298 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[chap. XVI. 
the telegram must therefore he sent by India, whereby the cost 
was nearly doubled. The telegraph officials also made difficulties 
about taking the foreign gold coin of various kinds which I had 
about me. Fortunately the latter difficulty was immediately 
removed by the accidental presence of the Russian consul, Mr. 
Pelikan, while I was treating with the telegraph officials. When 
he heard that it concerned the sending home of a telegram from 
the much-talked-of Vega expedition, he immediately offered to 
arrange the affair until I had time to operate on the letter 
of credit I carried with me from Messrs. James Dickson & Co. 
of Gothenburg. Soon after' I met with the Swedish consul, 
Mr. VAN OoRDT, who gave us a large parcel of letters from 
home. It was very gladly received by most of us, as, so far 
as I know, it did not bring the thirty members of the expedition 
a single unexpected sorrowful message. I got, however, soon 
after landing, an unpleasant piece of news, viz. that the steamer 
A. E. Nordenskiold, which Mr. Sibiriakoff had sent to Behring’s 
Straits and the Lena to our relief, had stranded on the east coast 
of Yesso. The shipwreck fortunately had not been attended 
with any loss of human life, and the vessel lay stranded on 
a sandbank in circumstances which made it probable that it 
would be got off without too great cost. 
As the report of our arrival spread, I was immediately waited 
upon by various deputations with addresses of welcome, invitations 
to files, clubs, &c. A series of entertainments and festivities 
now began, which occupied a great part of the time we remained 
in this splendid and remarkable country. Perhaps a sketch 
of these festivities may yield a picture of Japan during the state 
of transition which still prevails there, and which in a decade 
or two will undoubtedly belong to a past and to a great extent 
forgotten period, a picture which to future writers may possibly 
form a not unwelcome contribution to the knowledge of the 
Japan that now (1879) is. Such a sketch would however 
carry me too far beyond -the subject of this narrative of 
