THE INLAND SEA OF JAPAN. 327 



owing to their warlike character and the nature of 

 their country, we shall find it no joke to deal with 

 them on that platform. Perhaps it may be as well 

 for us to consider, before having recourse to that 

 ultima ratio sometimes of fools as well as of wise 

 kings, whether our representatives there, both officials 

 and merchants, have not been rather putting the cart 

 before the horse, fancying they had only to cry out 

 " Sesame ! " in order to open up the country and 

 obtain all they desired. 



After leaving Hiogo we steered across the bay in a 

 south-westerly direction toward the large island of 

 Smoto and the Kino Channel. The weather this day 

 rather increased in heat, but still, though the 19th of 

 July, it was never uncomfortable, the thermometer 

 not rising above 80 in the cabin. At the inner en- 

 trance of the Kino Channel there were some forts of 

 substantial masonry commanding it, and a very large 

 one in course of construction. Some officials came 

 out from these forts to make a report upon us, and 

 kept up with us for some time in a four-oared boat. 

 We could see that they not only wrote down long 

 descriptions of the foreign vessels, but also made 

 drawings of them. Through the Kino we passed into 

 the open sea on the southern coast of Japan, and on 

 the second day saw the snow-streaked peak of the 

 volcano Fusiama, the holy mountain of Japan, rising 

 above high distant clouds. The white palaces of the 

 Daimios which we saw from the Inland Sea may have 



