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    a body of policemen as escorts . They found it unpleasant to have their steps thus dogged : — " Ascending some broad flights of stone steps , we followed our guides through narrow streets , over bridges , up more steps , and through more streets , narrow , but clean , till we arrived at the entrance to a large temple . Here we stopped to admire an immense arch , whose pillars were incased in copper , with raised characters on either side telling of the emperor in whose reign it was erected , and of the temple before which it was placed . Passing through the arch , we came to the foot of three flights of steps , to

    very broad , and so steep that we paused gain breath ere we attempted the ascent . On either side were rows of fine old trees , and the temple in the distance stood out in relief from a dark wood or grove . On our ascent we met -with devotees On their return from prayers ; coolies carrying heavy burdens ; and horses , descending the steps withasmiich ease and gravity as the old owners who followed them . ' A pleasant shrubbery stood in the shade of the temple ; the camphor tree , cedar , cypress , yew , and cainelia , and orange , growing in perfection . I measured one of the fine old trees , which was 25 feet in girth , and covered with rich foliage . "

    The manner in which the worshipper treated his idol was certainly peculiar . The latter exhibited merely the face and head ; the face being hideous , with a large nasal organ , and spotted over with paper pellets . It seems that the devotee chews paper and throws a pellet , aiming at the nose . Should he strike that organ , he deems his request granted , if not , it is rejected . An air of business prevailed in the streets of the city ; our officers were , objects of curiosity to the inhabitants , particularly the women , who appeared to have the greatest liberty of action ; They brought them tea , water , or lights , as they required them . Owing to the lisual ctistona of blackening their teeth , the married women are much changed as to their

    personal appearance ; but most of the young girls were pretty and graceful , curtseying slightly as they passed their friends in the street . Concerning the Japanese government , this volume , adds nothing to our knowledge . It contradicts , however , the custom of frequent suicide , and denies that the Governor of Nagasaki committed it after the visit of the Phaeton frigate in 1808 . The nobles and officials treat with contempt the merchants , who , notwithstanding , acquire great wealth , purchase lands , build commodious houses , and live luxuriously . Yet there is small hope of much commerce for years to come . Wants must be created ere it will be profitable to export articles to Japan . The work is illustrated with coloured engravings , and is concisely written .

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    A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS . By Capt . Sherard Osborn , C . B ., Royal Navy , —Win . Blaokwoocl and Sous . This is another voyage-book to Japan , in which China is taken as the starting-point . China had been open by the treaty of peace to British enterprise . Missionary , traveller , merchant , had all free way . The ships of England might not only visit the seaboard of China , and enter herhai * bo \ irs , but were nt liberty to penetrate to her farthest borders . Yang-tai-Keang , the Son of the Ocean , might bear on his flowing stream our vessels by and through her richest ana hitherto most secluded

    provinces . Of the progress in commerce already made Captain Osborn gives as proof the scene of bustle witnessed by him at Shanghai- —eighty odd sail of splendid clippers , fleet-rfootecl racers of the deep sea , from London , Liverpool , Aberdeen , and New York , were riding at anchor off the quays ; flags and pennons , as varied in colour as their owners and consignees wore numerous , flaunted gaily in the fervid zephyrs that wafted anything but ambrosial smells from the fields and gardens of a people who are far too praotical to care for the filthy means whereby their vegetables are brought

    to market in such marvolloxts perfection On the morrow of their leaving Shanghai our voyagers , to their great delight , found themselves on the ocean ; dud . they woro venturing upon a coast imperfectly surveyed , which lent xjovolty and the charm of danger to their ' occupation . They wore going to ¦ JToao , the capital of Japan 5 though it was said they should not approach it , because ono elauso of Admiral Stirling ' s treaty of 1854 stipulated that British alitpa should only go to Nangasaki , at ono extreme of the empire , ana Hakodadi at the other , Our Ambassador was to present a yaont from our

    had elapsed—a mere flea-bite in the records of such countries as Japan and China—it seemed natural we should still adhere to the privileges secured by bold Captain Saris , of the good ship Clove , of Lon - don , belonging unto the Honourable and Worshipful Company of Merchants trading to the East Indies—and ignore the folly of those who . in later 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 its 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 skilfully 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 onlymissed one gun in the list of her armament . " Our penman of the cruise writes finely , and many a tempting passage lies in-this book . which would quote beautifully . But we must condense so that our readers , in default- ' of ¦ much detail , perhaps , may at all events have an outline snlliciently ample . We might recall the Papenberg , and its Japanese Hebe , with the brilliant red flowers , in her jetty hair , her glittering set of white teeth , and her arch smile ; as our voyagers ,

    turning sharply into the , fine channel of water , approached Nangasaki . That city fiiced them , spread round the base of a hill at the farther end of the harbour , and having inuncHlnUely in front of it a rude collection of hybrid European houses , with a flagstaff on the artificial island of Decima , whereon the Japanese had held the Dutchmen voluntary prisoners ever since the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1613 . Nature has spread loveliness over the harbour of Nangasaki . two miles

    • " A long fiord of blue water stretches 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 Iofty giants—every mountain 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 Barnacles of would then

    one ot the society appear ; , nestling in the midst of green trees and flowery gardens , were the prettiest chalets seen out ot Switzerland ; children , with no clothes at -all , rolling on the grass > or tumbling in and out of the water ; . whilst their respected parents , with but few habiliments to incommode them , gravely wave their fans , or sat gazing upon the ucwly 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 still have admired it . "

    Queen to an Emperor who , they heard , was , by the rules of the 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 Stirling . Treaty which runs as follows : " 7 th Art . When this convention shall have been ratified , no high officer coming to Japan shall alter it . " Well might the Captain exclaim that " there were as many unknown rocks and quicksands ahead of the diplomatic portion of the expedition as there were in the track of the executive . "

    They were very bare of information befitting the seaman ' s need . They were as much wanting , in 1858 , as Marco Paulo in 1295 , when all he could do was to point to the eastern margin of the Yellow Sea , and say— " There "was a great island there named Zipangu , peopled by a highly-civilised and wealthy race , who had bravely rolled back the tide of J Tartar conquest in the days of Kublai Khan . " On the afternoonof 2 nd August , 1858 , however , they reached a group of rocky but picturesque islets , the outposts of the Japanese empire ; called Miaco-Sinia , or the Ass ' Ears , because their

    peaks run up in a manner not unlike the ears of that animal . The scenery was very different from that of China . Tke sight of it , peering on our seamen out of a sea mist , was glorious— " 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 . " Such is the picture . presented , by the graphic penman of the cruise *

    " Early in the forenoon H . M . S . Furious was entering the charming series of channels leading through islands to Nangasaki . Cape Nomo was now hidden from view , whilst on either hand lay the lovely spots known by the native names of Fwosima 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 holdingground , with the handsome pine peculiar to the country . Villages and richly cultivated gardens nestled in every nook , and flowers , as well as

    fruittrees , 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 spreading some marvellous tales of what we Britishers had done in China , and intended to do to them . The garrisons 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 ; and that its pepple will , if needs should arise , gallantly defend the beautiful land God has given them . " It would bo hazardous to say henv many guns are mounted on the islands and points commanding the approach to Nangasaki ; some of them may be of wood—merely quahers : but wo saw hundreds that decidedly were not . The majority wore of brass , some of iron , all nioxmtod on wheeled carriages , and seemed , from the gun-gear about thorn , well found in storos , and efficient . The batteries were very solid , and there was a queer mixture of European and Japanese ideas in their construction—the result being , that although the lower portions would have stood a groat deal of hammering from an enemy , the unfortunate gunners would have been too much exposed to have stood long to their

    The wonted chain of guard-boats no longer stopped the way . Nevertheless , an officer stood in the boat of which they came abreast , and mildly gesticulated with his fan ; but a spy-glass was brought steadily to bear on him ; and the action of the fan became less violent , thon irregular , then spasmodic , then , paused . Another flutter and the holder shut up his fan , and retired , " An hour passed' —no officials canio near us . i lie nativo boats , beforo alluded to , had followed ^ tho ship , and now hung listlessly about her . J-ho officers in thorn woro evidently very inquisitive ; but as wo did not invito their approach , they still kent aloof . The Dutchmen on slioro scorned

    guns . " Our attention was now oallod from tho land to a number of . government boats , which woro dotted about the water ahead of us : they were always In pairs , ono , ddubtloss , salon les regies , -watching tho other . It was desirable to have no communication with those guard-boats—for such wo easily recognised thorn to bo—loet thoy should hand us tho copy of some British Troatyi or Convention , by which some ono had pledged her Most Gracious Majesty ' s B , ubjoots not to do tills , or not to do that . Wo happened to have found in an old book—tho only old thing , except old port , wo over liked— -a Treaty of Foaco and Amity between tho Emperor of Japan and James tho Irirsfc , of Groat Britain , dated as far back as the year of grace 1013 . By it , right of intercourse , commorco , and such like , was secured to us for ovor ; and as only two centuries and a half

    equally shy . Some half dozon sailors , in rod shirts , lollod about tho landing placo of Dooima ; out Dooima showed no othor sign of vitality , and smoKo rose as steadily from tho Dutch skipper ' s pipo as Do loant ovor tho rail of his argosy imd peered at us , as it would havo dono in tho sloop , ioat landscapo in watory Holland . It sudclonly ntruck us that Decima had gonq to bod , and tliat horo , as in Batavia , tho community dlno about noon , and after dinner , all tho Mynhoore , Frnus , nnd F rauloliis rotiro to rest , rising from thoir soooiid sloop about four or flvo o ' clock in tho aftornoon , Wo . woro , wo soon ascertained , right in our suspicions > but nn officer was sent on shore , roiuorsolossly to stir up flic sleoplng burghors of Doolmn . with tho information of tho arrival of his Exoolloncy tho British Ambassador .

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    966 THE LEADEB . ' fNq . 491 . Aug . 20 , 185 9

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 20, 1859, page 966, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2308/page/18/