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and taught the people how to make it. Whatever its origin, it is very good.
You get chop-sticks handed you too, which, after a few ineffectual and
laughable attempts to manipulate in the approved fashion, you throw on one
side. After the decks are cleared the young ladies bring out their sam-sins,
and whilst we smoke Japanese pipes, they delight our ears with an overture,
which we pronounce excruciating in English, though with our eyes we say
"divine as Patti."
But we must not tarry longer here for the setting sun warns us it is time to
get on board.
Our patient "steeds" are at the foot of the stairs, each ready to claim his
rider. These fellows will stick to you like a leech; follow you about for
hours, never intruding their presence on you, and yet seem to anticipate all
your movements and wants.
[113]
CHAPTER X.
"I looked upon those hills and plains,
And seemed as if let loose from chains,
To live at liberty."
THE INLAND SEAS.? ?KOBE.? ?FUSI-YAMA.? ?YOKOHAMA. VISIT TO TOKIO.
The arrival of the "Vigilant" from Shanghai, with the admiral on board,
brought our stay at charming Nagasaki to a close. During the absence of our
band with the "Vigilant," one of its members, Henry Harper, a feeble old man,
and far advanced in consumption, died at Shanghai.
June 11th. Left Nagasaki en route for the eastward, via the Inland Seas. Our
way to Simoneski lay through numerous islands of so beautiful an appearance
that a writer has compared them to some of the fairest spots in Devon. But
this, though it says much, is but a poor tribute to such enchanting
loveliness.
At daylight the following morning we made the narrow channel at Simoneski, the
western entrance to the seas; and as there is always a strong rush of water
through the [114]passage towards the ocean, we had to steam hard against a
considerable current. The town, of which I spoke in my last chapter, has a
very straggling and neat cleanly appearance. There are no forts or other
defences to indicate that not so long ago this town offered defiance and a
short resistance to a European squadron.
The Inland Sea has four chief divisions, which now commences to open out
before us, and is reckoned to possess some of the finest scenery in the world.
I had often wished to see it for myself; but I must confess I was unprepared,
even with an imagination not liable to surprise, at a picture of nature's own
producing, for such beauty and grandeur. For hundreds of miles, day after day,
we were borne past a moving diorama of scenery unrivalled by anything here
below. On a smooth blue sea, and under a cloudless sky, onward we sped,
passing, one after another, the most delightful islets the eye ever dwelt on,
each appearing to us a perfect paradise in itself. Further on, indicated by a
mere purple haze, appeared others, and yet others, in almost endless
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perspective. I should say the islands in this sea may be numbered by
thousands.
Not many years since, strangers were debarred from using this passage. I fancy
I can imagine the impressions the first Europeans must have had of this fairy
land, of such a climate, such a soil, and such delightful glades and
woodlands!
On each of the larger islands we noticed snug temples, like miniature Swiss
chalets, embowered in woods their peculiar architecture standing out in relief
from a tangled mass of vegetation.
[115]The channels where there are so many islands as here are necessarily
intricate and dangerous; and as it would be to court danger to continue our
course after sundown, there are several well-marked anchorages where it is
customary to bring up at night. The first of these was a sheltered bay with
twin villages at its head, which I fancifully designated Kingsand and
Cawsand the promontory forming one arm of the bay, looking not unlike Penlee
point greatly adding to the conceit.
June 14th. At noon we reached Kobé, or Hiogo, and let go our anchor far out in
what appears to be an open roadstead. This town is one of the most recent of
the treaty ports in fact it and Osaca opposite, are the last thrown open to
trade; hence we shall probably find Kobé more native and less Europeanized
than are the other towns we shall visit.
The native town is very extensive, reaching far back to the basis of the
hills, and well away to the left of the anchorage. To the right a stretch of
low-lying land, with its tiny fields of ripe grain, looks very fine. This
track leads to the water-falls a prettier place for a pic-nic and one more
accommodating one can scarcely find. Between this plain and the old town of
Hiogo the Europeans have raised their pretty picturesque dwellings. The
streets here are very regular and well kept, the trees planted along the sides
giving the place quite a French appearance.
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