CHAPTEE XVIII. 



Having been several years in the East, spread over a 

 period of a quarter of a century, I have of course seen 

 many changes in that part of the world. To begin with, 

 China was not, when I first visited it as a youngster, 

 what it now is; and Japan was little known beyond 

 being represented on the map of the world, or stuck 

 into the corner of that of China : though in the latter 

 country a few phlegmatic Dutchmen endured imprison- 

 ment on one island, for the sake of being allowed to 

 send four or five ship-loads of lacquer, etc., to Holland. 

 I remember well when we arrived at Nagasaki in 

 1855, the trepidation in which we found the Governor. 

 This was a few months after the visit to Hakodadi 



