THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 315 



they know well how to manage, and very lately one 

 of these crossed the Pacific, from San Francisco to 

 Yedo, managed entirely by Japanese officers and 

 engineers. This disposition of theirs to adopt the 

 machinery and also the arms of the "West is very 

 laudable ; but it will enable them to keep their own 

 internal trade by water in their own hands ; and it 

 will evidently make them much more formidable in 

 war than the Chinese have ever been. In such a 

 case they would probably draw further supplies of 

 arms from Holland or America ; and it is to be 

 noticed that the policy of the United States in Japan 

 which country they were the first to open up in 

 recent times, and which they are disposed to claim 

 as a special field of their own has been latterly in 

 opposition to that pursued by the representatives of 

 England and France. 



After passing, on our right, the entrance of the 

 Boungo Channel, which runs southwards to the open 

 ocean, the Suwo Xada appeared to close up altogether, 

 owing to the immense number of islands and islets 



" Summer isles of Eden lying 

 In dark purple spheres of sea." 



]\Iany of these were almost pyramidal-shaped, and 

 yet terraced, for purposes of cultivation, in an almost 

 impossible manner. We tried to anchor for the night 

 quite close to a village on one of these islands, but 

 could not get sufficiently shallow water, though we 



