EIGHT YEARS IN JAPAN.

CHAPTER I.

YOKOHAMA AND KOBE (1873).

THE day before our arrival in Japan was a fine Friday in the beginning of November. We were a select few, on this the last stage of our passage out, having dropped our contingent to the Mediterranean garrisons at Gibraltar and Malta, and our Egyptian merchants at Alexandria, transferred our chaplains and frisky matrons to another steamer at Suez, lost our only presentable maiden at Galle, cleared out all mothers and babies at Penang and Singapore, and parted from our tea-men and missionaries at Hong Kong. The nine or ten remaining drew closer together (chiefly in a little smoking tent rigged up over the main hatchway of the Avoca) as we ran up the China coast against the monsoon, and slanted over north of Formosa for the islands at the south-west extremity of Japan. Clear skies and a tranquil sea enabled us thenceforward to enjoy the views presented by the ever-changing coasts, clothed in many-tinted

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woods, and indented by strangely named bays or pierced by channels communicating with the Inland Sea. The twin lighthouses on the Kii promontory, Oshima hiding its lovely haven, the rugged and forbidding-looking mountains that frowned at us across the Gulf of Isé, as we sped away eastward, rose to us and fell away; and then above a hazier coast-line the cone of Fuji lifted its snowy crest into the blue to our left, as we ploughed along on our last afternoon's course, towards the evening dusk and the tiny bright guide that stood waiting for us on Rock Island.

Our skipper was a jovial soul, always popular with his passengers, good for a song or two in an evening, and for a private store of ripe pumelo, to be shared with whomsoever would turn out and sit on the rail with him at sunrise. We induced him, by gentle pressure, to contravene all the rules of the service by authorizing the steward to serve out anchovy toast and hot grog at an abnormally late hour on this our last evening on board. Then for the last time we had (always by special request) "Old Uncle Noah" (copyright), "Sandy, he belongs to the mill" (author unknown, music ad libitum), "Lorelei" (for no less than five of us were Germans), "Auld lang syne," "Die Wacht am Rhein," and "God save the Queen" (by the whole strength of the company) -and then we went to roost, leaving the skipper to keep the ship's head straight.

We all got our traps into shape betimes next morning, and I noticed that whereas the English three rather affected the free and easy costume of the traveller, the Germans, and those who had been in Yokohama

before, appeared in ceremonial garments as if to perpetrate a series of afternoon calls, and presented a noble and dignified appearance as we steamed up the Bay of Yedo. As soon as the harbour master (for in those days there was one in Yokohama) had come on board, and the anchor was dropped, we were surrounded by boats of all descriptions, from the modest one-scull sampan, to the lordly steam-launch, and all Yokohama swarmed on to our decks. Being fortunate enough to get ashore in a comfortable gig, I left all my heavy baggage in charge of a hotel tout who looked trustworthy, and encumbering myself only with a hand-bag steered for the Grand Hotel, and was speedily outside a light repast of oysters and Chablis.

This accomplished, and a specimen cigarette disposed of, two travellers, one with a brown complexion and a yellow beard, and the other with a yellow complexion and a brown beard, wearing billycocks to match the complexion of the one and the beard of the other, might have been descried by the glass-protected eye of Yokohama fashion, wending their way towards the railway offices, there to report themselves as newly arrived members of the engineering staff. But as it was Saturday afternoon, no persons of sufficient dignity to receive them were to be found; so the two travelling companions separated, one to seek his friends in Tōkiyō, and the other to go about his own devices.

An English-speaking clerk of doubtful nationality volunteered the information that the Engineer-in-chieflived at Ya-ma-go-ju-ku-ban, and the traveller, who secretly prided himself upon his accurate memory of

syllables, set out in the direction indicated; but the syllables became mixed, and after trying various combinations of them, or others like them, the wanderer concluded that he had better regain his hotel; and being tired, accepted the offer of an economically-clothed man to wheel him. But the word "hotel" was not the required talisman either, it seemed, in this case. However, the coolie assumed an interrogative air, and placed the tips of his fingers together prayerfully twice; which being recognized as probably signifying "twenty," the number of the Grand Hotel, which the traveller had fortunately picked up and remembered, led to a joyful assent and ultimate attainment of that haven.

A fresh start on lines properly laid down, was of course practicable, but on consideration it was deemed better to wait for Monday morning for the official presentation; and a second venture into the streets of Yokohama was rewarded by the discovery of a sympathetic hair-dresser, whose ministrations were highly beneficial, conferring as they did a sense of respectability that rendered Sunday morning not such an utterly purposeless incongruity as it had seemed since leaving Galle. So attendance at Christ Church, after a good night's rest, and the sight of the skipper in a tall hat and· a new pair of gloves, became a special comfort; and a sense of home influence was also imparted by the assistance at the service of more than one specimen of the bend, limp, and panier school of feminine refinement, then in favour with the matrons of Yokohama.

The Sunday afternoon was partly devoted to the study of the mystic syllables Ya-ma-go-ju-ku-ban; and

it became apparent that a good deal depended upon how much one might recollect of this formula, as, while the whole indicated with sufficient exactness the residence of the Engineer-in-chief, the last four syllables would take one to the general store, and the last two to the devil. However, the sacred character of the day assisted the finding of the "yama," or bluff, as the hill east of the settlement is called, and the "gojukuban," gojukuban," or number fifty-nine, situated thereupon, without mishap, and the achievement of an unofficial presentation.

Monday morning duly brought about an introduction. to the service, represented by the aforesaid chief, a director, an accountant, and a commissioner; the lastnamed being a dapper little Japanese gentleman who understood English pretty well. He, however, adhered to the courteous native practice of ejaculating "heh!" at every second word addressed to him, by way of assuring his interlocutor that he was paying the greatest attention, and also intimating his entire concurrence in what was said by echoing the last words of each phrase as it came to a conclusion. After a time one gets used to this sort of undercurrent, and can glide over it smoothly in flowing periods; but at first it has a decidedly interruptive effect. I remember this first example of a native official with great pleasure, for though I did not meet him again for two years, I had then to act in conjunction with him, and a very good fellow I found him to be.

Then we (for the other man had come in from what I had supposed to be the country, but which turned out to be the metropolis) made acquaintance with the