270 COFFEE. 



people possess a much higher order of intelligence and ability 

 than I had expected, and I have everywhere met vi'ith so much 

 kindness and hospitality that I can hardly realize that up to 

 within a very few years the country was closed to foreigners, and 

 they were looked upon as national enemies by the great mass of 

 the people. 



JAPANESE ENGLISH. 



To the American reader the following "Extracts from the 

 Diary of a Member of the Japanese Embassy to Europe in 

 1862-63 " will be likely to prove interesting. In commenting 

 upon the difficulty of intelligibly describing all that he saw, this 

 gentleman ^ays : 



" More than this, I did not learn the crab-movement method 

 of writing (meaning the "Western system of writing across the 

 page, in contradistinction to the Japanese method, which is per- 

 pendicular), nor did I become practised in the shrike-tongued lan- 

 guages, by which means I could make inquiries and form opin- 

 ions, or obtain a knowledge of these people, their customs, 

 manners, and dispositions. I am now wilting merely what I 

 heard and saw. It is to be feared that there will be very little of 

 fact and a great deal of conjecture. A judgment concerning the 

 whole must not be formed from a partial description." 



He describes the British man-of-war, in which they embarked, 

 and her crew, as follows : 



" Name of ship Odin (the meaning of which is not under- 

 stood) ; length, 191 feet ; breadth, 43 feet ; capacity, 2,000 tons ; 

 steam, 560 horse-power ; masts, 3 ; paddle-wheels, 2 ; big guns, 

 8 ; middle-sized guns, 24 ; captain, lord — official title ; Hay, 

 name; officer of first rank, lieutenant — official title; Briggs, 

 name ; small lieutenants, 3 ; compass-considerers (quartermasters), 

 7 ; officers of steam department, Y ; officers (giin-room officers ?), 

 12 ; total number on board, 310 men." 



In describing some of the institutions at Hong Kong, he says : 



" AVe went into a government building two stories high, by 68 

 yards long, by 24 yards broad. "We asked in writing what house it 

 was ; a man answered in the same way, ' No. 99, Soldiers' House ' 

 (99th regiment), whereon I think, although I do not know clearly 



