OLIPHANT.—NOTES ON JAPAN 87 
taining to the Crown. Situated almost at the westernmost extremity of the Em- 
pire, at the head of a deep land-locked harbour, and in convenient proximity to 
some of the wealthiest and most productive Principalities, Nagasaki possesses 
great local advantages, and will doubtless continue fan important commercial 
emporium, even when the trade of the Empire at large is more fully developed, 
and has found an outlet through other ports. The town is pleasantly situated on 
a belt of level ground which intervenes between the water and the swelling hills. 
These, with their slopes terraced with rice fields; their wooded valleys and gush- 
ing streams; and their projecting points crowned with temples or frowning with 
batteries, form an amphitheatre of great scenic beauty ; and the whole aspect of 
the place produces a most favourable impression on the mind of the stranger 
visiting Japan for the first time. 
The Empire of Japan is stated, according to native authority, to consist of up- 
wards of three thousand islands. The majority of these, however, are uninhabited 
rocks. The principal island is known tv the natives as Dai Nipon. The word 
Nipon is, doubtless, the origin of the term Japan, now applied to the whole group. 
The Chinese have called Nipon, ‘‘Jipun, the Empire proceeding from the sun.” 
Marco Polo calls it Jypanger, but all these words have clearly a common origin. 
Yesso, Kinsin, and Sikok complete the group of larger islands, which contain 
a territorial superficies, roughly estimated at 160,000 square miles. To these 
must be added the Japanese settlements in the neighbouring island of Tarakai, 
where the boundary which divides them from Russia, and marks the limit of that 
spreading Empire in this direction, remains yet undecided. 
The city itself contains a population of about fifty thousand, and consists of 
between eighty and ninety streets, running at right angles to each other—broad 
enough to admit of the passage of wheeled vehicles, were any to be seen in them 
—and kept scrupulously clean. A canal intersects the city, spanned by thirty-five 
bridges, of which fifteen are handsomely constructed of stone. The Dutch factory 
is placed upon a small fan-shaped island about two hundred yards in length, and 
connected with the mainland by a bridge. Until recently, the members of the 
factory were confined exclusively to this limited area, and kept under a strict and 
rigid surveillance. The old regime is now however,rapidly passing away ; and the his 
tory of their imprisonment, of the indignities to which they were exposed, and the 
insults they suffered, has already become a matter of tradition. 
Kinsin, or ‘‘the Island of Nine,” in which Nagasaki is situated, is so ealled be- 
cause it is divided into nine provinces. It coi tains an area of about sixteen thou- 
sand miles, being in extent nearly equal to Sardinia. The provinces of which it is 
composed are—Fizen, Tsikuzen, Tsikugo, Buzen, Bungo, Figo, Oosom, Fingo, and 
Satsuma. I have enumerated these by name, not so much for the purpose of 
information as to convey some idea of the words and names in the Japanese lan- 
guage. ll these provinces are divided among many princes, who are vassals of 
the empire. The supremacy, however, in each is generally vested in a single 
family, whose hereditary position among the aristocracy of the country confers 
upon it a recognized ascendancy. 
In Kinsin, the most important of these Principalities, are Fizen and Satsuma. 
The largest city in the island, Saga, is the capital of Fizen and residence of its 
