CHAPTER XV. 



WHEN we turned out rather later than usual next morning, 

 the bay presented quite a festive appearance a striking 

 contrast to its usual desolation, for it was decorated with 

 large flags of the rising sun, the Japanese national flag a 

 red sun on a white ground. These had been distributed 

 along the shore every few hundred yards, and denoted 

 something very much more than a mere official visit of 

 inspection. Three large tents had already been pitched 

 and some forty men landed. 



As possession is supposed to be nine points of the law, 

 this was evidently the Japanese answer to Russia's claim to 

 sovereignty over the Kuriles, and an earnest of their 

 determination to uphold their rights by force of arms if 

 necessary. We were all delighted at their pluck, how- 

 ever awkward it might prove for ourselves. As far as 

 we knew, war might have been already declared, for before 

 we left we knew that feeling already ran high at the 

 suggested encroachments of Russia upon the southern half 

 of Saghalien. Indeed, had a couple of Russian men-of-war 

 steamed round the bluff at any moment, we should not have 

 been at all surprised. This, at least, we understood, that it 

 was the precursor of events in the more or less immediate 

 future, for it stamped unmistakably the fact of rivalry in the 

 Far East between the ambitions of the great northern 

 colossus and the ardent patriotism, pluck, and determination 

 of an essentially warlike race.* Was this to be the meaning 

 of the railways, war colleges, and naval aspirations, the inner 



*This was written in 1874. 



