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HMS Bacchante (1876)

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From: Graeme Wall < <script type=text/javascript>DisplayMail('greywall.demon.co.uk','Graeme');</script> Graeme@greywall.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: HMS Bacchante 1881
Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 18:14:56 +0100

In message < <script type=text/javascript>DisplayMail('newshost.pcug.org.au','379aef22.2754916');</script> 379aef22.2754916@newshost.pcug.org.au>
<script type=text/javascript>DisplayMail('pcug.org.au','phodge');</script> phodge@pcug.org.au (PETER HODGE) wrote:

> I am seeking information about the steam corvette HMS Bacchante
> launched at Portsmouth in October 1876. An ancestor of mine, John
> Langford STEVENSON, was listed amongst the ship's company in the 1881
> British Census, at sea or in a foreign port. The ship's captain in
> 1881 was Lord Charles Scott. I would be grateful for any information
> about the ship's actions around that time.
>
HMS Bacchante, corvette launched Portsmouth 1876, 280 feet long 4070 tons

Armament 14 7-inch MLR (Muzzle loading rifled) guns, 4 of which were later
replaced with 6-inch breech loaders.

Speed 15 knots (about 18mph) steam, 11 knots under sail.

Scrapped 1897.

In 1880 Bacchante went off with the Royal Princes as part of the detached
squadron showing the flag around the world. The trip took two years and
covered 40,000 miles, rounding the Cape of Good Hope twice. Paid off at
Portsmouth in 1882.

HTH
--
Graeme Wall

http://www.old-print.com/cgi-bin/item/MAA1881002

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Click for Larger and then click AGAIN for extra large 5 - Ship Hms Bacchante Squall Wales Prince Old Print 1881 Retail: $25.75 Your Price: $16.75 You Save: 34.95% plus FREE SHIPPING TODAY <script language=JavaScript src="/mas_assets/fieba.js" type=text/javascript></script> Convert this price to your currency <input class=button type=submit value="Add To Shopping Cart" name=add>

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http://www.amazon.com/BACCHANTE-SQUALL-WALES-PRINCE-PRINT/dp/B0014GNIVC



Product Description
Ship Hms Bacchante Squall Wales Prince Old Print 1881 Page From An Issue 1881 . The Illustrated London News . These Wood Engravings From Sketches, Or Early Photographs Would Make An Ideal Gift For Christmas Or Birthday . The Actual Date Is Printed On Each Page . This Engraving Is Over 120 Years Old. And Is Not A Modern Copy. These Images Are Scanned At Low Resolution For Quick Uploading And Are Much Better Than The Scanned Image.. Size Of Print Is Approx 14" X 9.1/2" If It Is Shown As Whole Page, Or Prorata.. Approx. Page Size = 16" High X 11" Wide. Ready To Matt And Frame. These Old Prints Really Look Great With Matt And Framed. . Note This Print Is From A Periodical And Has Printing On Reverse.

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Price: $25.75 Sale: $16.75 You Save: $9.00 (35%)   Special Offers Available

In Stock. Ships from and sold by oldprint.

Only 1 left in stock--order soon.

http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an24601635

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/877620

Picture

Bib ID	877620
Format	Picture ,  Online
Online Versions	PIC/8004/2
Publisher	1881.
Description	1 photograph : albumen ; 26.1 x 34.3 cm.
Summary	Prince George of Wales (later King George V) and Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale visited Australia aboard HMS Bacchante in 1881.
Notes	Title from inscription in pencil bottom centre of mount on copy held at PIC/8004/2.  Inscription: "[...] P[...] of the lot, the late Mr [...], Sale, Melbourne, B.T.C., Melbourne"--Top left corner of mount on copy held at PIC/8004/2.  Copy held at PIC/8004/2 is part of J.A. Ferguson Collection.  Copy held at PIC/8004/1 is cropped version of PIC/8004/2.  Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an24601635
Subjects	Bacchante (Ship) - Photographs.

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http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/688106

Picture

Bib ID	688106
Format	Picture ,  Online
Author	McCrae, George Gordon, 1833-1927
Online Versions	http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an6304104
Publisher	[1881]
Description	1 drawing : pen, ink and crayon ; 12.9 x 12 cm.
Series	McCrae, George Gordon, 1833-1927. Album of drawings.
Notes	Title from inscription on mount.  In his Album of drawings.  Signature l.l.  Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an6304104  R8013.
Subjects	Bacchante (Ship)  |  Sailing ships.  |  Picture - Ship.
Other Authors	McCrae, George Gordon, 1833-1927
Related records	See collection record See other records in this collection

http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1416841

Book

Bib ID	1416841
Format	Book
Author	Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale, 1864-1892
Publisher	London : Macmillan, 1886.
Description	2 v. : ill., charts, maps, plans, ports. ; 24 cm.
Collection	Rex Nan Kivell Collection ; NK3027.
Contents	v. 1. The West and the South -- v. 2. The East.
Notes	Ferguson no. 5795.  Rex Nan Kivell Collection NK3027.
Subjects	Bacchante (Ship)  |  Voyages around the world.  |  Australia - Description and travel - 1851-1900.
Other Authors	George King of Great Britain, 1865-1936  |  Dalton, John N. (John Neale), 1839-1931

8


N. 51 W.


115




S.E. by E. toE.


22-20


148-30


82


82


84


83










by N. 2-3














98.


N. 50 W.


116




E. to E.S.E. 2-3


23-34


146-53


82


82


83


83


10


N. 48 W.


119




S.E. to S. by


24-53


145-15


85


82


79


82










W. 3-4 '














11


N. 44 W.


82




S.W. to N.W. 2


25-53


144-13


81


80


80


79


12


N. 44 W.


70




Variable 1'2


26-43


143-19


82


82


82


82


13


N. 17 W.


36




Variable 1


27-17


143-7


80


80


83


81


14


N. 47 W.


33




Variable 2 '3


27-39


142-40


77


78


81


78


15


N. 62 W.


79




N.E. 4 S.E. 4


28-15


141-21


80


80


85


78










to














16S.


N. 6 W.


15




Variable 1'2


28-30


141-19


78


80


82


79


17


N. 32 W.


14


14


Variable 1*2


28-54


141-2


80


80


82


80


18


N. 54 W.


2


126


S.W. toW. 3'5


30-32


138-29


78


77


83


77


19


N. 8 W.




123


N.W. 3-4 N. to


32-34


138-7


77


76


71


70










N. by 37














20


N. 19 E.




116


N.E. 5-7-8


34-22




69


66


66


61


21




...


105


N.E. by E. 8-9


...


...


66


68


65


65






3335


939
















Total distance 4274 miles.















B 2



4 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

Monday. Thermometer 82 ; the air feels moister, and it is more
cloudy. After the dinner hour the admiral formed the squadron
into single column in line ahead, for we are passing what is supposed
to be the Pandora bank, though when we sound we get no bottom
at 130 fathoms; there evidently are shallows hereabouts, judging
from the clouds that gather over the surface of the water, warmed by
the sun, and the troops of birds on the water as if after fish. We
are still making between five and six knots, but there are many
rain-squalls, and after each of these the wind lulls and then puffs
up again, and so it continues. All night the rain comes down in
torrents, everything is reeking with moisture.

Sept. I4>th. A finer morning and the sun out. Thermometer 80
on deck under the awnings, but down in the gun-room it was over
90, for all our ports are kept barred in. At drill after evening
quarters the flagship made the signal " man overboard," and hove
to, and so did the Tourmaline, and both we and she got our cutters
ready for lowering. The flagship recalled her own boat and made
signal " man saved." We heard afterwards he had not really fallen
overboard but only from a little way aloft, and brought up luckily
without injury in the chains. The trades are falling very light
now, and we crossed the tenth parallel this evening. A poor little
sandpiper alighted on the spanker-boom and another in the cutter,
looking very thin and tired. The banana bunches in the boats are
ripe. After sunset there was more rain. It is just a year to-day
since we left Marlborough House.

Sept. 15th. Becalmed nearly the whole day with the ship's
head pointing towards New Guinea; a gentle puff of air now
and then, but the sun very hot, and no rain in the daytime. At
3.30 P.M. we saw two small sharks swimming round the ship : they
were each about five or six feet long. The paymaster got a hook
and some pork, put it overboard astern off the poop : while he was
watching the shark on the starboard quarter, slowly swimming
round three or four yards off, and was holding the line lightly in
his hand, suddenly from under the port side of the counter up
came another shark he had not perceived, and hooked himself on
with a jerk that made the old man sing out that he was nearly
being hauled overboard. The shark was afterwards hauled up by
the bluejackets on the glacis, rolled up in canvass, and taken
forward, but first, while the hook was being extracted, a gymnastic
club had to be put in his jaws to force and hold them open.

Sept. 16th. We are by way all this time of sailing in single



1881.



VITI TO YOKOHAMA.



column in line ahead, but to-day we are again becalmed, and
do not average a knot an hour ; there is scarcely a breath of
wind, sometimes we range up alongside one ship, and sometimes
another, and our heads go the round of the compass. Towards
evening a little breeze sprang up, and we made over three knots.
The mids are at gymnastic drill with the sergeant under the
awning this afternoon. Directly the sun has set, clouds rise every
evening from all round the horizon, condensed thus on the withdrawal
of the heat : and when it rains, it is generally of an evening after
quarters, and then it comes down in torrents. At night the only
cool place in the ship is on the poop: lying on top of the




SQUADRON BECALMED.



screw-well, and looking up at the stars and listening to the gurgling
of the water at the bottom of the well, it feels a little cooler ; the
temperature is only 82, but the air being so saturated with moisture
it is far more oppresive than dry heat at that degree. We can
hear every half hour the bell struck in each ship, all down the line,
and the cry of the two seamen on the forecastle resounding in the
still night air, " starboard cathead," " port cathead," taken up by the
sentry on the poop " lifebuoy."

Sept. 17th. Just after midnight, and before the moon rose,
a weird shadow of a cloud lying low on the water was taken for
an island reef (these seas have not been very carefully surveyed),



6 CEUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

and the three ships ahead hoisted their position lights and stood
off at right angles to our present course ; the Tourmaline got taken
aback during this performance, and went some way down to leeward,
where she wore, but being so far astern it took her nearly twenty-
four hours to regain her station. All to-day we are going between
two and three knots : in the sun it is over 103, there is a little bit
of awning spread on the poop, but all along the upper deck the
melted pitch in the seams sticks to the feet. As the wind is so
light, and the squadron has to keep station in single column in
line ahead, every minute during the day and night the pipe is
going, to lower the royals or to hoist them, "in stunsails" or set
them, "up mainsail," or "set mainsail," and so on; and thus we
crawl along in the close damp weather.

Sept. 18th. Most oppressive day. We make during the whole
of the twenty-four hours two knots per hour ; light airs from the
N.E. Had services on the main deck. We are 380 miles off "the
line/' Finished Oliver Twist last night, and began Nicholas Nickleby
this evening.

Sept. 19th. There is a little breeze to-day, so the signal was
made to chase, and at 8.45 A.M. the flagship took the Cleopatra in
tow under sail, and away we all went between four and five knots,
which towards the evening became six. As the Bacchante is very
light forward, we sail the worst of the lot, and fall a good way
astern : but begin to condense in order to fill the tanks forward
and so hope to do better to-morrow. In the evening signal was
made to take up our appointed station, but we were unable to
regain it, being about six miles astern. At 10. A.M. the next day
the flagship took us in tow under sail, and by 5. P.M. in the evening,
after bowling along seven knots all day, as the wind had freshened
from the east, we were up with the rest of the squadron ; then
cast off tow and took up our station astern of the Carysfort. After
this we seemed to sail much better.

Sept. 21st. At 8.30 A.M. sighted Pleasant Island, about twenty
miles off north quarter west. It is a very small island about
four miles in diameter, lying in Lat. 35' S. and Long. 166 49' E. ;
it is said to have been so named on account of its being situated
in a most unpleasant temperature. This or another similar island
near the line,

" Rich, but the loneliest in a lonely sea,"

would be that on which Enoch Arden is supposed to be cast



1881. FIJI TO JAPAN. 7

away on his return voyage from. China at the end of the last
century, and where he

' ' Set in this Eden of all plenteousness,
Dwelt with eternal summer, ill content ;
* * *

The blaze upon the waters to the east,
The blaze upon his island overhead,
The blaze upon the waters to the west."

The flagship stood in towards the island, and two canoes and a whaler
apparently put off to her. We could see on the west side of the
island a number of huts and groves of cocoa-nut trees. The flagship
semaphored when she rejoined the squadron in the evening : " A civil
war on the island. An escaped convict is king. All hands con-
stantly drunk : no fruit or vegetables to be obtained, nothing but
pigs and cocoa-nuts. The present island-king wants a missionary.
He was evidently hungry." After passing the island we fell in with
several rain-squalls, during one or two of which we ran along over
eight knots, after that there fell a calm. Resumed our station in
line, but as the airs were light and variable it was a difficult matter
to keep it. Between 10 and 11 P.M. we crossed "the line." The
sun himself crossed " the line " at 1 A.M. on the 22nd, so we have
had two hours of summer this year, although the weather is quite
warm enough (88).

Sept. 22nd. Nearly a dead calm, with a strong set to the
westward. After the dinner hour caught a couple of sharks. It is
curious to watch how each is piloted by his own pilot fish, a little
purple fellow who always swims close ahead of his nose and whose
every turn the shark follows. Coming up to the pork bait the
pilot fish always avoided it, but the shark found it hard to follow
the advice of his wiser companion, and after hesitating a moment
could not withstand the temptation, and made a snap at the bait
and was caught. The sharks are to-day followed by lots of blue
fish. The men washing clothes this afternoon with their tubs and
soapsuds all over the deck look clean and cool. Though it is so hot
yet we manage to get some exercise after quarters : the mids are
growing great hulking chaps from the effects of the bars and bells
every morning before taking their bath, and all this flying round on
the horizontal and parallel bars under Sergeant Taylor's indefatigable
exertions.

Sept. 23rd. A miserable night, heavy rain and a squall or two,
wind shifting all round the compass and then dying away : it was
not till 2 A.M. that we got into station. This morning the squadron



8 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

was organised into three divisions; first division, flagship and
Carysfort ; second division, Bacchante and Cleopatra ; third division,
Tourmaline. This is jollier for the watch-keepers than being in
single column, as we are now in three, but as it is nearly a dead
calm it takes us the whole day to crawl into this new formation.
The gunroom had a box of granidilloes sent them at Viti. The
senior sub. threw away all the pips of the first one that was opened
and proceeded to deal out the skin as if it were a melon. We
found it like leather. We discovered afterwards the proper way to
eat them, and now mix the sherry and powdered white sugar in the
hollowed skin with the pulp and pips and sup it up with gusto.
Some prefer the fruit of the passion flower, which is smaller and has
a flavour like black currants.

Sept. 24>th. A dead calm ; it has been so all night and continues
so all day. At 8 A.M. we have gone twenty-five miles since noon
yesterday. We have been just a fortnight at sea since we left Viti.
It is too hot for any drill ; the flagship is always under topsails only,
but the other ships are under all sail, which however is being
fiddled with day and night. The kangaroo is quite well, and so are
the wallabies. At 6 P.M. the Cleopatra made signal : " Foretop-
mast sprung ; permission to get up steam whilst shifting ditto."
This was at once negatived, and we all hove-to waiting for her
whilst she shifted it ; it was a great pity, as a little breeze had just
sprung up. She took twelve hours over the job, the flagship
playing her electric light on her all night.

Sept. 25th. Another very hot day, but with a little breeze we
are going three knots, and it is very jolly to be moving again at
last. Church on the main deck. Signal made to the Cleopatra :
" Prepare to be taken in tow ; " but the flagship was sailing after her
all day and could not catch her.

Se2)t. 26th. A little breeze like a north-east trade : we are in
Lat. 3 27' N. but only moving about two knots, although we have the
current in our favour. We pass several trees floating in the water,
which are thought to be washed down by the floods in the Malay
rivers and drifted hither by the eastward current. There are
numbers of fish under them, watching for some sort of life insect
or otherwise that generates on the rotting timber, for their food.
We are reading Sir Edward Reed's two-volumed book on Japan.
The signal was made that the flagship would not fire to-morrow
(we suppose the admiral is ill), but that all the other ships were to
get up steam and spread for target practice.



1881. VITI TO YOKOHAMA. 9

Sept. 27th. Sunrise was over a purple velvet sea with golden bars
in the east and blue above. Across these in the early dawn the
long black form of the flagship slowly creeping with her stunsails
set both sides appeared in the utter stillness almost like a giant
spectre. We learn that the admiral is suffering from pleurisy
and has been in his cot ever since a few days after leaving
Viti : he did not quit it until just before arriving at Yokohama.
We got up steam and spread for target practice at daybreak. At
4.30 P.M. we took the flagship in tow. The first hawser that she gave
us (a four-and-half inch steel wire) carried away, and during the delay




"CLEOPATRA SHIFTING FORETOl'-GALLANT-MAST.



which was occasioned while another was being provided (a six-and-
half inch steel wire) we caught three sharks astern under the eyes
of the officers of the flagship, who were watching us off their
forecastle about a hundred yards distant. There were five or six
large sharks all swimming together, and we certainly hoped to
have caught more. In the evening we passed Ualan Island,
which, as we only saw the lofty summits of its hills above the
horizon, seemed in the distance like several small ones. These
peaks were still in sight the next morning at daybreak.

Sept. 28th. Intensely hot, for there is no stir in the air, and we
are travelling faster than what little air there is, which is following
us. At noon we are in Lat. 6 36' N. We are now burning 16 cwt.

10 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

of coal for thirty-four revolutions a minute, and we are making
5'25 knots per hour whilst towing the Inconstant. If we were
steaming alone, the same 16 cwt. of coal per hour would produce
thirty-six revolutions, and take us along 6 '75 knots. If we were
steaming alone, in order to go our present speed, 5'25 knots, it
would require only 11^ cwt. to be burnt per hour to produce
twenty-seven revolutions. The Inconstant, however, if she were
steaming alone at the present speed of five and a quarter knots,
would be burning 24 tons per day. Thus we are saving on the
proceeding 17 tons of coal a day. At 10 P.M. went to night
quarters, clearing away in a shorter time than we have done
before.

Sept. 29^. Delicious little breeze this morning just before
sunrise, at 4.30 A.M. At dawn the whole horizon was lined with
towering black clouds, full of rain, which, however, dispersed
afterwards, and the breeze died away. At 4.30 P.M. we were
preparing to cast off the flagship in hopes the little breeze would
last, but the signal for so doing was annulled. All signals are
now made from the mainmast of the flagship, nothing at all being
done from the mizenrnast evidently to keep the stern quiet
over the admiral's cabin. After sunset it is always warm ; the air
seems moister, through the sun no longer absorbing the moisture
as during the daytime.

Sept. 3Qth. At 7.30 A.M. cast off flagship, made plain sail, and
raised screw. We have had her in tow 63J hours, and the distance
towed has been 366 miles ; and the coal consumed in towing 54
tons. Averages for the whole, 5J knots an hour, with 32 revolu-
tions a minute ; hourly coal consumption 17 cwt., being about 4J
cwts. per hour in excess of Bacchante's ordinary consumption when
steaming by herself. We have passed the Arecifos Islands on the
port hand during the night, and are now nearly off the northern-
most of the Marshall group on the starboard hand, and have picked
up the north-east trade. We are outside the islands at last, and
there is no land between us and America. Getting into the
northern hemisphere has somehow a more homelike feel about
it. There were rain-squalls all the morning. It is a lovely
moonlight night, and we have been making over five knots all day.
Finished Rhys David's capital little book on Buddhism.

Oct. 1st. The trade wind still holds, and it begins to feel a bit
cooler, though the thermometer marks 84. The paymaster is
busy paying the monthly money to ship's company, and as it is the



1881. FIJI TO JAPAN. 11

end of the quarter we each get a little more. We have started an
anchoring lottery for Yokohama. We are sailing pretty well
to-day, making over five knots, but the squadron is waiting for
the Cleopatra, who, under all possible sail, is a long way astern.
Many rain squalls in the evening and morning.

Sunday, Oct. 2nd. Church as usual on the main deck and
Holy Communion ; thermometer still 84. Lovely day, the trade
still holding. We are, however, waiting for the Carysfort, who is
the dummy ship to-day, some miles astern. The squadron can
never go faster than the slowest ship in it. The opossum who
came on board in Western Australia died to-day.

Oct. 3rd. Shoals of flying fish ; the gentle trade still lasts, and
we are enjoying the perfection of sailing over a lovely blue sea ;
this sense of motion is always pleasant, but after what we have
lately gone through doubly so. Finished to-day Adams's Letters
from Japan in the time of Queen Elizabeth and King James
the First.

Oct. 4<th. There was a good deal of lightning in the east for an
hour before sunrise. To-day, again, lots of flying-fish. The more
we observe them the more do they seem to resemble birds in their
flight wheeling and turning themselves sideways on the wind
above the water. There was also a school of whales blowing
fountains from their noses and slithering long and green through
the water. There have been one or two very heavy rain squalls,
just as if buckets of water were capsized over you ; they wet
everything through in about two minutes. No drill after quarters
now, for the weather is too close. The wind appears to be falling
after sunset. All through the night there was much sheet lightning
in the S. and S. W., but the more brilliant bursts were overhead
rather than on the horizon.

Oct. 5th. At 8.30 A.M. the squadron spread with a twelve-mile
radius from the Bacchante to search for a shoal whose position was
doubtful. Nothing, however, was seen of it. At 1.30 P.M. a
strange red rosy light was suffused all over the whole heavens for a
few minutes. It was supposed to be the effect of some cloud
passing in a peculiar way ; but there was no cloud to be seen, and
it would appear more probable that it was an electrical dis-
turbance ; the suffusion was as a thin veil over the whole sky.
Reading to-day De Morga's Philippines, of the Hakluyt Society.
It is full of strange tales, but the most curious thing to see is
that there were just the same difficulties with the Chinamen as



12 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

immigrants in the sixteenth century as there are now. They flocked
down to the Philippines from China and exhibited 'just the same
good and evil qualities as they do now in Australia, and gave just
the same causes of complaint, and were treated by the Spaniards just
in the same way as our colonists treat them now. When, after a
rebellion, they were put down and ousted for a while from the Philip-
pines, it was found, just as when they were ousted from Sydney, on
the late outbreak of small-pox, that there was suddenly a great
scarcity of vegetable produce, for they were then as they are now
nearly all market gardeners. The same cunning, the same patience
and industry, the same contentment with small gains, and the same
vices were shown by them then as now : everything reads like a
page out of to-day's history. Many Japanese also came down to the
Philippines, both for trade and as settlers ; and the intercourse that
ensued between Spain and Japan was in some respects like a
little rehearsal of that between ourselves and Japan.

Oct. 6th. In the forenoon all five ships spread to look for
shoals the same as yesterday, and then closed on the Inconstant,
and at 2.30 P.M. hove to and each lowered boats to communicate
with the flag-ship and send in quarterly returns. We then heard
that this was the first day for three weeks that the admiral
has been up, and though getting better he is still very weak.
He seems to have caught a cold at Viti whilst watching the
" meke " on the grass outside Government House. We are now
in latitude 20 N., and the thermometer is still 85. Nowhere,
except in this part of the Pacific, and never except at this time of
the year, could we have gone so far north from the line without
finding it getting cooler ; it is cooler at night, but just as warm as
ever during the day. To-day, unfortunately, the little kangaroo, who
had become a general favourite with every one on board on account
of his perfect gentleness and tameness, and who used to go bounding
all over the quarter deck and aft, as well as forward to play with
the men during the dinner and supper hours, and who had learnt
to find his way down the ladder on to the main deck and call in at
the several messes for contributions, and then to finish up with the
captain's cabin for sponge-cake and bananas, jumped overboard.
He had got in the habit of sitting outside on the glacis aft, and on
the billboard of the sheet-anchor forward, for coolness during the
close weather we have had, and it was from there, where he was last
seen, that he is supposed to have lost his balance and slipped into
the water. We are all the more sorry, as we had hoped to have



1881. VITI TO YOKOHAMA. 13

taken him home to Sandringham for sisters. He was never
frightened at anything.

Oct. 7th. Went to general quarters as usual on Friday morning.
At noon we are just 1,000 miles from the Island of Vries, outside
Yokohama. The wind is still taking us along between three and
four knots. The next day some woodcocks and other birds were
seen. It was full moon yesterday, and at sunset to-night there
was every appearance that there would be a shift of wind. We
have been a month at sea to-day, and have no idea when we are
going to arrive at Yokohama ; it seems a very long time.

Oct. 9th. Very wet, with heavy rain before sunrise, which was
intensely yellow, with much lightning in the N.E. Church on
the main deck. Men all in blues ; thermometer 86. This after-
noon we pass out of the tropics, but at present it makes no
difference in the temperature. Reading on the forecastle all the
afternoon, which was delightful, as you get there a little breath of
air. We have been going four knots all day ; it is a beautiful
calm night.

Oct. Wth. Nearly a dead calm, and very hot. The English
barque Earl of Elgin, an old-fashioned tub of a thing, passed
across our path astern at noon going to Shanghai; she had been in
sight ever since daylight coming up from the east. We gave her
our longitude 145 13' E. What little air there is has been gradu-
ally dying away all day. After evening quarters the Tourmaline
asked permission to shift courses, but it was negatived, for the
weather is too hot for drill. We have enough coal on board to
steam 3,000 miles, and we could get into Yokohama under steam
(660 miles) in three or four days at the outside. But it is a
good test of patience to sail thus slowly in these calms and fitful
squalls of raio. At midnight there was one tremendous heavy
downpour of rain.

Oct. llth. It has been pouring nearly the whole night, the wind
going round from S.E. to S.W. and then to the N.W., but there is
precious little of it, and the whole of the next twenty-four hours
we made an average of two knots. At 11.15 A.M. we were taken
aback by another rain squall from the N.W., and afterwards we all
tacked together and proceeded on our course. Nearly calm all the
afternoon, and at night a dead calm. There was, however, a rain-
bow in the evening that was taken as a sign of a dry day to-morrow,
which also came to pass. Reading Adams's History of Japan, from
1853 to 1871, a compilation from office papers, and so far useful.



14 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

For a little gentle excitement the captain lets his curio-bag
overboard and gets a new sort of Portuguese man of war in it.
We are 129 miles from Port Lloyd in the Bonin Islands, which
is the nearest land, and from there an old dragon-fly came off to
wonder at us. There have been no evolutions or drills on account
of the heat for some time, but we are all having a good lesson in
patience.

Oct. \Wi. Nearly a dead calm the whole of the next twenty-four
hours. We do not average one knot, though at 8 A.M. we have gone
45 miles by the help of a squall now and then since noon yesterday.
We are 525 miles from Yries Island and 555 from Yokohama and
62 from Peel Island in the Bonin group. After evening quarters
went on the bar for a bit, as you must get exercise somehow. In
the evening it looked very threatening to N.E. as of typhoon.
At 10 P.M. there was a little puff from the northward and we all
tacked together. In the ten minutes it lasted it was deliciously
cool, and then the thermometer went up to 80 again. Dead calm
all night.

Oct. 13^, St. Edward the Confessor. Third day of calms. Peel
Island is said to be visible from the mast-head on the port-quarter.
From noon yesterday to noon to-day we have made thirty-six
miles. There were several dolphins swimming round the ship,
one was hooked and played for about a quarter of an hour, but
at last the line was carried away and he was lost.

Although nearly a calm, the whole squadron are under topsails
only, waiting for the Cleopatra to come up. Our boys are getting
rated very quickly ; there are only six left in the ship, many of
those who came as boys when the ship was first commissioned
having already been rated A.B.'s. To-day being Eddy's name-day
we dined with the captain. The sun went down in a cloudless sky
over a magnificent purple sea. There was one yellow gold line
all round the horizon, and above that bluish-green ; then quickly
all the stars came out bright and clear. The moon rose at 10.15
P.M., and a little air sprang up, sufficient to move us two knots,
before that, however, we had not gone one, the signal having been
made to come to the wind on the port tack.

Oct. 14<th. At 6.30 A.M. tacked, for the wind had shifted and we
were heading N.E. At 8.30 A.M. observed the Parry group of
islands ahead, and the flag-ship made all plain sail and went
to have a closer look at them. There is a nice little breeze to-day,
and we are going between four and five knots, braced sharp up. We



1881. FIJI TO JAPAN. 15

could be making more but the squadron is waiting for the Cleopatra,
who is still some way astern. At noon to-day we have made
good thirty-one miles since noon yesterday. It is a trifle cooler,
only 79. At 4.30 P.M. we passed the Parry group. They are little
more than a long line of uninhabited rocks, jagged and pinnacled,
some with bluffs and flat-topped cliffs. As the sun went down
behind them they were thrown up into strong relief, and we could
see that they were of lava formation and with many outlying
reefs, over some of which the sea was breaking ; one at the north
end, a mile away from the chief islands, scarcely showed above
water, but we could see white surf circling on its edge. One cliff
is perforated with an arch through it. On the larger island we
could distinguish trees growing and could see green patches, but
the hills seemed for the most part barren and brown. Altogether
they look a nasty place to be driven on at night or in a typhoon,
in the line of which they just lie. At 10 P.M. the breeze freshened
from the N.E. and the thermometer went down 6, during which
time we had the luxury of making seven knots for a couple of
hours, then there fell a dead calm with a heavy swell.

Oct. 15th. We are rolling about in a heavy swell from the N.E.,
which it is supposed partly arises from the current and the in-
equalities of the bottom. A great many sharks round the ship ;
three were caught and one was blown to pieces with a disc of gun-
cotton placed in a tin with a strip of pork wrapped round it
for a bait ; when he took it, it was fired with a boat's battery, which
blew his head off and he sank. When the other three were hooked,
we slipped bowlines down round their tails and hauled them on
board. There are also a great number of dolphins, which we tried
to catch with spoonbait and spinners, but they would not bite.
At 1.45 P.M. taken aback by light airs from the westward, at
3.45 P.M. wore. All to-day we have scarcely made any advance ;
from noon to 8 P.M. we have made a quarter of a mile. There
was a rainbow in the evening ; this promises a good day to-morrow.

Oct. 16th. Dead calm and very hot. The ships all being black,
when they once get nicely warmed with the sun, retain the heat
like ovens. Had the usual services on the main deck. At noon
we have gone fifteen miles since noon yesterday, and we have
had a current of twenty miles against us. After evening quarters
there were heavy clouds all round the horizon, but nothing more
than a few showers came of it.

Oct. 17th. At 4;15 A.M. down screw; at 6.30 A.M. commenced



16 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

steaming and spread for prize firing ; at 7.30 A.M. furled sails.
Commenced firing at 9 A.M., but none of our guns obtained a prize.
It was all over by dinner-time. At noon we had made good
twenty-seven miles since noon yesterday. At 2 P.M. made plain
sail, a breeze springing up from the S,W., and we all now, having
resumed our stations, go scampering along under steam and sail
over eight knots. It is a strange sensation to be actually moving
through the water after such a dreary week of calms, which seem to
have lasted a far longer time, until we had grown accustomed to
look upon them as our normal condition. It is also pleasant
getting a little air through the ship, and it seems quite cool at
80. Lovely starlight night.

Oct. 18th. There is a nice fresh breeze blowing now from the
W.S.W., which is rather too far forward. The flag-ship has got her
screw up and is going along under sail alone ; the other ships are
keeping station under steam and sail, and heeling over to the
breeze under plain sail. It is very hot in the sun still. At noon
we have made good 166 miles, but are still 300 miles from Yoko-
hama. After evening quarters the flag-ship got her screw down
and commenced steaming again, and at 5 P.M. we all shortened and
furled sails, sent down topgallant masts, and pointed yards to the
wind, evidently expecting a norther, which came on during the
night ; the barometer rising and the thermometer falling at least
10. Woke in the night and found it quite chilly, with the ther-
mometer below 70, and the ship pitching to the sea which the
head-wind is knocking up, for it has shifted round to the North.

Oct. ~L9th. All the ships steaming against a dead head-wind, are
pitching their bows under. It is still sunny and fresh, and at noon
is deliciously cool at 71. Thank goodness we have got away from
the warm weather at last. The ship is knocking about too much
for bar. In the evening were able to set fore and aft sails, as the
wind is now off the starboard bow, having shifted further round.

Oct. 20th. At 2.10 A.M., sighted Omai-Saki, and at 3 A.M. hauled
up to take station in single column. At 3.15 A.M. H.M.S. Albatross
made her number going south. At 9.30 A.M. passed the sailing-
ship Zodiac running south before the breeze. This, at noon,
had freshened up until it was blowing eight, and raining hard.
We have now our first glimpse of Japan on the port beam, with its
hills rising range behind range, through the drift over the foaming
sea and the hurly-burly. The wind is straight in our teeth, and
the Tourmaline is knocking about a good bit, washing herself down



1881. VITI TO YOKOHAMA. 17

fore and aft. As her coal was running short we tacked and bore up
for Simoda, into which harbour she went for the night. The rest
of the squadron proceeded close under the land, still steaming
against the head wind in order to pass to the north of Vries
Island. At 5.25 P.M. sighted Tosima Island. The scud is driving
furiously overhead, but it is not raining so hard.

Oct. 21st. Steamed up Yedo Bay in the grey of early dawn.
The low hills each side looked like so many cones that had bubbled
up into their present contortions from earthquakes and volcanic
disturbance, but they really are conical bare mounds produced by
the action of heavy rains on soft and hard beds that lie upon
each other. Each is capped on the top by big trees, whose roots
and foliage shelter the ground and hold it together. These are for
the most part dark -green firs, just like the old pictures one has
seen of Japan. Although it is only twenty years ago since the
country was opened to foreigners, yet already the lighthouses all
round the coast are most excellent, far better than those in some
of the southern countries in Europe. The first Japanese thing
we saw this morning was the long black hull of a screw steamer,
just as you see them on the Thames, steaming out of Yedo Bay
with the Japanese flag, a red ball on a white ground. There is
a regular Japanese company, the Mitsu Bishi, that carries the
mails alternately with the French mail steamers down the coast
of Japan, and on to Shanghai and Hong Kong. Steam navigation
is making rapid progress, and several lines of steamers now ply
between all the ports of the empire. Several of these vessels have
been built in Japan, and are worked entirely by native hands. A
little farther on is a fleet of Japanese small fishing-boats, each with
their light bows cut away, and a huge square brown sail amidships,
on which is painted the owner's mark ; sometimes they carry
another small sail in the bows, which gives them the appearance
of all sailing stern first. All the valleys between the hills are
full of cold floating mist, and the scud is still drifting overhead and
Fuji-yama is invisible. The mirage this morning seems to cut off
from the horizon the fleet of boats and all the headlands, and hold
them curiously in suspense over the grey and -ruffled waters of the
bay. At 9.30 A.M. came to and moored off Yokohama. Found
here H.M.S. Encounter (bearing the flag of Vice- Admiral G. O.
Willes, commander-in-chief of Her Majesty's naval forces on the
China station), Pegasus and Vigilant, the Monocracy, an American
sloop, three Japanese, the Asia, a Russian, and the Champlai/i, a
VOL. n. c



18



CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE.



1881.



French man-of-war. They are all lying in the roadstead closer in
than we are. Along the sea front beyond them we can see the
long line of European-looking buildings, while to the left rises
"the bluff," a high and round-topped hill and cliff, on which
stand more European houses in their detached grounds, the resi-
dences of the merchants whose stores and shops are down below.
This is the forty-first day we have been out since leaving Viti,
and the latest news we have obtained from England was that of
June 17th. Admiral Willes had sent H.M.S. Zephyr with the
mail to meet us outside Yedo Bay, but unfortunately she missed
us. H.M.S. Pegasus was therefore sent to look out for and bring
her in, which she did, and brought us our mails at 6 P.M. We
were very glad to get eight mail bags of letters and newspapers on
board.

AT YOKOHAMA.

TEMPERATURE.


DATE.


WIND.


Sea.


Air.






Noon.


6PM.


Noon.


6P.M.


Oct.












22


N.E. 3-4. Variable 1-2


67


67


65


62


23S.


Variable 2 '3


67


67


67


60


24


N.E. and N.W. 4-1


67


66


55


55


25


N. by E. toN. 3 -5 "3


66


66


58


58


26


N. and N.E. 2 '3


64


65


65


63


27


N.E. 3-4-1


64


64


64


65


28


N.E. 2-1


64


63


63


63


29


Variable 1


64


66


58


58


-308.


N. toN.N.E. 1-4


66


66


61


59


31


N. 1-3 and Variable 1


64


64


60


63



Oct. 22nd. At 9 A.M. Tourmaline arrived and anchored, and
saluted Japanese flag and Admiral Willes. Much interchange
of official calls between captains of the various foreign ships.
Mr. Kennedy, the English charge" d'affaires, came on board to call,
and Mr. Nagasaki, private secretary to the Mikado, also came off.
In the evening had our first clear view of the snowy peak of
Fuji-yama, which is seventy miles away, and about 12,400 feet
high, or a little less than Mont Blanc. Its sides slope upward
straight from the base the whole way, and form a perfect cone,
and now they were all aglow in the red sunset. It has been
hidden in clouds all day, although the weather has been bright
and cold at least so it has felt to us after our long sojourn in the
tropics, with the thermometer marking 67.



1881. AT YOKOHAMA. 19

Oct. 23rd. The American corvette Swatara arrived. Morning
service on the main deck ; Admiral Willes came on board in the
afternoon. Have not got used to the change in temperature yet,
it feels quite cool as we sit and write letters. Hear from some of
those who have been a good deal up the country that the Russian
Church is making many proselytes among the Japanese, especially
in the northern island of Yesso. Besides these there are 60,000
Roman Catholic and 20,000 Protestant converts in Japan, accord-
ing to official statistics. One of the leading publicists of Japan
has published a long argument demonstrating the superiority of
Christianity as a national faith. Ten years ago, any Japanese
professing Christianity was threatened with death. In Nagasaki
there are said to be 35,000 professing Christians in a district where
there are not a hundred foreign Christian families.

Oct. 24fth. Left the Bacchante for five days' leave ashore.
We landed in a Japanese steam launch in a drizzle, at 10
A.M. at the Admiralty Pier, Benten. There we met Prince
Higashi Fushimi, with whom were the Port-Admiral Nire,
Mr. Nomura Yasushi, Prefect of Kanagawa, and many other
Japanese officials, either in uniform or evening dress. After chat-
ting with them and waiting some little time for the luggage to
be landed, during which tea is served, we drive to the station in
two of the Mikado's carriages through the crowd which has assem-
bled outside, and leave by special train a few minutes past eleven
for Tokio a distance of twenty miles. The line was commenced in
1867 and opened for traffic in October 1872 ; it was constructed by
English engineers, and cost 600,000.

Prince Higashi Fushimi has been educated in England, and we
used to meet him at the Chiswick garden parties : he will stay with
us by the Mikado's wish the whole time we are in Japan. All the
country between Yokohama and Tokio is most carefully cultivated,
just like a garden in England, and is looking quite green as we
pass across it.

We arrived at Tokio a little before twelve ; Mr Kennedy, (with
whom were Mr. Satow, Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Hodges the
secretaries of Legation), the German Minister, as well as Prince
Kita-Shirakawa, Tokudaiji, Minister of the Household, and
Mr. Matsuda, Prefect of Tokio, met us at the station ; thence we
drive in carriages, which are rare even yet in Japan, through a
crowd which line the streets the short distance between the railway
and the palace which the Mikado has placed at our disposal. We

c 2



20 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

turn into the grounds of this, over a moat and drawbridge, through
an old Japanese gateway The gateway is a double one, with
tall perpendicular stone walls and heavy wooden iron-plated and
knobbed gates which in olden times served as fortification to the
interior, and is so constructed that the second of the two is
built at right angles to the first and at a distance of about
sixty yards in its rear. Just inside this is the guard-house where
a guard of thirty soldiers are stationed ; these turn out to the
sound of a bugle and present arms whenever we go in or out. A
broad straight avenue of gravel leads from here up to the En-rio-
qwan (" invite-look-building " or the place where the Mikado invites
people to look at them), a very comfortable one-storied building in
true Japanese style, but fitted up with every European comfort, and
standing in a pretty garden and park laid out in native fashion, full
of strange trees, with birds and monkeys in cages, and winding
fishing ponds full of fish. There is a charming view from the top
of the rampart over the sea down Yedo Bay, and many summer
houses of quaint shape amid the shrubberies. The Duke of Genoa
when he visited Japan in 1873 as midshipman in the Italian man-
of-war Garibaldi stayed here. The party with us are Prince Louis
of Battenberg, Lieutenant the Honourable A. G. Curzon-Howe,
Dr. Turnbull, and two gun-room messmates. The other officers
from the squadron who are enjoying the Mikado's hospitality are
Mr. Love, the admiral's secretary, and his flag-lieutenant Mr.
Winsloe, Captain Lord Charles Scott, Captain Denistoun, Captain
Stephenson and Captain Durrant, these are sleeping at the English
Legation, but come here for their meals.

We had lunch at one, and afterwards started in jinrikishas
for the Asaksa temples, which stand in the midst of a sort of fair
of booths, and small shops, and where the ordinary Japanese
life is seen freest. We got out of the jinrikishas and walked up
through the big gates, past the belfry and library to the
Hondo ("great hall") of the temple. The present buildings date
from the time of the third Shogun lyemitsu, (A.D. 1623-1657),
after the destruction by fire of the former buildings. The roofs of
the present ones are covered with an iron net-work to prevent
sparks falling on the wood-work when there is a fire in the neigh-
bourhood. As all the houses are of wood they are always
having fires, and a good part of the town gets periodically
burnt down. Every Buddhist temple consists of three parts,
which are generally separate buildings, but sometimes united under






1881. T6KIO ASAKSA TEMPLES. 21

one roof. These are ' the porch/ the ' oratory/ and the ' great
hall' in which the chief statue is placed. This temple was built in
1657, and belongs to the Monto sect, or those who believe in justi-
fication by faith alone and in the mercy of the saviour, Amida
Buddha, and his power to save them. They have been called the
Protestants of Japan, and have abolished many of the outward rites
and even the celibacy of the priesthood. This is the first Buddhist
temple we have visited, and as we come up on to the matted floor of
the front part of the great hall and look through the chancel screen
at the Hon-zon (chief statue) of Amida in its dim religious light
with the altar and candlesticks and flower vases in front, and the
people kneeling and reverently praying around, it feels quite like
going into church. In front are a number of coins lying all about
loosely on the matting ; we wonder at first what they are, until we
see that they are thrown there one at a time by every one who makes
a 'prayer. The worshippers come up to the foot of the steps, throw
down a coin, and stand up for a few seconds gazing into the temple ap-
parently collecting their thoughts and concentrating their effort :
they then raise their hands, place them together, bow the head and
mutter a short prayer : then look up into the temple again earnestly
and reverently, and move off and make way for a new-comer.
There is also a huge wooden sort of coffer or pen placed in front to
receive these gifts of the people. In the contiguous temple of Asaksa
Dera we saw the shrine of Kwan-non, the god of pity, before
whom those who wish help in child-bearing chiefly pray. The little
miraculous image which was fished up off the coast in the sixth cen-
tury after Christ, and for which this magnificent temple was built, is
only about two inches long, and is never shown. At Mr. Satow's
request we go up on to the fine mat covering, and removing our
shoes so as not to spoil it, are taken round by one of the priests,
behind the high altar gorgeous with lamps, flowers, gold and sacred
vessels, and guarded by figures of the four Deva kings and with
no end of other images and carved shrines and lacquer work on
all sides, until at the back we come upon some huge pictures, on
lacquer with a background of gold leaf, of the twenty-eight con-
stellations under the form of as many superhuman beings, and
which were painted about the time of Van Dyck (1640). Coming
out into the front hall again we have pointed out to us an image
with a pink and yellow cloth bib round his neck representing
Bindzuru, the helper of the sick ; he was one of the sixteen favourite
disciples of Buddha, but is usually placed outside the temples.



22 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

Believers are allowed to rub the part of the saint in which they
are suffering pain, and then that portion of themselves, and often find
relief. We then went round the grounds of the temple, and into
several booths where there were wax-works with movable heads
and arms, and an archery shed where you shoot with little arrows
the same as in the rifle galleries in the Tivoli Gardens at Copen-
hagen ; but as it was a wet afternoon there was not much going on
at the fair which is generally held in these grounds. We came
round by the five-storied pagoda and back to the revolving library
in which are deposited the Buddhist scriptures, nearly 7,000
volumes : as it is impossible for any person to read these through,
he may by turning the whole with one vigorous push three times
round on its axis have the will taken for the deed. They also
showed us a large stone with an inscription on it in Sanskrit in the
old Nepaulese characters. Close by are a number of little stone
statues all ranged round a larger one of Je-zo the helper of those
who are in trouble, the special >protector of children, and these are
the images which parents have brought of their dead little ones to
his shrine. All the grounds are filled with large gingko trees,
whose curious-shaped leaves we remember in the gardens at Chis-
wick and also in those at Kew.

We come away from the temples, passing under the great red two-
storied gate of wood with the two giant images, one on either side,
behind their wire work screens, and so out to the jinrikishas and back
to the En-rio-qwan. Dinner was at 7 P.M. and to it came the Japanese
Ministers. Sanjo and Iwakura, the Head Ministers, are both Kuges,
or court nobles, the one is supported by the Choshm and the other
by the Satsuma clan. (It was the clans of Tosa and Satsuma who,
with those of Choshiu and Hizen, representing the western and
southern clans, threw off in 1868 the supremacy of the northern
and eastern clans, who supported in their turn the Tokugawa
Shoguns of Yedo.) There is still a very strong clan feeling in Japan.
The principal Choshiu men in the Ministry are Ito, who is President
of the Legislative Council ; Inouye, who is Minister for Foreign
Affairs ; Yamada, who is Minister of the Interior ; and Yamagata, who
is Chief of the Staff. The chief Satsuma men are Kawamura,
who is Minister of Marine, Oyama of War, Saigo of Commerce,
Kuroda of the Colonies, and Matsugata of Finance (Okuma the late
minister having just resigned). Most of the officers in the navy also
are Satsuma men, amongst whom are Captain Matsumora and
Commander Hatori, who both are attached to us during our stay in






1881. TOKIO-EN-KIO-QWAN. 23

Japan and can speak English perfectly well and tell us many
interesting things. Two or three Japanese gentlemen are always
at the palace to render any assistance they can to our party.

We both have one large room together, with a comfortable dress-
ing room and bath room opening out into the garden. All the fittings
connected with the bath, the floor, the bath itself, the panelling,
tubs, seats, ladles, pails, are of sweet-smelling plain unvarnished and
unpainted w8bd. The suite of sitting rooms are the same as those
which Prince Henry of Prussia and the Duke of Genoa lately
occupied; they are filled with many beautiful specimens of old
Japanese art in lacquer work, china, wood carving, bronze, and
Kakemono pictures. During dinner the Mikado sent his own
private band, the Reijin, to play on old Japanese, Chinese, and
Corean instruments, most of them over 1,500 years old ; it is a very
rare performance, and the only place you can hear it is in the
Emperor's palace. The sounds that proceeded from the inner room
where these musicians were placed were so faint and plaintive that
some of the party ignorantly mistook them for preparations of a
band tuning up, and as it went on for some time inquired when they
were going to begin to play. This music in fact, like all oriental
music to a western ear, appears altogether out of tune and full of dis-
cords, being set in a wholly different key, and seeming to speak a
wholly different language to our own. But after listening to it
attentively for some time, although we cannot say we like it, yet
we can quite understand how some people do : just as others ad-
mire Mr. Whistler's pictures or a piece of faded old silk work, or
the faint flavour or smell of some, to our taste, sickly flower or fruit.
Then when dinner was over, there were some very good fireworks
in the garden and some first-rate juggling and conjuring, consisting
of the usual tricks of drawing endless yards of white crape out of a
hat, of making a plant to grow from a seed, fans to fly all over
the room without apparently being moved by the hand.

Oct. 2oth. After breakfast, which is laid out in one of the
smaller rooms, and which we all take as best suits our own con-
venience, some Japanese tumblers and acrobats performed in
the garden. The performance began by the appearance of a long
dragon a yard in breadth and six or seven long, who went crawling
about all over the lawn, rolling his eyes, opening and shutting his
jaws, and writhing his tail. These movements were produced by
three or four men, who walked inside this inflated silk covering,
while others were dressed up grotesquely with large strange masks,



24 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

the head juggler chattering away and apparently recounting some
tale of adventure in which these beasts and gnomes played a
leading part ; he at any rate and the Japanese were much amused
at the story, for they were laughing the whole time. We were told
that this was a sort of mumming which used to take place (like the
miracle plays) in the temples of the old deities, but afterwards the
priests went about the country thus performing, begging, giving
away charms, and attracting the people by their quaint* old music on
drum and flute. The men afterwards did some very clever tricks
with balls, and also balanced on their chins a number of plates
set edgewise, on which again small sticks were set crosswise, and
from their ends cups and saucers and other light articles were
again skilfully balanced. They are short, thick- set little men, with
their hair dressed in Japanese fashion, that is to say, all the top part
of the head is shaved as if to imitate premature baldness, but the
hair is left in its thick black natural growth at the sides and back of
the head, whence it is gathered together into a little long narrow
top-knot, about four inches in length and scarcely one in width
which is twisted together with the help of paper-twine, and
pomade, like the waxed moustaches under the second French
empire. They are dressed in a short sort of cloak, coming down to
about the knee and tied in round the waist, of dark blue
material, with loose hanging sleeves but open round the neck,
something like a dressing-gown. At the back, just below the nape
of the neck, but not quite between the two shoulders, is a round
ring about two inches in diameter, stamped on the material in
white, and inside this is a Japanese character or crest : this is the
emblem or sign adopted either by themselves or their masters.
But they only wear their master's crest thus if he has given them
their dress. They wear tight-fitting trousers of dark blue, and
each of them has a bright-coloured and oiled paper umbrella to
keep off the sun or rain when needful, but which usually they
carry closed. On their feet are the comfortable thick white
Japanese stockings, so made that the great toe runs into a stall by
itself, like the thumb in a hand-glove, and the other four toes into
another ; by this means the sandal, or wooden clog, can be easily
attached to the foot when going out, or detached when coming
into a clean mat-floored house. They are warm to the feet and
very comfortable to wear, and with them and straw sandals the
feet never get rubbed or chafed in walking ; for which they are
far better adapted than the black leather boot and shoe of the

1881. T6KIO SHIBA TEMPLES.



25



Europeans ; many of these adopt them. Though it is the fashion for
the Japanese to discard them, they will probably hold their own
in the future as the most sensible and really comfortable foot
coverings.

There is a large semicircular sort of verandah at the top of a
flight of stone steps at the back of the palace looking out into
the garden, on which those of the party who feel inclined stand
or sit, looking at these performances until it is time to start
for the Shiba temples, which lie to the south of the city at no
very great distance from the house. We leave the carriages at the
Daimon (or " great gate ") leading into the public gardens at Shiba,
which till 1877 were the grounds of the great Buddhist temple of
Zo-jd-ji. lye-yasu, the founder of the dynasty of the Shoguns
of the Toku-gawa family in 1616, chose this beautiful temple,
originally endowed in 1393 but removed here in 1596, (so that it
then had only lately been founded at Shiba,) as the burial place for
himself and his descendants. Although he himself reposes now
100 miles away at Nikko, yet seven Shoguns and their wives and
families are buried here, and five other Shoguns of his descendants
are buried in the other group of temples at Uyeno on the north of the
town. The Shoguns were all Buddhists, and under their patronage
that form of religion with its art and literature flourished and
became the religion of the country. Since the overthrow of their
power and the restoration of the Mikado to more than nominal
authority, their religion has been overthrown also ; the endowments
of the temples have been confiscated by the government, many of
the works of art in statuary and bronze, and lacquer-work, and
paintings with which they abounded, have been cleared out of
them, and pure Shintoism adopted as the one sole religion
established by law. This consists chiefly in adoring nature-powers
(but always without the aid of images or statues), and the ancestors of
the Mikado, or anything connected with their sacred person. These
relics, however, become of course fetishes, and the ancestors gradually
rise in the estimation of their descendants so as ultimately to rule
the powers of nature themselves ; and each one of these ancestors
being revered and remembered for one or more qualities which he
particularly possessed while alive, becomes the giver, inspire^ or
strengthener of the same quality in his votaries (as a sort of
patron saint), e.g., of holiness, wisdom, swiftness, strength, memory,
&c. But beneath all this growth, the idea of the one God becomes,
in this religion as in all others except the Moslem, gradually



26 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

dimmer, certainly in the popular mind, by the intervention of all
these intermediaries. The Mikado meanwhile remains the em-
bodiment of the concentrated virtues of all these illustrious
ancestors, and in his sacred majesty they and their powers are
revered as in a concrete form.

The main hall (hondd) which stood in the centre of these
grounds where we now are, was destroyed by fire January 1st,
1874 ; it was to have been handed over to be purged for Shintoism
the next day. It is rebuilding on a much smaller scale, the
scaffolding being now up. We walk up across the court, on either
side of which there are a countless number of stone lanterns each
on the summit of its little pillar about four feet high from the
ground, and enter by the large gateway. Often as we have seen
photographs of these temples with their heavy overhanging dark-
tiled roofs and carving, we had never realised anything of the real
beauty produced by their vermillion painted beams, and the mass
of gold and lacquer, black and scarlet, and of bronze and wood
carving of birds and flowers, gold pheasants, cocks, chrysan-
themums, peonies, and monsters, amid rolls of arabesque work,
coloured with every tint of brightness and enamel, every inch of
which is finished with the elaborate finish of a cabinet. They
stand court after court, temple after temple, each different from
the other, in the midst of their parks and woods of wild weird
pines, red-stemmed and gnarled, that toss their dark-green
foliage above them as a background to it all, and with the city
of Tokio around them in the distance. The city extends over no
less than thirty-six square miles, owing to these large parks and
grounds, which not only on its edge, but also in its centre, occupy
such an enormous area. We go into three of these mortuary temples.
First into that belonging to the seventh and ninth Shdguns, in
which immediately upon entering we pass along a passage filled
with cases of Buddhist books, and along a red and black lacquered
gallery. We can scarcely believe at first that all these pillars are
real lacquer-work, and that this is real gold which is laid on so
plentifully on all sides ; and looking at the shrines which contain
the two wooden images of the two Sboguns presented by the
Mikado of those days, in 1751 and 1761, and always kept hermeti-
cally closed, and all the costly and elaborate metal work that holds
them together, we wonder how long they will remain here without
being sold, for they would fetch a large sum in the English or
American market ; in fact the acres of lacquer and carving here would



1881. TOKIO-SHIBA TEMPLES. 27

seem to be almost priceless. The floor is covered with very fine
matting, and at the sides are hanging bamboo blinds bound with
silk. Before these two shrines are an altar and two tables of
splendid red lacquer several feet long, and on the re-table in front
of the shrines are standing wooden statuettes of the four Deva
kings or archangels who guard the world on the north, the south,
the east, and the west, from the attacks of the evil spirits with
which the air on all sides is filled. Heavy gilt gates, like those to
the sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, only more elaborately
wrought, are in front of the altar ; and on every side, worked on
the lacquer, and on the metal as well as on the stone-work of the
temple outside, and on the tiles and eaves of the building, over and
over again is repeated the crest of the Tokugawa family, which
to English eyes looks like the Irish shamrock or trefoil. We then
come down into the second part of the temple, the " oratory," which
here is under the same roof as the shrines, and connected with them
by the . passage we spoke of, the ceiling of which is all one mass of
carving, gilt, and colour. Here, every month, on the 12th and 30th,
the service is held for the repose of the Shogun's soul and to pray for
his help. Here is the seat of the abbot of the monastery, and the
other mats all round for the monks who sit on their heels before
small lacquer tables, which to-day, along with the lacquer boxes
containing the rolls of Buddhist scriptures, are piled up on one
side of the entrance passage against the wall, out of the way. We
come out now into the courtyard and see the stone cistern on one
side for the water for washing the priests (just like the laver in
the temple of the Jews and the washing-place in every mosque),
and the Jarge bell which is rung on service days twice a month.
All round in rows, one behind each other, are over 200 large
bronze lanterns, placed there as a mark of respect by the territorial
nobility. The original idea of the custom seems to have been that
of lighting the souls of the departed on their way through the
darkness of the night to the spirit world. Afterwards it was kept
up in the same way, as the faithful cause candles to be placed in
Catholic churches before particular altars or pictures, and images of
the saints. The tops of some of the lanterns have been carried off by
thieves; as we go across the court we notice the black boarding which
is nailed up as a screen all along the side of the temple* to protect
the wood-work of the beams and walls, which are all highly carved
and coloured, from the weather and from the hands of thieves. We
go through a gate in another screen of carved wood-work coloured



28 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

red and gilt, up the hill behind to the wood in which are the graves
of these two Shoguns. In each case they are marked only by a
plain round stone monument about a dozen feet high and four
broad, whose shape resembles a round cupboard covered with a
stone umbrella, like the Indian topes. Their bodies are buried
somewhere near, but the exact spot is not known, in order
that they may rest without the possibility of disturbance.
Formerly a priest and a retainer in armour knelt all day on these
steps. We then went to the mortuary temple of the fourteenth
Shogun who died in 1866, and whose wife was an aunt of the
present Mikado, and her shrine with its lacquer altar and surround-
ings seemed better tended in consequence. There were some
hangings of fine white stuff by the altar, with the chrysanthe-
mum, whose golden flower is the crest of the Mikado family, and
the emblem of immortality, worked upon them. Here, as before,
in the halls are flying dragons, great white lilies, tree peonies, birds
carved about on all the beams and cornices, with sprays of fruit
blossom, and mandarin ducks the emblems of conjugal affection.
Coming out, we are led by other temples, the exterior of which
apparently is just as gorgeous as that of those into which we have
been, and as far as we can see, through their open doors, the
interior also, until, after going through some more red lacquer
gates, gilt and carved, and ascending some curious stone steps in
the wood, we arrive at the octagonal hall, containing the tomb
itself, of the second Shogun who died in 1632. Instead of being
of stone like those we saw outside just now, this one is " the most
magnificent specimen of gold lacquer to be seen in Japan." It
stands on a stone pedestal, and on its round sides are large knobs
of crystal, each as big as a man's fist, over Sanskrit letters, which
can be read through the crystal boss and are supposed to be possessed
of mystic virtue. On the panels are eight views of places, some in
China and others in Japan, and round their edges lines of Chinese
enamel work. Underneath are worked on the lacquer the lion as
king of beasts, and the tree peony as the king of flowers. This
tope or shrine after all contains nothing but the tablet with the
Shogun's name and his image in wood. Somewhere beneath the
pavement lies his body. The eight sides of the wall which protect
this shrine from the weather are covered with lacquer-work, above
which are carvings of dragons, and the eight wooden pillars which
support the roof are covered with copper plates, gilt. Turning
and coming down the steps from this just before reaching the path,



1881. TOKIO. 29

we are shown two curiously carved stones dating from 1644, one
representing the death of Gautama or Buddha and the other repre-
senting Amida, coming, surrounded with other saints " made perfect "
to welcome the departed soul. As it is nearly time for us to leave
the grounds we are only able to look into the little chapel close to
the gateway by which we go out, in which are some hanging
pictures of Buddha's 500 disciples. We see, however, on the right
the great stone torii, which always marks a Shinto temple as
distinguished from a Buddhist, and which consists simply of
two large upright posts, across the top of which are two trans-
verse beams, the upper one of which projects from the sides
and curves slightly upwards at the ends. Their very form shows
that they were originally made of wood. All stone-work in
Japan is a close imitation of carpentry. They are sometimes
covered with plates of bronze, but the shape of the wooden perch
for sacred birds is always preserved. This torii marks the en-
trance to the temple where the first Tokugawa Shogun is
venerated as a Shinto divinity. The Buddhist priests in yellow
robes and with their clean shaven faces and heads have the
same expression of devotion on their countenances as Catholic
priests.

Drove back to lunch at twelve, and at 1.30 P.M., having all shifted
into uniform, went to call on the Mikado, Mutsuhito, Emperor of
Japan, who succeeded to the throne on the death of his father Komei,
February 13th, 1867, and was crowned at Kioto, October 12th, 1868.
He is the lineal descendant of Jimmu-Tenno, who founded the
dynasty 660 B.C. It was a long drive through the town up to the castle
of the old Shoguns which stood in the centre of the city in the
midst of its own grounds, surrounded with three moats and walls.
The moat winds in a sort of huge distorted spiral round the centre,
and the road up crosses it several times. The walls by this moat are
built of large irregular shaped stones sloping inwards, and topped at
the corners every here and there by the oblong guardhouses with
their heavy-eaved roofs and skate-shaped crest. We pass many of the
yashkis, or residences in which the Daimios and their retainers
were forced to reside under the eye of the Shogun for the greater
part of the year, and which were very extensive with their court-
yards and outhouses. Most of these have been pulled down to
make way for modern European buildings, but enough remain with
their large heavy wooden gates, and quaint wooden roofs and
round tiles, the bottom one in each row stamped with the crest of the

30 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

Daiinio, and with their beam and other wood- work to cause all the
more regret for the loss of those that are gone. We pass the new
barracks of the imperial guard with their tower and cupola, and
before arriving at the British Legation we turn in through another
gateway, and after passing through what seems quite another little
town with its shops and streets close to the palace we arrive at the
door of the Mikado's temporary home Ri-Kiu (or removed palace).
The Shogun's former palace was accidentally burnt down in 1873,
the present residence is in Japanese style with European fittings.
All the passages up which we were ushered, were constructed of
white unpolished and unpainted wood, which is the only kind
allowed to be used in houses in which the Mikado lives. All
these beams and staples and cross-pieces are most beautifully
joined, and are good specimens of Japanese carpentry, which for
neatness and exactness surpasses any in the world. These
corridors and passages are generally covered with native matting,
but as this is so fine that it is quickly damaged by heavy leathern
shoes and boots, it is covered over, when Europeans are present,
with ordinary carpets. Mr, Kennedy and the secretaries of the
Legation were awaiting us there and accompanied us up to the
hall in which we were to be received by the Mikado. The sides of
this were of the same plain wood as that in the passages and cor-
ridors ; and in the centre of the long room, which was quite bare of
furniture, was an English carpet of rather staring pattern, and at the
end an English fire-place and mantel-shelf with an ordinary mirror
in European gilt frame and a time-piece. The Mikado was himself
in full uniform, dark blue tunic with heavy gold braid on the sleeves
and front. Although he is not thirty years old (having been born
on the 3rd November, 1852), he has a much aged look about the
face. He is self-possessed and evidently strenuously anxious,
though not nervous, to play his part well. The Empress Haruko
and her ladies were in Japanese costume ; she is very small and
would be very pretty if she was not painted up so according to
Japanese fashion. She was married February 9th, 1869, and was
born May 29th, 1850. Her dress was of light-coloured crape very
pretty, elegant and simple. Her hair was dressed in the way
peculiar to the Japanese court, forming a stiff sort of circular
plate like the halo of a saint, at the back of her head. All the
chamberlains were in European court dress, which had been made
at Poole's, and was just the same as the English civilian uniform
in dark blue, with gold braid on the front, wristbands and lappets



1881. TOKIO-MIKADO. 31

of the coat pockets, the only difference being that instead of our
oak leaf and acorn in the gold lace, the chrysanthemum was sub-
stituted. One of the stout chamberlains who is thus now attired, often
at other times wrestles naked with the Mikado. This amusement
is one that all Japanese are passionately fond of, both in private
and public. We could not help thinking how very much better
the Japanese gentlemen would have looked in their own old court
suits, which it seems such a thousand pities that they have
abandoned, however much they may prefer European dress for
ordinary life, although its adoption in Japan even thus is a
questionable benefit, for really nothing is so comfortable as the
loose-fitting, soft native dress which can be made either as warm
or as cool as the varying season may require. The dignity and
the picturesqueness of their national court dresses, would add
immensely to the effect of court receptions and ceremonies if it
were again revived. The officers of the squadron, who were
present and in full dress, were then presented one by one by
Mr. Kennedy to the Emperor and Empress, and after that the
Mikado entered into conversation with us both through Mr.
Nagasaki as interpreter. He welcomed us to Japan and hoped
that the Queen and the Prince and Princess of Wales were well.
Eddy assured him they were and thanked him and said, he was
glad to come to this most interesting country. He said he had
been commissioned by the Queen to announce to the Mikado that
Her Majesty had ordered her portrait to be painted in oils and for-
warded in token of friendship, and that it would shortly arrive.
The Mikado said " he should always keep it as a valuable pos-
session and as a gracious mark of the Queen's esteem, and also as
a souvenir of our visit to his country. He wished to thank the
Queen through us for the hospitable reception Her Majesty had
accorded in England to the Japanese Prince Taruhito Arisu-Gawa,
now studying at the Naval College at Greenwich, and who by the
last mail he had heard had been graciously received by Her Majesty
at Osborne." George said " the Queen was always glad to see
members of other reigning families in England, and that he and his
brother hoped that their visit to Japan, and his to England, would
serve to draw closer the ties of friendly feeling that already united
the two countries." The Empress in cheerful and genial manner
then tried to begin a conversation. Eddy asked her to accept two
wallabies which we had brought in the Bacchante from Australia.
These were great pets with all on board, as they went hopping and



32 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

frisking and booming about at meal hours all over the decks, as
wild as hawks ; they would come in through the side ports of the
stern cabins over the glacis and sit themselves down on a chair
by the side of any one reading there, and look over his shoulder
in the most ludicrously wistful way at the book, then pricking
their ears shoot out of the port as if going to jump overboard
into the sea, which they would just avoid doing by picking
themselves up suddenly on the very edge of the glacis, and
then go off at a bound to the other end of the ship. These, he
thought, by their strangeness would amuse her, more especially
as they were the first which had ever landed in Japan, and go well
with the other tame animals she had in the garden. At this she
seemed much pleased ; so they were sent off next day, and taken
up to the palace in large wooden cages, by a party of bluejackets
and marines from the Bacchante.

After remaining for about half an hour we returned to the En-
rio-qwan, the way by which we had come, contrasting in our minds
the scene at which we had just assisted with what we had read of
the old Japanese court at Kioto not twenty years ago. The corps
diplomatique then came, attending at Mr. Kennedy's invitation,
and were all presented to us both, we shook hands with and said a
few words to each. After they had gone, a curious collection of per-
forming birds was exhibited in one of the rooms ; there were some
capital talking parrots, and some pretty specimens of the little yama
(or mountain) gara which are as tricky as our own goldfinches.
Their intelligence was accidentally discovered by a street-seller of
a kind of jelly or children's sweetmeat. This man to attract his
customers used to show a yama-gara which spelled words with
lettered cards ; and finding it take, he gradually established a
little flock of twenty birds now exhibited by his sons, Seikichi and
Tamazo Matsune. These two men talked in a very piquant and
forcible manner to the birds, the Japanese words seeming to be
pronounced without much movement of the lips and chiefly from
the throat and teeth, as the birds strutted about carrying fans and
umbrellas, and did many tricks similar to those birdmen show in
the London streets, only neatly and without any hitch, manifesting
the humorous conception of their master in the tricks he taught
them. The tone and colour of the native costumes worn by the
men were more soft and pleasing than those of the jugglers
in the morning.

Several of our party then walked down across the garden to the



1881. TOKIO EN-RIO-QWAN. 33

fishing temples in the grounds, which are full of large old carp ; of
these we caught several with hook and line baited with worm.
The elder members of the party wandered about the gardens, and
found in the summer houses lacquer boxes lying on the tables
filled with large cigars, the ends of which were all tipped with
gilt. The cigars were very good, but the gilt came off on the lips.
These summer-houses were in all sorts of quaint forms, and were
built in old Japanese style before the fashion of sitting on the
knees and heels had gone out, and therefore the chairs and tables
of European shape do not look quite natural in them. The wooden
bridges that span the water of the small lake and canals (on the
sides of which there is a good deal of artificial rock and stone-
work) are also of the most irregular and angular build, a continuous
straight line being carefully avoided in any part of their construction.
It was very pleasant on the rampart at the further end of the
garden looking down Yedo Bay, on which were many specimens
of native craft going out fishing as the evening fell.

At dinner that evening there were thirty-two altogether, as,
besides our own party and Japanese officials, there came the
German minister, M. Eisendecher, and the Russian minister, M. de
Struve.

Dinner was no sooner over than, while we were having coffee and
cigarettes in one of the adjacent rooms, some most extraordinarily
clever top spinners performed. The tops were very heavy and large,
and how the man made these tops spin for such a long time was
difficult to imagine. He flung them all over the place, and caught
them again on the side and point of a stick in a most marvellous
manner; and the expression of his face while all this was going on
showed a wonderful joy and simple delight in his profession. We
went up and examined the tops, and chatted with him afterwards.
By this time the dining-room had been cleared, and we went back
to see the dancing of some little Japanese ladies and children, the
daughters and relatives of the Japanese gentlemen with us, who
came in at the further end of the room with their native dancing
master. The performance was very pretty, just the same in effect
as if the pictures of Japanese ladies in long flowing robes, with
which every one is so well acquainted in England, had all come to
life, and taken to walking about. The chief movements, however,
were those which were executed by waving of the hands, while the
elbows were kept at one moment close into the sides, and then at
another raised or lowered ; the fan which each continuously opened

VOL. II. I)



34 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

and shut was wielded in all sorts of fantastic ways. The head was
swayed from side to side in rhythm to the music of small drums,
accompanied by stringed instruments ; the combined sound of
these was more curious than agreeable to an English ear. The
whole thing was very antique and really a curiosity, being a revival
prepared for the occasion ; indeed most of the Japanese themselves
had not seen these special dances before.

Oct. 26th. Beautiful fine morning. Started at half- past nine for
the Hibiya parade ground a large grass field near the Castle, where
the Mikado was to review his troops. We drove there in carriages,
and then left these by the tents in which were all the ministers
in full uniform, and the corps diplomatique, including two Chinese
mandarins in full dress. The Emperor drove on to the ground
in his state coach, in which was also seated opposite to him, in full
uniform, Tokudaiji, the Minister of the Imperial Household. His
Majesty mounted his charger, and we also got on two horses. The
officers of the squadron who were present in full uniform were
also offered steeds to ride round with the Mikado and staff. These
were wiry little ponies, and very skittish. Most availed them-
selves of the opportunity, but some seemed a trifle anxious as
they mounted on this state occasion with naval cocked hats and
swords ; and as the little ponies kicked and sky-rocketed all over the
place, there seemed every likelihood of a general capsize of naval
officers in one direction and their paraphernalia in another. There
was a great gathering of Japanese officials, also with cocked hats
and swords. One of the medical officers from the squadron who
was most eager to mount, was, however, no sooner in the saddle
than he opened the fray by sending the heels of his steed full into
the stomach of the polite little Japanese who helped him up, and
then, without waiting to prescribe, went careering away like a sky-
rocket to the other side of the field, after which he spent the best
part of the time on the horse's neck. The brave little steed mean-
while shot about in all directions, and after nearly cannoning
against several magnates, who tried to keep out of his way, and
formed a ring to watch his erratic gyrations, lashed out at a naval
captain as he sat bolt upright on his horse, struck, and nearly
smashed his leg; then leaving the print of the hoofs on his
trousers, broke away through the crowd and came up again on the
other side, to the admiration and wonder of all who beheld him.
His rider, although he had apparently discarded his reins, hung on
manfully by the pommel, and with his cocked hat over his nose



1881. TOKIO REVIEW. 35

was like nothing so much as a rat looking out through a bunch
of scarlet geraniums, and with his sword waving up in the air,
like the stiffened tail of a tawny lion, continued his equestrian
exercises until it was time to dismount and light a cigar, and over
that to profess that he never enjoyed anything so much in his
life before.

We first rode down the lines with the Mikado ; there were about
10,000 men present, wiry, neat, and handy in appearance. The
brass band a remarkably good one played nothing but European
tunes. The artillery was very smart, and the cavalry mounted
on small ponies looked very serviceable. There is, however, only
one regiment of cavalry, of 482 men, in the whole service, owing to
the scarcity of horses in Japan. There is not a blade of grass growing
in the whole empire, therefore all fodder has to be imported for
them ; hence, too, the absence of sheep and oxen in the country. The
whole army of Japan ; with the imperial guard and local garrisons,
numbers about 44,000 men, with a first and second reserve of about
58,000 : it is contemplated to add 10,000 more to this force shortly.
We then drew up in front of the tents where the saluting post was,
and the troops present marched past. As we sat there it was most
wonderful to think of the strange transformation scene, of which this
was the token, that has passed over Japan, its rulers, people, and
the outward appearance of all things, within the last few years
and in the life-time of the present Mikado. Though we had often
heard of this before, and had come to take it almost as a matter
of course, yet it is particularly striking when on the very soil of
the country itself we see the remains of the old order of things
and these new external observances side by side.

The review was most interesting. On leaving the ground we
again admire the old Yashki buildings with their woodwork, which
would be models for any European carpenter, so beautifully are the
joints and bars of the windows and screens and gates and doors fitted
and planed. Then back to the En-rio-kwan a little before noon ;
shifted out of uniform, and went fishing again in the lake in the
garden till lunch time, to which came Mr. Kennedy, and Mr. Hawes,
who was once in the marines, but has now retired and occupies
an official position in the Japanese training college for naval cadets.
More jugglers afterwards as a digestive, with some tight-rope dancing
and strange tub performance. A man lay down on his back on a
mattress spread on the ground, put his legs up in the air, and on the
soles of his feet was placed a massive empty bronze water-jar four

D 2



36 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

feet deep, into the mouth of which climbed a small boy. The man
spun this with his feet, tossed it up in the air, caught it on the soles
of his feet again, sometimes causing the jar to stand with its mouth
uppermost while he spun it round and round, then tossed it up
again, and caught it on its side, the boy the whole time sitting
unconcernedly inside. His assistants then inserted, one after the
other, between the jar and his feet, a series of spitkins or wooden
pans about a foot each in depth and decreasing in diameter, so
that when the seventh or eighth was in position the jar was at least
seven feet above the soles of his feet, and standing on the top of
this pile of smaller tubs. The boy now crawled out from the
neck of the jar, and proceeded to clamber about on the outside for
a while, the man all the time balancing the pile on his feet, until
the boy gets back into the jar when, by a sudden kick of the legs,
he sends the spitkins flying in all directions, and catches the jar and
boy as they descend seven or eight feet through the air on his feet
again. It took two men to lift the empty jar on to his feet to begin
with, and the most extraordinary thing is the great weight he thus
pedipulates.

Afterwards our party divided itself in twos and threes, and had an
afternoon in the town. We two went in a couple of jinrikishas (or
" man-power carriages ") ; they are like two-wheeled perambulators
or toy gigs, with light shafts and a hood, and just hold one Euro-
pean person comfortably, or two Japanese, and are drawn by a man
instead of a pony. Sometimes a second harnesses himself on in front
with a rope attached to the end of the shafts and carried over his
right shoulder, and for a long run he and his mate often change about
and run tandem, and in going down hill one will leave his place in
front and come behind to check and steady the carriage. The men
are short, wiry imps, and easily draw thus twice their own weight
their legs, calves, and thighs are enormously developed through con-
stant running. They used to be tattooed all over their bodies, but
this being now forbidden by law they must wear a pale blue shirt
with hanging sleeves, tucked in at the waist, and tight- fitting breeches
of the same colour reaching just below the knee. When out of the
town they often remove the shirt, and run merely with the waist
covering. Their legs and feet are bare, with the exception of straw
sandals fastened on by means of plaited straw wisps, one of which goes
round the ankle, and the other over the foot down between the big
and second toe. Some of them still have the front and top
of their heads shaved in native fashion, but as this is discouraged



1881.



TOKIO-JINKIKISHAS.



37



by the officials, most have now shock heads of thick black
upstanding hair, which grows all the stronger from the effects
of previous shaving. When waiting for a fare, the little
carriage is left with the shafts on the ground, and the man rests
himself by sitting on the foot-board, with the rough rug thrown
over his neck and shoulders, which, directly he is hired, he puts
over your knees. The excellence of a jinrikisha consists in its
careful slinging, or the way it is balanced on the axle, like the beam
of a scale ; when a man is sitting in it, and when the shafts are
horizontal, the centre of gravity is immediately over the axle. When
the shafts are raised for running, the weight is thrown a little in




JINRIKISHA.



rear of the axle, and this causes their ends, when grasped in the
hand of the runner, to require the action of his elbows upon them
to restore equilibrium, and thus s.ome of his own weight is taken off
his legs. It is thus easier to run in a jinrikisha when it is filled,
than when empty, over a level ground. When once started the
men go at a steady trot of nearly six miles an hour, and
prefer to keep up the pace for an hour or so without slackening
speed to a walk, and then to rest altogether for a few minutes,
during which they take a supply of rice and a puff of their little
pipes ; they are then ready to get under way again. The same
men will cover nearly fifty miles in one day ; their wages are



38 CEUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

about threepence a man per hour. In long distances a European
gets tired of sitting in the rather cramped position that the seat
requires, but for short distances in the towns it is impossible to
imagine a more comfortable, steady, easy-going, light, or handy
means of conveyance ; every one, native and European, uses them
and them alone. They were only introduced in 1866, and already
the country is overrun with them ; there are more than 250,000 in
Tokio alone. It is not probable that they will ever be superseded
by larger wheeled vehicles, as draught cattle must always remain
exceedingly rare in Japan owing to the scarcity of grass food.
They are made in all colours and qualities, and are often lacquered
with quaint devices. Mounted in these we rattled along past the old
Castle walls, which are made of great stones that face an earthen
mound, up to the British Legation, to. call on Mrs. Kennedy, whom
we found at home. We went all over Sir Harry Parkes's pretty
house and grounds (he himself is absent in Europe on leave)
and in the garden saw the other two detached houses which are
occupied by the secretaries of the Legation ; then out on to the
lawn-tennis ground, from which, as the house stands on the top of
a hill, there is a good view over the west side of Tokio.

Leaving the Legation we went on northwards, with Mr. Satow,
in another jinrikisha, to the Sho-kon-sha, on the plateau a little
to the north above Ku-dan-zaka, where we saw the monument of
bronze bayonets, erected in 1880 by the soldiers of the Imperial
Guard, in memory of their comrades who fell fighting on the
Emperor's side in the late Satsuma rebellion. Close by stands the
large Shinto temple, for the worship of the spirits of those who
fell in the civil war of 1868, and also in honour of those who fell
in 1873 and 1877. There is the usual torii (bird's-rest) in front
of the entrance ; from the crossbars strips of white paper in
bunches dangle at the ends of strings, representing the ancient
offerings of hemp. Standing by the beacon we have an extremely
grand view. Looking westward we see the mountains, 0-yama
and Fuji, and the Hakone range, in the distance : then, turning
eastward, our eyes wander over all the most populous parts of
the city, and the black roofs of the isolated one-storied houses,
while those of the temples in their inclosures stand up here
and there above the rest. In the extreme distance to the
east is the country of Kadzusa and the sea ; immediately on
the right are the extensive grounds of the old Shogun's Castle.
We get into the jinrikishas again, and go down the hill and



1881. TOKIO MIKADO. 39

round the north side of the Castle rampart, crossing the moat,
and make our way through good broad open roads to the
Kwan-Koba, or bazaar for modern products of Japanese art and
industry. The goods here are cheap, and everything is marked
at fixed prices ; the different kinds of wares are exposed for sale
in different parts of the extensive building, that is to say, all the
pottery stalls are in one part, the leathern goods in another,
woodwork in a third, and silk, &c., in a fourth. We bought several
small specimens of each of these. Here we met several of the other
members of our party, and also other officers and men who have come
up from the squadron at Yokohama ; but we are obliged to leave, and
getting our purchases into our jinrikishas run back through the
town on the east side of the Castle, past the Asaksa temples.
We have thus, since we started, made a complete circuit through
those portions of the town that lie round the Castle inclosure.
At 6 P.M., having shifted into uniform, we went to dine with the
Mikado, at the same palace at which we called upon him yesterday.
The dinner (to which all the ministers were invited) was .served in
a large hall that had never been used before ; its sides were
constructed with the same plain white wood crossbeams as we
remarked yesterday in the other parts of the building, and the
wall spaces between them were decorated with Japanese paintings
in the old style the stork, the symbol of long life, and the ever-
green fir tree, the symbol of happiness, being introduced frequently.
These two objects it is the proper compliment to have always
present before the eyes of a guest at a Japanese entertainment.
There were a few huge china jars between five and six feet high,
each containing a tree in flower, standing in the corners and by the
sides of the doors, and with the exception of these there was no
other furniture of any kind in the room beyond the dining-table
and chairs, and the effect of this was cool and pleasing. The
service of gold plate on the table was made by Garrard, and was
the same which we had seen at Marlborough House before it was
sent out some years ago. Its only ornaments are the imperial
dragon and the chrysanthemum the Mikado's crest. These
flowers also are the only ones which are used for the decoration of
the table. The dessert service of Minton china was an exact
facsimile of the blue one with roses in plaques at Marlborough
House. The Mikado talked to us both, one on each side of him,
through Mr. Nagasaki as interpreter, during the whole of dinner
time. At the end His Majesty proposed the health of the Queen,



40 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

which we all drank standing, and then Eddy proposed that
of the Mikado, in which all joined in a similar manner. After-
wards (there were no ladies present) we all went into another
large room which opened on two sides into a broad verandah,
beyond which was the garden ; this was prettily illuminated with
lamps hanging in the trees, under which were stationed two
bands of brass intruments, each very good, which had played
alternately during dinner, and were continuing to do so now. Here
coffee and cigarettes were served, and the Mikado spoke for a few
minutes to each of the foreign ministers in succession ; this His
Majesty has never done before. Meanwhile we had some in-
teresting conversation with Admiral Kawamura, the Minister of
Marine, and with Iwakura, the third Minister of State, who
had a narrow escape of being murdered in 1874, and who as
much as any man has helped to guide his country through the
difficult passage, from the old to the new regime, and who seemed
cheerful and confident of the future. We also heard a good deal
from Baron Eisendecher, the German minister, about Prince
Henry of Prussia's recent visit to Japan. After that we went
home with Mr. Kennedy to the British Legation. Here there
was an evening party, to which a good many English residents had
been invited by Mrs. Kennedy, and here came, too, a Japanese
conjuror, who gave a clever performance. Two ordinary chop-
sticks were tied together and opened out like legs, and made
to dance on the floor in front of him, as he sat on his knees and
heels. It was impossible to see how this was done, as the sticks
bobbed and frisked about as if bewitched ; every now and then
he waved his fan in the air a foot or two above them. He then
borrowed a heavy gold watch-chain from one of the company, and
made this obey his commands rear itself on end like a snake
from the floor, and there dance on its tail. After doing the butter-
fly, and several other sleight-of-hand tricks, he retired, and was
followed by a female artist, who, kneeling on the floor, spread out
a succession of large sheets of paper in front of her, and then with
a large brush proceeded to paint with free sweeps several pictures
one after another. It was really remarkable how deftly and
quickly this was done. It is impossible to remove any colour from
Japanese paper when once it has been laid on, and consequently
every touch has to be left as first placed, and its effect well
calculated. The first drawing was that of a large tree with
flowers in full blossom, and amongst the leaves on one of the



1881. TOKIO-MIKADO. 41

branches was an old cat sitting up and watching a couple of
butterflies. From the first stroke to the last the drawing took
her five minutes to execute. Got back to the En-rio-kwan and to
bed soon after 11 P.M. The jinrikisha men at night time carry
suspended from one of the shafts a small long paper lantern, on
the sides of which are painted in a circle their name or number
in Japanese letters.

Oct. 27th. Up at 6.30 A.M. and out for a beautiful ride on horse-
back with Prince Louis of Battenberg and the German minister.
We went all round the Uyeno woods and parks on the north of the
city ; with us was Prince Kita Shirakawa, who has been studying
in Germany, and as a boy was the high priest of the great temple
in this park. A son of the reigning Mikado was always high
priest of this temple, as the Sbogun found it convenient to have
one of the sacred family at hand to proclaim Mikado in case of
his finding it necessary to break with the court at Kioto. And,
in fact, in the last civil war, before the final overthrow of the
Shogun, he had proclaimed Prince Kita Shirakawa Mikado, who
was, however, pardoned when the Shogun's forces were overthrown
by those of the present emperor. We came back quite hungry
for breakfast, after which we were tattooed on the arms. At
9.30 A.M. we got into uniform, and the Mikado came to call at
the En-rio-kwan. Before his arrival he sent as a present to both of
us four beautiful bronze vases, each three feet high, and worked
with silver and gold figures of dragons and flowers on the surface,
and four cases containing rolls of silk brocade. Modern Japanese
silk fabrics are thin, but the old fabrics are narrow and very rich
and heavy brocades, woven in narrow Japanese looms. The
Mikado still has these rolls of silk brocade made for himself alone,
and occasionally sends them as sacred presents. We thanked
him very much for these, and also for the box of strange imperial
sweetmeat (which is only made for him). This he brought,
and it was carried into the room in a fine old lacquer
case a yard long, which they told us was always taken about
as a "snack-box" with him, whenever he went out; though
some one suggested that it contained the mystic jewel (a curious
stone with a red top and a white bottom, and of a pear shape)
which belonged to the sun-mother of the first Mikado, and which
each in succession always keeps near his person, as a talisman to
enable the possessor to obtain the gratification of all his desires.
The first Mikado is said to have reigned 660 B.C. He stayed



42 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

with us about half an hour, and after he had gone we went to
see the Naval College (Kai-gun Hei-gak-ko), founded 1869, and
just outside the grounds. There was a band playing by the gate,
and the officers and cadets were drawn up in line on the inside ;
amongst these were the young Prince Yamashina, and Admirals
Kawamura and Nakarnura. When the college was first established,
many English naval officers, by permission of the Admiralty, were
here employed by the Japanese Government for terms of three
or more years. Now they are able to dispense entirely with
the help of foreigners. Mr. Ito, director of the college, took
us first into a large wooden hall with boarded floor, on one side
of which all the cadets were drawn up in line in working dress.
The bugle then sounded for action, and they rushed over to
the opposite side to cast loose, load, and fire through the ports,
which formed one side of the hall, the 7-inch Armstrong guns,
at a target moored off the shore in the bay. The time between
the bugle sounding and the lowering the port after the guns were
fired was two and a half minutes. They hit the target several
times. After further drill, some of the cadets put on their fencing
helmets and padded leathern jackets, and fenced with foils ; others
made some very good play with a long, heavy, old two-handed
Japanese broadsword, which, of course, was all hacking and hewing.
This is only done as a gymnastic exercise. And long may they con-
tinue to practise this old art, for " all authorities, medical and other,
bear witness that the exercise of arms, whether in the school of the
small sword, or in the practice of the steadier sabre, is the most
admirable of regular corrections for the ill habits of a sedentary
life. It is as true now as when George Silver wrote it under
Queen Elizabeth that ' the exercising of weapons putteth away
aches, griefs, and diseases ; it increaseth strength and sharpeneth
the wits ; it giveth a perfect judgment, it expelleth melancholy,
choleric and evil conceits ; it keepeth a man in breath, perfect
health, and long life.' " x We then went into the museum, where,
as at the college at Greenwich, there is a collection of models and
sections of all kinds of ships. After that we saw the cadets go
aloft for sail-drill on a full-rigged frigate moored in the basin in
the grounds attached to the college. Then, after walking through
the class-rooms in which were Prince Sadamaro Yamashina and
his brother Prince Kotohito, who are both naval cadets, and con-
stantly come across to see us at the En-rio-kwan we were obliged
1 F. Pollock, Form and History of the Sword.

1881. T6KI6. 43

to leave, and get into the carriages waiting to take us to lunch
with Prince Hijashi Fushimi. The house is a very pretty one, its
exterior like that of a French house in the Champs Elysees, but
the interior full of beautiful articles of Japanese workmanship ;
in the drawing-room we saw some very old kakemono (hanging
pictures). The princess and several other lady, members of the
imperial family (all in native costume) were there. Afterwards
we went down through the garden, which is laid out in the
old national style, and occupies the top of one of the many hills
overlooking Tokio, to a polo ground, where Japanese dakiu, a
sort of polo, was played. It differs from English polo in that the
little cane stick, with which it is played, has a small netted string
bag attached to its end ; in this they try to catch the ball from
the ground instead of hitting it, and then throw it into a large
pouch, through a hole about fifteen inches in diameter perforated in
an upright wooden screen which stands at one end of the course.
Whichever side gets a certain number of balls into the hole first,
wins. The two sides use different coloured balls, and the players
have not only to score for their own side, but also, of course, by
charging and manoeuvring, prevent the others from scoring. The
name and origin of the game are Chinese. After looking on at the
game for some time, in which Prince Kita Shirakawa and Prince
Fushimi were leaders of sides, we both mounted ponies and tried
our hands at it. After playing two or three games we left with
Mr. Satow in jinrikishas for Atago Yam a, where we went up
some very steep stone steps to the top of a precipitous hill over-
looking Tokio. There are two flights of steps side by side ; the
more precipitous ones, up which we came, are called men's steps,
and the less steep ones at the side the women's steps. On the
summit are a number of little tea-sheds, where they make cherry-
blossom tea, which is supposed to be a great delicacy. Its colour
is very light, and its flavour is faint, like the scent of the flower
itself. We had some in very small cups without handles, while we
sat looking out at the magnificent view over the town and surround-
ing country and bay to the south-east. The roofs of the Asaksa
temples with their surroundings seem quite close to us on the north-
east, and beyond them on the left rise the wooded slopes of the Castle
grounds ; on the south we see the Shiba temples, with their roofs
rising among the trees ; close to us on the west a wholly different
suburb of the town to any we have been in yet, with its valleys
and streams ; by the side of these, rise tier upon tier of the ordinary



44 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

black-roofed, one-storied, wooden-screened houses a wilderness of
sheds and houses straggling over an area nearly as large as that
of London itself, only without its smoky canopy, and with
many green trees and open parks interspersed. It contains a
population of over a million, more than twice the popu-
lation of Birmingham, and three times that of Manchester
or Leeds. Close by these tea-sheds is a temple, where we saw
a sacred white horse fed and venerated, and also a number of
pigeons, which it is supposed to be a meritorious act to feed with
rice and small cakes crumbled after buying them in the tea-
gardens. Down the steps we went and into the jinrikishas for
the temple of Sen-gaku-ji (or " Spring-hill Monastery ") and the
tombs of the forty-seven Ronins. These lie some way to the south
of the town, and we rattle along thither past the Shiba gardens,
sometimes wheeled in single file, and at other times alongside each
other when we want to ask a few questions or otherwise converse.
The well-known tale of these retainers we had read in Mitford's
Talcs of Old Japan. It all happened only at the beginning
of the last century, and in the reign of Queen Anne. We got out
and walked up the hill along the path which leads to the tombs at
the top. On the left-hand side of this path we were shown the well
where the faithful retainers washed the head of him who had
caused their master's death, and whom they had slain, according
to their oath, before they placed it on the tomb of their lord.
Under the old ginko trees on the summit were all the tombs
arranged round the sides of a small square court. In one corner
was the grave of the leader of the forty-seven, and next to his on the
other side of the stone fence that of the young noble whose life he
and his comrades avenged at the sacrifice of their own. On one or
two of the stone monuments over the graves of the Ronins were
small sprays of evergreen, and traces where incense had been lately
burnt by some who admired the virtue of these men, who were the
deeply-reverenced representatives of the old feudal chivalry and
high Japanese feeling. Small painted images of the forty-seven
" masterless " heroes and martyrs are still exhibited in a little temple
just outside. Then home to dinner at the En-rio-kwan, and after
that to a ball at the Imperial College of Engineering (K6-bu Dai-
gakko), given by the Mikado to the English residents at Tokio and
Yokohama, and to which two special trains from the latter place
both for going and returning had been arranged. Prince and
Princess Higashi Fushimi and the other Japanese princes and



1881. TOKIO DUCK-HUNT. 45

their wives were there, and also several Japanese ladies in native
dress, looking very pretty, but they did not dance. Several officers
from the squadron and fleet put in an appearance, as did also a
large number of Japanese in black evening costume, but very few
of these danced. There was plenty of room, as the ballroom was a
large one, built in horrid European fashion, with iron pillars and
girders supporting great galleries at the sides and one end. The
best thing that can happen to it is to be shaken down by the next
earthquake when no one is in it. The prettiest part of the whole
business, however, was the arrangement of lamps and lanterns over
the entrance and exterior.

Oct. ZSth. Started at 6.30 A.M., and went with the Prince
Kuroda wild duck netting. There was one large lagoon on which
were a number of wild duck and teal, and out from this through
the woods that surrounded it on all sides were cut eight or ten
narrow dykes, each leading up to another small pond entirely
shut in by trees. On the bank of each of these smaller ponds
was a small wooden hut to which the tame ducks, at the tapping of
the gamekeeper on a board, are in the habit of coming to be fed.
Accordingly he now scatters the food and taps on the wood, and
immediately up the dyke from the larger lake come swimming
two or three tame ducks, who thus decoy no end of the wild ducks
along with them into the small pond. Then at a signal from the
gamekeeper we all come forward from our hiding-places behind in
the wood, and catch as many as we can of the wild duck as they
rise off the water to fly away, with nets, one of which each of us
carries, like a large butterfly net at the end of a pole eight or nine
feet long. This operation is repeated at each of the small ponds
all round the lagoon, until about forty- seven wild duck in all were
thus captured. The Daimio, whose whole soul is devoted to sport,
has some trained kestrel hawks which were unhooded and flown
at some of the wild duck when rising in the air. Before the
revolution he ruled a province and kept up an army of 30,000
men ; now dethroned, and his yashiki or palace in Tokio occupied
by the foreign office, he spends his days as a gentleman of the old
school, cheerfully as best he can in the midst of an altered world.
Some of the old nobility, strong in their feudal castles and sur-
rounded by their armed retainers, used to draw from their wide
estates yearly revenues of from 40,000 to 350,000. But they gave
it all up of their own free will, in order, in the words of one of their
leaders, " firmly to establish the foundations of the imperial govern-



46 CRUISE OF H.M.S. BACCHANTE. 1881.

rnent." Back to breakfast at 9.30 and then the tattooer finished our
arms. He does a large dragon in blue and red writhing all down the
arm in about three hours. He first sketches the outline on the skin
in Indian ink and water, and then pricks in the colours required,
blue or red, with little instruments that look like camel-hair-
brushes, only instead of hairs they consist of so many very minute
needles. One man mixes the colours and the other tattooes,
holding the instrument in the right hand and grasping your arm
with the left, while he tightens the surface of the skin on which the
drawing is to be made between his thumb and fore-finger. We
did not find the pricking hurt at all, but this varies with different
people and according to the part of the body on which the drawing
is made : the best parts to have tattooed are those where the veins
do not lie near the surface. The man who did most of our party
was beautifully tattooed over the whole of his body, and the effect
of these Japanese drawings in various colours and curves on his
glistening skin was like so much embroidered silk. Like so many
of their old customs tattooing has been abolished by law, but these
two artists were allowed to come to us in our own room here.
Two others went on board the Bacchante, where they took up their
quarters for two or three days, and had their hands full with
tattooing different officers and men. After this, we started off to
some curio shops over the Ni-hom-bashi (or " Japan bridge "), from
which as from a centre the distances used to be reckoned along the
T6-kai-do and other roads throughout Japan. The sides of the
bridge, as of most others here, are constructed of curious stone-
work in posts and bars, evidently imitated from wood. It was
near here that the old English pilot, William Adams, lived in a
sort of honourable captivity in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

He was the first Englishman who came to Japan : he was hired
by the Dutch in 1598 as pilot-major to a fleet of five ships. The
vessels parted company, and he was forced with his ship to winter
at the Straits of Magellan. After meeting with extraordinary
adventures, and escaping unheard-of dangers, the twenty-four men
who alone were left resolved to direct their course for Japan ; the
general, the master, and all the officers had been murdered.
After losing others, he arrived in Japan in 1600 ; was sent to prison,
and by the efforts of the Jesuits and Portuguese nearly put to
death. Afterwards the Shogun allowed him two pounds of rice a
day and twelve ducats a year ; he then built a ship of eighty tons,
and taught the Shogun geometry and mathematics, and won greatly



1881. TOKIO. 47

on his favour. He made him many promises, but would by no
means let him go ; he endowed him with a lordship, and eighty or
ninety husbandmen to be his slaves and servants. Adams describes
the island and the people, who he says are " of good nature, courteous
above measure, and valiant in war ; and that there is not a land
better governed by civil policy." Eleven years after, he writes again
to his friends in England, his intermediate letters having been all
intercepted by the Dutch ; he says that the Shogun was charmed to
hear that the King of England had such a good opinion of him as
to be about to send an embassy ; and Adams boldly asserted that
his countrymen would be as welcome and free as in the port of
London. They came, and Eichard Cocks, a person of great
experience, was appointed head of the new traders. But the
Shogun was so far like James that he had an intense aversion to
tobacco, and put 150 persons at Ozaka into jail for smoking. The
trade, however, between the two countries went on for a short
time; but in 1623 all the British factories in Japan were
abandoned. When Adarns died he bequeathed his goods " to his
two dear wives/' one of whom was in England, and the other a
Japanese lady here.

This is the busiest part of the town, and here you see in the
streets some of the most characteristic mixtures of old and new
Japan, both as regards the houses and shops, and also the dresses of
the people. We got some very nice old ivory carved netsukes (or
little figures three or four inches high) and little pieces of old
bronze and modern metal work at Mikawaya's, and then walked up
to the Shinto temple of Kanda at the top of its hill. This is one
of the oldest temples in the place, and is dedicated to the aboriginal
deity of the country, who resigned his throne in favour of the
Mikado's ancestors when they descended from heaven. The
temple is an extremely popular one, and the festival held here on
the 15th of October is one of the most frequented. We saw the
sacred white horse, but he looked unclean and unhappy as he stood
in his shed in the middle of the grounds open on four sides. His
head was hanging forward, and through never having had any
exercise whatever the poor creature looks as if he was no more fit
to carry a god than a man. There are two fine torii, and a grey
wooden gateway, on which the metal work used for fastening the
wood together shows very well. The temple itself is of red painted
wood ornamented with gold. Though it has lately been purified
of Buddhist ornaments, there remain still more handsome craving

More to come...later...lol

Unless anyone wants to see anymore I wont be adding..

Its more than a books worth...took me an hour to separate into 10 saved sections.

Barb...Do we know what capacity he was on the ship?

A passenger or a seaman?

It looks really interesting to read but I would like to know things from his point of view as I'm reading it.

I find the pic I posted above when the ship was in Australia as sooo fascinating (if I have enlarged the correct boat)

I just keep thinking my great grandfather was right there!

Thank you so much Barb for all the information you must have spent hours putting together.

I believe my copy of Auntie Rose Boi was 'stolen'...do you have it online?

I know I, as well as the others, would love to read it.