can be sure of finding a tea-house close by, where you may rest and refresh
yourself on the fragrant tea of Japan. Children romp and play on the
verandas of the temples without thought of harm, and run as they please
through the edifices. Outside are the tea-gardens ; and the people chatter
and laugh as they move to and from the temple, without any of the so-
lemnity of a congregation entering or leaving a church in America. At
the hour of worship, the crowd kneels reverently, and pronounces in
unison the prayers that are repeated by the priest , and when the prayers
are ended, they return to their sport or their work as gayly as ever.

" I must not fail to tell you of a remarkable temple that we have seen ;
not that any are unworthy of mention, but this one is certainly very
curious. It is known as the Temple of Rengenhoin, and contains one
thousand ^3ols of large size; then each idol in this lot is surrounded by
several smaller ones, and there is one idol larger than all the rest. The



WONDERFUL MARKSMEN.



297



whole number is said to be 33,333. "We did not count them to make sure
that the estimate was correct, but I should think that there must be thirty
thousand at least, so that a few odd thousands, more or less, would make no
difference. The whole of the inside of the temple is full of them, and each
figure is said to have a
particular fable connect-
ed with it. The temple
is nearly four hundred
feet long, and is certain-
ly a very fine building ;
and there is an artificial
pond in front of it,
which is covered with
aquatic flowers in the
season for them. There
is a veranda that was
used in olden times for
a shooting-gallery for
archery purposes ; it is
more than two hundred
feet long, and there are
records of some famous
matches that have been
shot there. The best
on the books took place
more than six hundred
years ago, when one
man is said to have hit
the bull's-eye of the tar-
get 8,000 times out of 10,000, and another is reported to have done the same
thing 8,133 times in 13,053. That was certainly good shooting, and I
don't believe that it would be easy to find a bowman to-day who could
equal it.

" We have seen one of the famous bells of Japan, or rather of Kioto,
for it is this city that has always been celebrated for its bells. The
greatest of them lies on the ground just outside of one of the temples,
and it is not a piece of property that a man could put in his pocket and
walk off with. It is fourteen feet high, twenty-four feet in circumference,
and ten inches thick. How much it weighs nobody knows, as the Japan-
ese never made a pair of scales large enough to weigh it with. The Jap-




A JAPANESE ARCHER.



THE BOY TRAVELLERS.



aiicse bells have generally a very sweet
tone, and to hear them booming out
on the evening air is not by any means
disagreeable. The art of casting them
was carried to a state of great perfec-
tion, and stood higher, two or three
centuries ago than it does at present.

" If I should name half the temples
and public places we have seen I should
make you wish, perhaps, that I had not
written at all, as the list alone would be
tedious, and I could no more give you
an idea of the peculiar beauty and at-
tractions of each than I could describe
the perfume of each flower in a bou-
quet from the hands of the florist. One
temple had a large cemetery attached to
it, and we walked around looking at the
inscriptions in a language which we
could not read, and studying symbols
\ve could not understand. The tem-
ple stands in a grove, as do nearly all the temples of Kioto, and the place
reminded us very much of some of our burial-places at home.

"Then we have had glimpses of the way the people spin cotton, and
perform other work in the manufacturing line. Their apparatus is very




TEMPLE HELL AT KIOTO.




REELING COTTON.



BURIAL-PLACE AT KIOTO.



299




300 THE BOY TRAVELLERS.

simple, and it is rather surprising than otherwise that they can accomplish
s<> much with so little machinery. Then we have walked about the streets,
and several times we have had close escapes from being run over by some
of the carts that were carrying heavy loads. With two men to push them,
and two pulling at the same time, they will move loads that would be no
small matter for a pair of horses. They keep up a great shouting, and at
first it puzzles you to know why they do it until you remember that it is
desirable they should all pull together. You can hear them a long way
off, and if you get in their way it is your own fault, as it was ours.




HANDCART FOR A QUARTETTK.

" Well, if we kept on telling you all we have seen in Kioto we should
be a long time at it, and so we may as well stop short. Besides, we are
going to Lake Biwa, and it is time to be off. If you enjoy this letter half
as much as we have enjoyed the material for making it you will have a
very pleasant time over it."

The party went to Lake Biwa as they had proposed, and certainly no
one should omit it from his excursions in the vicinity of Kioto. The
distance is only seven miles, and an excellent road leads there from the
city. Along the route they met a dense crowd of people coming and
going, for there is a vast amount of business between the city and the
lake. There were men on foot and in jin-riki-shas, there were porters
with loads and porters without loads, there were pack-horses in great
number, and there were wagons with merchandise bound" for the interior
or for the seaboard. Some of the pack-horses had burdens the reverse of
savory, and the boys learned on inquiry that they were transporting liquid
manure to the farms near the borders of the lake. Along the roadside



VIEW OF LAKE BIWA.



301




HORSE CARRYING LIQUID MANURE.



they saw little family

groups that were always

more or less picturesque;

fathers were caring for

their children, and seemed

to take great delight in

playing the part of nurse.

It is very common in all

the Japanese cities to see

men thus occupied, and

they never appear to be

weary of their tasks. In

summer both parent and

child will be thinly clad,

\vhile in winter they will

be wrapped against the cold. The summer garments are not always so

thick as the rules of polite society require, and even the winter costume is

not very heavy.

Lake Biwa is a beautiful sheet of water, surrounded by picturesque

mountains and smiling valleys.
Steamers ply upon it, so that an
excursion may be made on its
waters with the utmost ease ;
and all around it there are picnic
booths where parties may sit and
enjoy the view. The time of our
friends was limited, and so they
had only a glimpse of the lake
from one of those pleasure re-
sorts, if a couple of hours spent
there may be called a glimpse.

They returned to Kioto, and
proceeded without delay to
Kobe. They found the railway
journey much more rapid than

the one by jin-riki-sha, but it had the demerit of carrying them so fast that

very little could be seen of the country. The day after their arrival at

Kobe the steamer was ready to take them to Nagasaki and Shanghai, and at

the appointed hour they went on board. Practically, they had finished their

sight-seeing in Japan, as they were not to break the journey until setting




THE PATERNAL NCRSE.



302



THE BOY TRAVELLERS.




PICNIC BOOTH OVERLOOKING LAKE B1WA.



foot on Chinese soil. They left it with the most agreeable recollections,
and the boys, as they stood on the deck of the steamer slowly moving out
of the harbor of Kobe, simultaneously asked the question,
" Wonder if we shall ever see it again ?"




A MAKEH OF BOWS.



THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN.



303



CHAPTER XXII.

THE INLAND SEA AND NAGASAKI. CAUGHT IN A TYPHOON.

FROM Kobe westward the route lies through the famous Inland Sea of
Japan, known to the Japanese as the Suwo Nada. The Inland Sea
is more like a lake than an arm of the ocean ; and there have been trav-
ellers who could not readily believe that it was corinected with the ocean,
and that its waters were salt instead of fresh. The distance is, in round
numbers, about two hundred and fifty miles; and through the entire voy-
age the land is constantly in sight, and generally close at hand. The
islands rise sharply from the water, and a large portion of them are
densely wooded and exceedingly picturesque.




THE INLAND SKA NEAR HIOGO.



During the whole of the voyage, as long as the daylight favored them,
our young friends remained on deck, and studied the scenery along the
route. Sometimes the sea widened out to fifty miles or more, and at
others it contracted so that there was no sign of a passage before them,
and it was difficult to say which way the steamer would turn. Now and



304



THE BUY TRAVELLERS.



then the islands were so close together that the steamer made her course
as though she were tracing the sinuosities of the Mississippi River, and

it was necessary to

keep a sharp lookout

. .
to avoid accidents on

the numerous rocks
that lie sunken in the
channel. Mishaps to
the steamers are of
rare occurrence, as
the channel has been
carefully buoyed, and
the pilots understand
their business fully ;
but it is otherwise
with the unwieldy
junks, which are often
driven by an adverse
wind directly into the dangers their captains are seeking to avoid. Tire
traffic through the Inland Sea is very great, both by the steamers and by
the junks; and sometimes whole fleets of the latter may be seen waiting
in some of the sheltering nooks for a favoring wind. The steamers make
the passage from one end to the other of the Inland Sea in less than
twenty-four hours; but the junks are frequently a fortnight in covering
the same distance. They are never in a hurry, and therefore time is no
object.




APPROACHING 8IMONESKKI.




DANGEROUS PLACE ON THE SUWO NADA.



THE HARBOR OF NAGASAKI. 305

The Inland Sea is entered soon after leaving Kobe, and it terminates
at Simoneseki, where there is a narrow strait leading into the open waters.
Our friends wanted to land at Simoneseki, where the steamer made a halt
of a couple of hours ; but they were informed that the port was not
opened to foreigners, and, therefore, their only view of it was a distant
one. However, they were consoled by the reflection that they could have
plenty of time at Nagasaki, where the ship was to remain a day and a
half before continuing her voyage. Nagasaki was the first place opened
to foreigners, and there are many points of interest about the city.

Hardly was the anchor down when our trio entered a boat and were
rowed to the shore. Nagasaki is prettily situated in a bay that is complete-
ly landlocked, and affords secure anchorage to ships even in the severest
gales. Doctor Bronson had been in the harbor of Rio Janeiro, in South
America, and said that the bay of Nagasaki was a sort of pocket edition
of that of Rio Janeiro. The hills rise abruptly from the water, and lie in
terraces that seem to lose themselves in the distance. Some of the hills
are wooded, while others are cleared and cultivated; and in either case
there are evidences of the most careful attention on the part of the inhab-
itants of the country. Looking seaward the hills gradually separate until
the entrance of the bay is reached ; here the island of Pappenberg stands
directly across the mouth of the bay, and, while seemingly obstructing it,
serves as a breakwater against the in-rolling waves.




PAPPENBERG ISLAND.

20



306 THE BOY TRAVELLERS.




WOMEN OF NAGASAKI.



" That island has a fearful history," said Doctor Bronson, while they
were looking at it when the steamer entered the harbor.

" Do you mean the island of Pappenberg ?" Frank asked.

" I know," said Fred ; " it has a history connected with the establish-
ment of Christianity in Japan more than two hundred years ago."

"I think I have already told you something of the attempt to make
Japan a Christian country," the Doctor continued. " The island of Pap-
penberg is one of the places that witnessed the extinction of the Christian
religion in Japan after it had gained a strong footing. Do you observe
that one side of the island is like a precipice ?"

The boys regarded the point to which their attention was directed ;
and they regarded it more attentively when they were told that from that
steep rock many thousands of men and women were hurled, solely for the
offence of being Christians. Those that were not killed by the fall were
drowned in the sea, and not one was allowed to escape. Pappenberg is
known in history as the Tarpeian Rock of Japan. It is now used as a
picnic resort of the foreign inhabitants of Nagasaki, and a more delightful
spot for a pleasure excursion could not be easily found.

According to some writers there were nearly a hundred thousand
Christians massacred after the discovery of the conspiracy which was to
put Japan under the control of Portugal, but the Japanese say that these
figures are an exaggeration. It is difficult to get at the truth of the mat-
ter, as neither party can be relied on for accuracy, or rather the accounts
that have come down to us cannot be considered impartial.

As nearly as can be ascertained the first European who landed on Jap-



WORK OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER.



307



anese soil was Meudez Pinto, a Portuguese who combined the occupations
of merchant and pirate in such intimate relations that it was not always
easy for him to determine where the one ended and the other began. He
has been greatly slandered, and his name has an ignoble place in history, as
that of a champion liar. The fact is, that the stories he told on his return
to Europe, and which caused him to be called " The Mendacious," were
substantially correct quite as much so as those of Marco Polo, and far
more than the narrations of Sir John Mandeville. Pinto came with two
companions to the island of Tanega-
shima in 1542. and, as might be ex-
pected, they were great curiosities.
Even more curious were the fire-
arms they carried ; and they were in-
vited to visit the Daimio of Bungo,
arid bring their strange weapons with
them. They did so, and taught the
natives how to make guns and pow-
der, which soon became generally
used throughout Japan. To this
day fire-arms are frequently called
" Tanegashima," after the island
where Pinto landed with the first
of these w capons. Christianity fol-
lowed closely on the track of the
musket. The adventurers returned
with a profit of twelve hundred per
cent, on their cargo. Their success
stimulated others, and in 1549 two
Portuguese missionaries, one of them
being Francis Xavier, landed in Japan, and began the work of converting
the heathen. Xavier's first labors were in Satsuma, and he afterwards
went to Kioto and other cities. Personally he never accomplished much,
as he could not speak the language fluently, and he remained in the coun-
try only a few years. But he did a great deal to inspire others ; numbers
of missionaries flocked to Japan, and it is said that thirty years after
Xavier landed on the soil there were two hundred churches, and a hun-
dred and fifty thousand native Christians. At the time of the highest
success of the missionaries it is estimated that there were not less than
half a million professing Christians in Japan, and perhaps another hundred
thousand who were nominally so, though their faith was not regarded as




CHRISTIAN VILLAGE IN THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY.



308 THE BOY TRAVELLERS.




MONUMENTS IN MEMORY OF MARTYRS.



more than "skin deep." Among the adherents of the new religion there
were several Daimios, and a great number of persons occupying high social
and official positions. Some of the Daimios were so zealous that they or-
dered their people to turn Christians whether they wished it or not ; and
one of them gave his subjects the option of being baptized or leaving the
country within twenty-four hours.

The Dutch were great traders in the East Indies, and they managed to
obtain a footing in Japan during the time of the Portuguese success.
They received a concession of the island of Deshima, about six hundred
feet square, in the harbor of Nagasaki, and here they lived until our day.
AVhen the troubles arose that led to the expulsion of foreigners and the
extinction of Christianity, the Dutch were excepted from the operations
of the edict, as it could not be shown that they had had any part in the
conspiracy. They had been too busy with their commerce to meddle in
religious matters; and, if history is true, it is probable that they hadn't
religion enough in their small colony at Deshima to go around and give
a perceptible quantity to each man.

This little island was in reality a prison, as its inhabitants were not
allowed to go outside for any purpose, except once in three years, when a
delegation of them made a journey to Yeddo to make presents to the Ty-
coon. They were compelled to travel the most of the way in closed nori-



THE DUTCH IX JAPAN.




A PATH NEAR NAGASAKI.



mons, and thus their journey did not afford them many glimpses of the
country. There is a tradition that they were required to go through the
ceremony of trampling on the cross in the presence of the Tycoon, and
also to intoxicate themselves, as a warning to the Japanese to shun the
wicked ways of the foreigners. Whether either account be true I am un-
able to say ; the assertion is very positively made and as positively denied,
and therefore I will leave every reader, who has paid his money for the
book, to make choice of the side of the story which suits him best.

The first move of our friends on landing was to go to Deshima, as they
had a curiosity to see the little island, which was so famous in the history
of the foreign relations of Japan with the outer world. The drawbridge
leading to the island, and the box where the Japanese sentries stood, were
still there, and so were some of the buildings which the Dutch inhabited ;
but the Dutch were gone, and probably forever. Outside of the historical
interest there was nothing remarkable about the island, and the boys won-
dered how men could voluntarily shut themselves up in a prison like this.
Only one ship a year was allowed to come to them, and sometimes, during



310



nil. BOY TRAVELLERS.



the wars between Holland and other countries, there were several years
together when no ship came. They were permitted to purchase certain
quantities of fresh provisions daily, and when they ran short of needed ar-
ticles they wore supplied by the governor of Nagasaki. But no permission
could be granted to go outside their narrow limits. How they must have
sighed as they gazed on the green hills opposite, and with what longing
did they think of a ramble on those grassy or wooded slopes!




HOLLANDER AT DESHIMA WATCHING FOR A SHIP.



The chief use of Deshima, as our friends found it, is to serve as a de-
pository of Japanese wares, and particularly of the kinds for which Naga-
saki is famous. Nagasaki vases and Nagasaki lacquer were in such quan-
tities as to be absolutely bewildering, and for once they found the prices
lower than at Yokohama. They made a few purchases their final transac-
tions in Japan and then turned their attention to a stroll through the city.

There was not much to amuse them after their acquaintance with other
cities of Japan, and so they were speedily satisfied. On the hill overlook-
ing the town and harbor they found an old temple of considerable magni-
tude, then another, and another, and then tea-houses almost without num-
ber. In one of the latter they sat and studied the scenery of Nagasaki
until evening, when they returned to the steamer.

Another ramble on shore the following morning, and they left the soil



FAUEWELL TO JAPAN.



311



of Japan for the deck of the steamer. At noon they were slowly moving
down the bay ; they passed the island of Pappenberg, and, as they did so,
Frank read from a book lie had picked up in the ship's cabin the follow-
ing paragraph :

" In that same year, when the last of the Roman Catholic converts were
hurled from the rocky islet of Pappenberg, in the Bay of Nagasaki, a few
exiles landed at Plymouth, in the newly discovered continent, where they
were destined to plant the seeds of a Protestant faith and a great Protes-
tant empire. And it was the descendants of the same pilgrim fathers
that, two centuries later, were the first among Western nations to supply
the link of connection wanted, to bring the lapsed heathen race once more
within the circle of Christian communion, and invite them anew to take
their place in the family of civilized nations."

And while meditating on the mutations of time and the strangeness of
many events recorded in history, our friends passed from the harbor of
Nagasaki into the open sea.

" Sayonara !" said Frank, raising his cap and bowing towards the re-
ceding land.

" Sayonara !" echoed Fred, as he followed his cousin's example. " I
say ' Sayonara' now, but I hope that some time in the future I may be able
to say * Ohio.' r

"And so do I," Frank added.
" It is a charming country, and I
don't think we shall find a more
agreeable one anywhere."

The conversation was cut short
by the call to dinner, a call that has
suppressed many a touch of senti-
ment before now, on land as well as
on the water.

It is a voyage of two days, more
or less, according to the speed of the
steamer, from Nagasaki to Shanghai.
Our friends had hoped to be in
Shanghai on the afternoon of the
second day from the former port ;
but their hopes were not destined
to be realized. The Japanese gods
of Rain, Wind, and Thunder inter-
fered.




THE RAIN DRAGON.



312



Till: BOY TRAVELLERS.





THE WIND DRAGON.



THE THUNDER DKAGON.



The morning after their departure from Nagasaki, Frank went on deck
soon after daylight. The wind was so strong that it almost took him from
his feet, and he was compelled to grasp something to make sure of remain-
ing upright. The sky was overcast, and every few minutes there came a
sprinkling of rain that intimated that the cabin was the better place for
any one who was particular about keeping dry. Fred joined him in a few
minutes, and soon after Fred's arrival the Doctor made his appearance.

The Captain was on the bridge of the steamer, and appeared much dis-
turbed about something, so much so that the boys asked Dr. Bronson if he
thought anything had gone wrong.

The Doctor gave a hasty glance at the sky and the water, and then re-
treated to the cabin, where a barometer was hanging. A moment's obser-
vation of the instrument satisfied him, or, rather, it greatly dissatisfied
him, for he returned hastily to the deck and rejoined the boys with the
observation,

" We shall have it very lively in a short time, and are not likely to
reach Shanghai in a hurry.'''

" Why ? What do you mean ?"

"I mean that we are about to have a typhoon."

" I should rather like to see one," Frank remarked.

"Well." the Doctor replied, "you are about to be accommodated, and



CAUGHT IN A TYPHOON. 313

if we get safely out of it I am very sure you -will not want to see an-
other.

" But as we are in for it," he continued, " we must make the best of
the situation, and hope to go through in safety. Many a strong ship lies
at the bottom of the sea, where she was sent by just such a storm as we are
about to pass through, and many another has barely escaped. I was once
on a ship in the China seas, when the captain told the passengers that it
would be a miracle if we remained half an hour longer afloat. But hardly
had he done speaking when the wind fell, the storm abated, and we were
safe. The typhoon is to these waters what the hurricane is to the West
Indies; it is liable to blow at any time between April and September, and
is often fearfully destructive.

" The word typhoon comes from the Japanese ' Tai-Fun,' which means
'great wind,' and the meaning is admirably descriptive of the thing itself.
There is no greater wind in the world than a typhoon ; the traditional
wind that would blow the hair off the back of a dog is as nothing to it.
A cyclone is the same sort of thing, and the two terms are interchange-
able; cyclone is the name of European origin, while typhoon comes from
the Asiatic.

" The typhoon blows in a circle, and may be briefly described as a rapid-
ly revolving wind that has a diameter of from two to five hundred miles.
It is a whirlwind on a large scale, and as furious as it is large. A curious
fact about it is that it has a calm centre, where there is absolutely no wind
at all, and this centre is sometimes forty or fifty miles across. Nearest the