VISIT FKOM THE 
Chap. XVIII. 
beaten off by the guard. M. de Wit had been one 
of the party who had come overland from Naga- 
saki with Mr. Alcock, and it was alleged that his 
life was sought for on that account. Another 
report stated that there had been no attack at all, 
but that the guard had been indulging rather 
freely in strong drinks, by which means it had 
been enabled to see an attacking force which 
existed only in an overheated imagination. Then 
another Dutchman, who was sleeping at the hotel 
of the town, was alarmed by a two-sworded man 
entering his bedroom in the dead of the night, in 
search, it was supposed, of the correspondent of 
the ‘ Illustrated London News/ then staying at 
the hotel, who had also been another of the offend- 
ing overland party. The good Dutchman was 
greatly alarmed, and did not appreciate the honour 
of being killed in the place of “ Our own Corre- 
spondent/’ There were sceptics amongst us who 
did not credit these rumours, and I merely men- 
tion them to show the state of alarm which then 
existed. 
At this time I was still living alone in my large 
temple at Kanagawa. One day, as I was sitting 
in the verandah arranging my herbarium and 
drying my paper, several two-sworded men made 
their appearance at the end of the avenue. I 
began to speculate on the chance of an attack, 
when I was relieved from all apprehension by 
seeing a number of others come upon the scene, 
amongst whom there appeared to be some persons 
