142 THE KII COAST. 



On one occasion a man, his wife, and boy, came along- 

 side the ship to sell iish. While there the boy took his 

 father's pipe, tobacco, flint, and steel, and in the regular 

 orthodox manner went through the whole process of 

 filling five pipes and smoking them, knocking the ashes 

 out each time. He then quickly returned the pipe, 

 etc., to their leather cases, put his small fists to his 

 eyes, and began to cry. On seeing this the mother took 

 the boy on her lap and suckled him. The boy was five 

 or six years of age. Japanese pipes are quite small 

 things, six or eight good draws emptying them. 



I cannot say too much for the goodness and kind- 

 ness that I always received from the inhabitants of 

 this wild part of Japan. At one or two places only 

 had Europeans ever been seen ; and consequently 

 . the infatuation for Western manners had not spread 

 amongst them. I always found the further from the open 

 ports I went, the nicer in every way were the people. 

 How is this ? Why, because the first European 

 settlers in the shape of traders, shopkeepers, and their 

 parasites, that arrive at a new port, or a new country, 

 are always bad specimens of the country they hail 

 from. Adventurers and scoundrels of all descriptions, 

 who, the chances are, have made the country they 

 leave too hot to hold them, rush from all parts of the 



