LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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RELATIONS WITH THE EMBASSY. 117 f01·eign mission, had previously met Mr. Neesima at Amherst, and now summoned him to Washington to assist Mr. Tanaka, the Commissioner of Education. This summons was an exceedingly fortunate one for Mr. Neesima, for it brought him to the knowledge of men who were to control in large measure the future policy of the government, and whose friendship in later years, when beset with difficulties and enemies, proved of the greatest value to him. He received it, however, with apprehension, and obeyed it with reluc­tance. He had previously feared that the government would assume his support, as it had already done in the case of students sent abroad by the daimio before the restoration, and that in so doing would also assume the-direction of his studies and subsequently claim his services. Anything which threatened his cherished plan to return to his native laud as the free emissary of Christ alarmed him. He was therefore careful to stipulate that Mr. Mori should explain to the embassy that he was pursuing his studies nuder private au­spices, and that any service desired of him must be based upon a contmct acknowledging his freedom from all obligation to the government. His meeting with the embassy, as described in the following letters, the dignity and modesty with which he asserted the dis­tinction between his own position and that of his-fel­low-students under government patronage, and the zeal which, having gained his point, he displayed in the furtherance of M1·. Tanaka's mission, were emi­nently characteristic o£ him. Of Kido he made a personal friend, and he soon proved so valuable to Mr. Tanaka that the latter insisted upon his accom­panying the embassy to Europe. This proposition was in many respects very attractive. The change

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