32 THE LIU-KIU ISLANDS. [chap. 



Before long we were considerably astonished at the appearance 

 on the scene of an individual whom, at first sight, we took to be an 

 English missionary. Dressed in a long coat of broadcloth reaching 

 nearly to his heels, and with his nether man encased in a pair of 

 l3uckskin breeches, he presented a somewhat extraordinary appear- 

 ance, which was further heightened by a haggard face and a pair of 

 deep-set, hawk-like eyes. He informed us that he was an American, 

 and that he had resided at Napha for some months in company 

 with another "gentleman from the Western States." At a later 

 period of our visit the Liu-kiu authorities asked us if we could 

 afford them any information as to the object of their two visitors, 

 at the same time suggesting that it might possibly be very pleasant 

 if we could offer them a passage to Japan in the Marchcsa. In 

 our reply we regretted that we were unable to afford them assistance 

 in either particular. Only three Europeans have, I believe, 

 previously resided on the islands, and in each case the most rigorous 

 surveillance was exercised over all their movements. A special 

 guard invariably attended them, and, though subjected to no insults 

 or annoyances, little or no liberty was allowed them. A similar 

 system appeared to have been followed in the case of our American 

 friends, and, although they had been on the island for so long, they 

 had never been permitted to go outside the town. The Europeans 

 one meets with in the holes and corners of the world are, in ninety- 

 nine cases out of a hundred, either scientific travellers or missionaries. 

 If they fall under neither of these categories one does not seek to 

 enquire further, and we were quite content in the case of our two 

 acquaintances to limit ourselves to the acquisition of such informa- 

 tion on the subject of Liu-kiu and the Liu-kiuans as they were 

 able to afford us. They did not appear, however, to have acquired 

 much knowledge of the language, and we should have been reduced 

 to conversation by signs had it not been for the arrival of an 

 amusing little Japanese doctor, who was possessed of a vocabulary 

 of some thirty or forty English words, and nearly as many of French. 

 From him we learnt that the Governor of the Liu-kius had just 



