EitsuMi^. 377 



some importance on the ocean, nothing of the kind 

 covld be attempted: a more effective way to prevent 

 his people from getting abroad he could not have 

 devised, and well it answered until we came upon the 

 scene. Now, steamers which they have bought do most 

 of their trade. 



Suddenly this wonderful country flings all its old 

 customs to the winds, and rushes headlong into the 

 newest inventions and ideas that the Western world 

 can send her. I think it may be safely said no such 

 rapid and complete metamorphosis ever occurred before 

 or since the world has been understood to go round. 

 The success of the operation appears almost equally 

 strange, for no reaction has taken place, and it is now 

 not at all likely that any ever wiU. Japan does not 

 abound in wealth and resources within itself like China. 

 Gold a few years since had no value in the country, and 

 the inhabitants were unable to comprehend our great 

 craving for the yellow metal. Their mistake, of course, 

 in time came home to them ; but it was not before a 

 large quantity of their big plate-like coins had been 

 passed through a very different manufacture. Foreigners 

 quickly relieved the Japanese of their great coins, by 

 giving in exchange their weight in silver. Their 

 exports are feeble. In 1878, roundly, they amounted 



