670 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



without any knowledge of the language, he replied, " There is no 

 fear, I always meet with some Chinaman who speaks English 

 and helps me." The Chinese not only always assisted our 

 sailors as interpreters without remuneration, but accompanied 

 them for hours, gave them good advice in making purchases, 

 and expressed their sympathy with all that they must have 

 suffered during our wintering in the high north. They were 

 always cleanly, tall, and stately in their figures, and corresponded 

 in no particular to the calumnious descriptions we so often read 

 of this people in European and American writings. 



From Yokohama the course was shaped for Kobe, one of the 

 more considerable Japanese ports which have been opened to 

 Europeans. Kobe is specially remarkable on account of its 

 having railway communication with Osaka, the most important 

 manufacturing town of Japan, and with Kioto, the ancient 

 capital and seat of the Mikado's court for centuries. 



I had already begun at Yokohama to buy Japanese books, 

 particularly such as were printed before the opening of the 

 ports to Europeans. In order to carry on this traffic with 

 greater success, I had procured the assistance of a young- 

 Japanese very familiar with French, Mr. Okuschi, assistant in 

 Dr. Geertz' chemico-technical laboratory at Yokohama. But 

 because the supply of old books in this town, which a few years 

 ago had been of little importance, was very limited, I had at 

 first, in order to make purchases on a larger scale, repeatedly 

 sent Mr. Okuschi to Tokio, the seat of the former Shogun 

 dynasty, and from that town, before the departure of the Vega 

 from Yokohama, to Kioto, the former seat of learning in Japan. 

 The object of the Vega's call at the port of Kobe was to fetch 

 the considerable purchases made there by Mr. Okuschi,^ 



Kobe, or Hiogo, as the old Japanese part of the town is 

 called, is a city of about 40,000 inhabitants, beautifully situated 

 at the entrance to the Inland Sea of Japan, i.e., the sound 

 which separates the main island from the south islands, Shikoku 

 and Kiushiu. Mountain ridges of considerable height here run 

 along the sea-shore. Some of the houses of the European 

 merchants are built on the lower slopes of these hills, with high, 

 beautiful, forest-clad heights as a background, and a splendid 

 view of the harbour in front. The Japanese part of the town 

 consists, as usual, of small houses which, on the side next the 

 street, are occupied mainly with sale or work-shops where the 

 whole family lives all day. The streets have thus a very lively 



^ The number of the works -which tlie collection of J;ipaiiese books 

 contains is somewhat over a thous;md. The number of volumes amounts 

 to five or six thousand; most of the vohimes, however, are not Inrger than 

 one of our books of a hundred pages. So far as can be judged by 

 the Japanese titles, wliich are often little distinctive, the works may be 



