PAST AND PKESENT. 207 



At this time it was considered dangerous to go far 

 from the town of Yokohama. Some people had been 

 cut down by excited or drunken soldiers. At any rate, 

 I never believed that the people generally were averse 

 to us ; and regularly once a week, I used to run down 

 the coast in an open boat for fourteen miles or so, and 

 enjoy a glorious ramble over the hills, bagging a few 

 pheasants and snipe. Once when away in this manner 

 it came on to blow hard from the north, and it was 

 utterly impossible to return. I put up at a tea-house, 

 and remained there three days, shooting the country 

 round during the time. The wind still continuing 

 obstinate, I decided to walk back, and leave everything 

 with the landlady of the tea-house. Before the old 

 lady would take charge, she rnade me make an exact 

 list of every little thing in the boat, even to the naUs 

 in the carpenter's work-bag. On reaching Yokohama I 

 found I was supposed to have been murdered. In a 

 few days' time the boat arrived exactly as I had left it. 

 I should be reluctant to leave a boat in the same 

 manner anywhere on the coast of England, particularly 

 if I did not wish to lose anything out of her. This 

 tea-house I speak of was far away from the resorts of 

 foreigners, and of course I had not the slightest chance 

 of redress or recovery if I had lost everything. I have 



