52 THE LIU-KIU ISLANDS. [chap. 



the natives also, have proportioned themselves to the size of the 

 island. 



The rapid step of our bearers — one hundred and eighty paces 

 per minute — carried us over the ground well, and in spite of a 

 broiling sun they seemed but little distressed. About an hour 

 after leaving Napha we approached a grove of pine-trees of unusual 

 size, and shortly afterwards halted beneath them, at the gate of 

 what we were informed was one of the palaces of the Liu-kiu 

 kings. By the side of the road a stone pillar was standing, green 

 with the moss of many a bygone year. Its inscription — " Superiors 

 and inferiors alike must here dismount and rest" — was still 

 legible, written on the one side in ordinary square Chinese 

 characters, and on the other in Japanese katakana. Eemote as 

 Liu-kiu is from the world's turmoil, and jealously as it has been 

 guarded from the inquisitive eyes of foreigners, it forms no excep- 

 tion to the inevitable rule that nothing is permanent but change. 

 The pillar has outlasted the use for which it was intended, for the 

 last king of the Liu-kiuans has ended his reign, and the islands now 

 form a part of the possessions of the Mikado. In 1879, shortly 

 after they had come to terms with the Chinese with respect to the 

 Formosan difficulty, the Japanese, whose power in the Liu-kius had 

 been gradually increasing, played the last and winning card of the 

 game by inducing the king to visit Japan. He has never returned, 

 and a Japanese governor now fills his place. How he passes his time 

 history does not relate. Perhaps, like Cetchwayo, he is taken from 

 time to tune to see the Zoological Gardens. England, with the 

 marvellous wisdom that has of late years characterised her foreign 

 policy, restored the African monarch to his country. Japan, 

 however, is still young and unsophisticated ; and in spite of the 

 pension presented to him, and the deference paid to his wishes by 

 the Mikado, I should be much surprised if the Liu-kiu king has not 

 seen the last of his native land. 



Uyeno was at hand to show us the palace. It was built after 

 the Japanese style, and was devoid of any particular interest but 



