merchant and purchasers in their socks — for all shoes and boots are carefully put off on these mats — sit on the floor to discuss prices and qualities. The story overhead serves as a place of abode for their wives and families, and those we visited are ia height, and ventilation, and cleanliness, vastly superior to the majority of up-stairs rooms in the East. There was hardly a house in Nangasaki that had not some sort of garden attached to it, and all were well and tastefully kept ; but the most striking thing in this city (and it was generally observed by all of us in Japan) was that every man, woman, and child looked happy and contented ! There was an exception to the rule — a number of unfortunate solemnities who were in charge of the gateway leading from Decima to Nan- gasaki ; and they were evidently bored to death. Poor scribes ! they had to keep notes of everything, animate and inanimate, that went in or out of that solitary out- let to Japan ! Every one else met us with a friendly smile, or a good-natured look of amazement, at either our brilliant buttons, our shining boots, or some other phenomenon exhibited in the gorgeous attire of a Bri- 40 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. tish naval officer. The labouring portion of the male population decidedly took little anxious care for their raiment — a piece of cotton cloth, a yeird long and six inches wide, constituting their general attire ; and many of the children might have just escaped from Eden, so innocent were they of any clothing. Laugh- ing and coaxing, they came unhesitatingly up to us, begging, in their naturally pretty way, for buttons, "Cassi button?" " Cassi button?" It was irresistible, and we gave all we could spare ; but what those little urchins were going to do with buttons, seeing they had neither rag nor ornament upon them, was a puzzle to us. The grown-up women were modestly attired in dark-coloured garments, their beautiful hair neatly dressed, and, but that their nails were dyed, there was a general appearance of beauty about them, combined with much grace in the figures of the younger ones. The Japanese officials and gentry were very well dressed, and in their attire displayed considerable dan- dyism, according to their own fashion. But in their dress, as well as in their houses, in Japan, we noticed the prevalence of sombre colours, and the absence of that vulgar colouring and tinsel-work so common in / China. Here the out-door dress of the ladies, and that of the poor girls at the tea-gardens, and the wives of the tradespeople, was quiet in colour, however fine the texture might be ; and amongst the official dresses of the officers, black, dark blue, and black and white pat- terns, were the most general. Their houses and temples are likewise painted less gaudily than elsewhere in the A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 41 East, and there was far less gilding about ttem. This pecidiarity in Japanese taste was one of the first im- pressions received on our visiting Japan, and, like many first impressions, proved to be correct. We found the Dutch bazaar at Decima filled with porcelain and lacker-ware in a thousand tasteful forms ; we had fancied ourselves perfectly hlasd about all " cu- riosities," but such impenetrabihty gave way rapidly with the temptation before us. The first feeling was a desire to buy up everything, where all was so pretty. Tables, curiously inlaid with mother-of-pearl — repre- sentations of birds and animals, which our papier- machd manufacturers, or those of France, would give anything to be able to imitate — cabinets, on which golden fish or tortoise stood out in most truthful relief — wonderful little gems in ivory, bone, or wood, fifty times more replete with originality, skiU, and wit than anything China ever produced — porcelain so delicate, that you were almost afraid to touch it — in short, a child in a pastrycook's shop never ran from sweet to sweet more perplexed to know which to invest in, than we that morning in Decima bazaar ! We were fast approaching the bottom of a very modest purse, and, in exultation at our purchases, remarked to a Dutch understrapper, who happened to be near, that the articles were most beautiful. " Most beautifuls,'' he repeated ; " the Dotch bazaar has all the beautifuls things — you wiU find noting in the Eoshian bazaar." Here he smiled with supreme con- tempt — did this inhabitant of Decima, adding scorn- / 42 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. fully, " Eoshian bazaar ! tkere is notings beautifuls in that bazaar." We instantly resolved to go there (so naturally per- verse is man), but inquired of our friend, whether the bazaar to winch he alluded was for the sale of Eussian produce or manufacture ? " Nay, nay," said my scornful Hollander ; "they have notings Eoshian in it — only they frightened the Japan- ese, to make them open another place in which tings might be bought, and had it called a Eoshian bazaar." "They have been much about Japan of late?" I remarked. " Yah ! very moch, and more by-and-by." Then he wagged his head and sighed, evidently seeing sad days in store for Japan and Dutch merchants at Decima. Why is it, we thought, as we hurried off into Nan- gasaki, that Eussia is always thus the hete noir of every man, except Monsieur le Comte de Morny ? Through a gateway we entered the Eussian bazaar ; it was' situated close to the water-side, and consisted of an enclosed quadrangle, about an acre in extent, having on three sides booths, in which a profusion of articles were exhibited for sale — much of the same sort we had seen in Decima, but perhaps not quite so good, though in greater variety. A rush of officers from the men-of-war in port now took plac§ — each stall was speedily besieged with eager faces ; and eager voices, in good round Saxon, were clamouring to know the price of everything, and to be served immediately. The Japanese tradesmen showed wonderful self-pos- A CRUISB IN JAPANESE WATERS. 43 session and commercial acumen, under this sudden onslaught of purchasers. A Chinaman would have sat down sulkily, smoked his pipe, and given short answers to be rid of such a crowd of purchasers. The Japanese called for more aid, and then briskly rushed about the booth, giving information, praised his wares, packed up and despatched his goods expeditiously, and laughed and smiled all the while, as if the whole thing was an admirable joke. They were quite as ready to sell as we were to buy, and showed a degree of handiness, intelligence, and good arrangement, which augured well for their management of commercial transactions upon a more extensive scale. By the old laws of the Japanese Empire, the export- ation of their currency, whether gold, silver, or copper, is strictly prohibited, and to insure it, no European is allowed to possess native coin. The difficulty, there- fore, of purchasing, would be great upon that ground alone ; but in addition to this rule, another exists, by which the natives are forbidden to receive our coins either. Eor a while, it seemed there must be a dead- lock in the market ; but it was explained to us that a government bank existed in the bazaar, where we could obtain paper currency (available only in Nan- gasaki) in exchange for our dollars. From that bank we came out wiith bundles of very simple-looking strips of card-board covered with cabalistic signs, indi- cative of their value, in lieu of the silver we had given — a favour for which the Government charged us six per cent ! With these Japanese bank-notes we paid 44 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. the tradesmen, whom no amount of persuasion could induce to receive silver ; and they again, poor feUows, had to present them at the bank, and receive the amount in the metallic currency of the country, paying of course a handsome tax for the honour of seUiug to the foreigners. Apart from this little restriction upon the exchange, there was no difficulty iu making pur- chases ; and it was very remarkable that in this country, which for two centuries had declaied that it required no foreign commerce, and was totally indif- ferent either to the products or money of other nations, and proved how great was the natural com- mercial and money-making genius of the people — ^that nearly every article exposed in this JRussian bazaar was the manufacture of the dependants of the prince upon whose territory Nangasaki was situated. We were then assured, and subsequent information con- firmed the statement, that nearly all the independent princes emulate each other in manufacturing, or rather imitating, every European article that can be copied, and then send the surplus specimens to be sold through- out the empire. At one stall we found microscopes, telescopes, sun- dials, rules, scales, clocks, knives, spoons, glass, beads, trinkets, and mirrors — all of native make upon Euro- pean models — and the prices were so ridiculously small, that even at the lowest estimate of the value of labour it was a pttzzle how any profit could be realised upon the articles. The microscopes were very neat, and intended to be carried in the pocket : an imitation A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 45 morocco case opened, and contained within it a small and not powerful lens, fixed in a metal frame at a short distance from an upright pin, on which the object for examination was to be stuck, and the entire workmanship was highly creditable. The telescopes were framed in stiff paper-cases, sufficiently thick and ingeniously lackered to resemble leather over wood. The glasses, though small, were clear : the magnifying power was not great, but it was a marvel to see such an instrument sold for a shilling ! We saw another superior description of Japanese telescope, six feet long when pulled out ; it was quite as powerful and as genuine as those real Dollands which our naval outfitters are in the habit of procuring for credulous parents when equipping their sailor children at sea- ports. The price at Nangasaki is a dollar or five shillings, but at Portsmouth it is five pounds sterling ! The Japanese clocks exhibited for sale were beautiful specimens of mechanism, and proved what we had heard, that the people of this country are most cunning in the fashioning of metals. One was like those table- clocks we see at home under square glass-covers, all the works being open to scrutiny ; it was six or eight inches high, and about as broad, and it would have been difficult to know it from one of Mr Dent's best of a like description. The Japanese day being divided into twelve hours of unequal duration — dependent, so far as we could understand, upon the amount of day- light or darkness in each day — the dial of their clocks was therefore different from ours ; in some it was 46 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. changed every month, and in others the motion of the hands was regulated by an ingenious adaptation of weights and increased or decreased length of pen- dulum. A good clock of this description, which, from its elegance, and the beautiful workmanship and chasing of the exterior, would have been an ornament anywhere, was only priced at about £8. When Japan was first visited by Europeans, silk in the raw state was largely imported from Tonquin and China : it appears likely that, when Nangasaki is opened again to foreign commerce, silk, both raw and manufactured, will be exported to an equal extent. Manufactured sUks and crapes were both plentiful and cheap, and some of the heavier descriptions, such as are not made in China. The gentry and higher orders of tradespeople wore silk, and it appears that, duriag the period Japan has shut herself out from the world, she has succeeded in successfully naturalising the silk- worm. Every dollar spent, and nearly denuded of uniform buttons, which had been presented as gages d'amiti4 to the delighted children in the streets, we strolled back to the landing-place, and pulled to the ship, raced oflf for the greater part of the distance by a gig's crew of Japanese men-of-war's men — stout -built, brawny-chested fellows, with shaved polls and beard- less faces. Of course it was highly unbecoming that such exalted foreigners should race against a boat-load of black fellows, and our men looked as if they thought their chief must have taken leave of his senses when A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 47 they were ordered to " give way ;" but it was some- thing to find a boat full of dark skins, who, from pure spirit of emulation, desired to match their bone and muscle against white men ; so they were indulged. Right well the Johnnies — for who is not a "bono" or "no bonof Johnny" to our men? — put their wills to their oars, and good-naturedly they laughed as we shot by them, and told them in words and by signs that they were stout good fellows. Then they tossed their oars, and sheered off to his Imperial Japanese Majesty's schooner, a craft which looked in fair order, and on board of which the men exercised daily aloft in a highly creditable manner. Our day's observations led us to a conclusion which every hour in Japan confirmed — that the people in- habiting it are a very remarkable race, and destined, by God's help, to play an important rdle in the future history of this remote quarter of the globe. It was impossible not to recognise in their colour, features, dress, and customs, the Semitic stock whence they must have sprung ; but they difiered much, physically and mentally, from that cold-blooded race. Pull of fresh life and energy, anxious to share and compete with European civilisation, ready to acknowledge its superiority, and desii'ous of adapting it to their social and public wants, how charming a contrast to the stolid Chinaman, who smiles blandly at some marvel of western skill or science, and calmly assures you that their countrymen " hab got all the same that, Pekin side !" The Dutch naval and general instructors bore 48 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. the highest testimony to the intelligence and mental capacity of their pupUs ; that their aptitude for every branch of knowledge, and their avidity for acquiring information, were equally remarkable. Mathematics, algebra, and geography, they acquired con amore, and the facility of computation by means of the European system of arithmetic, astonished and delighted them exceedingly. There was not a trade, or manufacture, or invention common to Europe or the United States that they did not expect to have explained to them, in order that they might immediately proceed to imitate it ; and inquiries upon these subjects would come from the Government, the nobles, and the people generally. Like very inquisitive children, they often nearly posed their instructors. One day some great personage desired to have the construction of Colt's pistols and Sharp's rifles ex- plained to him, in order that he might imdertake their manufacture.* Another insisted upon making aneroids at Yedo. Glass-making in all its branches became a great rage, and some of the specimens of ornamental bottles were very original and tasteful in pattern. Iron and brass guns were cast of every calibre up to those of ten inches diameter. Shells, with the latest improve- ments in fuzes, one prince could produce ; and another became so enraptured with steam machinery, and I daresay so shocked at the enormous price the Dutch * We heard that the Prince of Saxuma had armed his retainers with both of the above weapons, made by native worlsmen after models obtained from Europeans. A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. 49 charged them for their steamers, that a factory for their construction was established, and one complete engine had already been turned out of hand, put up in a vessel built at Nangasaki, and actually worked about the harbour. On all the thousand and one difficulties that occurred to the Japanese in carrying out their system of imitat- ing in Japan all we could produce in Europe, the Dutch instructors were expected to throw a light, and perhaps they sometimes suffer in reputation as oracles. They put me much in mind of the unenviable position one of our sailors is often placed in when he deserts to some island in the South Seas. " Can you preach, mend a musket, and fight?" is the general question put by the assembled natives, " Of course I can," is the reply of the poor fellow, who is installed immediately in the triple office of high priest, oracle, and monarch ; and amidst the unceasing calls upon his theology, his ora- tory, his inventive powers, and his pugnacity, often wishes himself safely back in the fore-top of her Majesty's brig Diver. These Dutch gentlemen were not, however, daunted by the difficulties they had to surmount, and strove hard to impart all the knowledge that was sought. As an instance of the abrupt and unexpected queries put to them, one of these persons told me that a Japanese came all the way from the capital, an over- land journey of forty odd days' duration, to inquire about one particular subject. What was it ? — " Explain the means by which the hourly variations of the barometer D 50' A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. may be registered by means of a photographic appa- ratus ! " My informant was for a time fairly puzzled, but at last, in some recent work on photography, he found what had been done, and told the messenger how it was possible to do so. " But surely you want ,some other information ? " he asked. " No, that was what he was sent to know, and he had no other business ! " The latest improvement adopted was to teach the young men to ride in European fashion for military purposes ; and whilst we were in Nangasaki, a Dutch non-com- missioned officer was busy teaching a number of Ja- panese gentlemen to ride in a riding-school constructed for the purpose. When they were perfect, they would be sent into different provinces to instruct their coun- trymen ; for although there are abundance of horses in Japan, and rather good ones too, still, what with straw- shoes for their hoofs, and stirrups weighing fifty pounds a-piece, and lackered saddles, it must be acknowledged that their cavalry is as yet far from formidable. In infantry movements I was told that they had for some time received instruction, and that, as a militia, their force was very respectable ; indeed, a Russian officer who was staying at Nangasaki, and who had seen much of 'Japan, spoke of the perfect military organisation of the empire in warm terms. From his description, the entire population formed one complete army, of which every town, village, and hamlet might be said to be companies or sections. The power, however, of direct- ing these forces upon any point, either for offence or A CBUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. 51 defence, is vastly curbed by the independent tenure of the three hundred and sixty princes. Each of these is the chief authority in his own state, and, like the barons of old, claims a power of life and death over his sub- jects, though at the same time acknowledging as their sovereign and chief the Tai-koon, and the council resi- dent in Yedo. Owing to the absence of the Dutch superintendent of trade, Donker Curtius, upon the diplomatic service spoken of in the last chapter, there was a considerable amount of restraint in the bearing of the Dutch residents. They appeared in doubt what part it was prudent to play, and what amount of information to give in the present uncertain state of the foreign relations between Japan and Europe. Per- haps it was natural enough that they should not at once feel at ease, when the restrictions and contumely they have endured so long were suddenly removed. Erom what they said, it was utterly out of the question for the British ambassador to attempt to open nego- tiations with the imperial government through the very inferior officers known to Europeans as the gover- nor and lieutenant-governor of Nangasaki ; indeed, had they even been men of rank, there were obvious reasons why those who had been the instruments of an insult- ing policy towards Europeans should, if possible, have nothing to do with the arrangements upon which our future intercourse was to be carried on. The presentation of the yacht sent by her most gracious Majesty to the Emperor of Japan would have been equally improper at this spot, and as, in the orders given to her com- 52 A CBUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. mander, some one in England had by accident directed her to be presented at Yedo, Lord Elgin availed himself of that excuse for proceeding thither immediately. This arrangement became all the more feasible, as the naval commander-in-chief, who had been the person instructed to deliver the yacht to the Japanese government, found himself unable to go as far as Yedo at this moment, and deputed the senior ofEcer of our little squadron, Captain Charles Barker, to do so, in such a manner, time, or place, as the Ambassador might desire ; and to Yedo, or as near it as possible, we were now to proceed. CHAPTER IV. The promised visit of the Lieutenant-governor of Nan- gasaki to his Excellency the British ambassador took place in the afternoon. The Lieutenant-governor was anxious not only to see the Ambassador, of whom they had heard much in Japan, and whose advent in a pacific character they little expected, but he wished to examine and report upon the yacht Emperor. It was arranged that, after the visit to Lord Elgin, the Lieu- tenant-governor should proceed to inspect her, escorted by Lieutenant-commander Ward. On all previous oc- casions that British men-of-war had visited Japan, or that high oflBcers of the two nations had exchanged civilities, our usual custom of saluting with guns in honour of their rank had been avoided, in obedience to Japanese port-orders. Even on this occasion Lord Elgin had requested the senior officer. Captain Barker, not to pay him the usual token of respect, in deference, as we concluded, to the wishes of the Japanese authori- ties. Suspecting, however, that the Japanese officials might after all be inclined to stretch the point when compliments to themselves were in question, it was arranged that the Lieutenant-governor should be asked 54 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS. if he would like a salute, and if so, it was immediately to be fired. He not only wished to be saluted, but knew the number of charges he was entitled to by our European code. I need not say that the Retribution was firing away almost as soon as the wish was ex- pressed ; and for the future, at any rate, British ships need not hesitate to pay to their own or foreign officers the proper marks of respect. We afterwards learnt that the American and Russian flag-officers had very recently, in the same port, been firing salutes in honour of the anniversary of American independence, and of each other. It was suggested that it would give us great pleasure to salute the Japanese flag with twenty-one guns, as men-of-war usually do' on visiting the port of a friendly power. Our visitors approved of the idea amazingly ; but on making an inquiry as to whether the forts or ships would return the salute with an equal number of guns (a sine qua non in aU international salutes), they replied — ^" Return salute — how? — why?" We explained that if England salutes Japan, Japan must return the compliment. " Ah ! " said the interpreter, " Japan cannot do that. Japan cannot salute : the Government has given no authority to do so." " Then please to tell the Governor that England cannot salute until Japan does.'' The Lieutenant-governor then proceeded to lunch with his Lordship. After lunch, the yacht was visited and the authorities expressed themselves delighted with the completeness and beauty of every part of the vessel, A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES. 65 and promised to send up to Yedo most favourable re- ports of the gift to his imperial majesty the Tai-koon of Japan. Every one in the squadron asked why, of all things to be found in Great Britain, the Government should have selected a yacht — about the only object that it was utterly impossible the Tai-koon should ever use ? Any one who had taken the trouble to read the briefest account of Japan could have known that. Yedo was said to be unapproachable for vessels ; and even if the yacht, drawing twelve feet water, could touch the quay, the Tai-koon at Yedo (like the spiritual Emperor at Miaco) was forbidden to quit his palace, and so couldi never see her except with a spy-glass from his terraces, two miles off ! So far as an excuse for going to Yedo was concerned, any present, with instructions to de- liver it at that place, would certainly have answered the purpose. When one saw how full of intelligence all the higher classes in Japan were — how capable of appreciating the skill and mechanism employed in any of the marvels of scientific labour Great Britain con- tains — it was a subject of regret that a screw-schooner, with bird's eye maple panels and velvet cushions — very handsome no doubt, but quite matched by most river-boats in England or America — should have been the only specimen sent of our mechanical or manu- facturing skill. A lieutenant of the Russian navy, who had been left behind in charge of a party of scorbutic sailors, landed from the frigate Eskold, visited us, and had 56 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS'. imieh to say of the untiring kindness of the authorities, and of the Japanese in general Lieutepant L declared them to be the finest race on the earth ; and as he lived amongst them, and saw but little of the Dutch, he was in a good position to form an opinion on the subject. There is, I think, far more of the South-Sea islander ^ than of the Chinaman in these inhabitants of Southern Japan. Love, who never assuredly had so little nose as to enter China, has made Japan his abiding-place, and lurks in the bright eyes of all her bronze-cheeked daughters — the " ower gude " may think too much so, but, poor souls ! let us be charitable until we teach them better. These people are an active-minded, in- telligent race, obedient to their own laws ; and obe- dience to them is the only limit they know when they serve or oblige the European. Two hundred years of peace have not made them scorn the sword as the best arbitrator of fraud or injustice,' . and military rank is stUl held in high honour among them. Woman holds in Japan a high social position. She is not cooped up in pestiferous apartment to delight