LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

17/372

LIFE OF JOSEPH NEESIMA. -CHAPTER I. IN the summer of 1864 the brig Berlin, owned by Thomas Walsh & Co., of Nagasaki, arrived at Ha­kodate, consigned to Frederic Wilkie, Esq., in com­mand of William B. Savory, of Salem, Mass. Just before leaving on the return voyage to Shanghai, Captain Savory was informed by Mr. Wilkie that a young Japanese, the friend of a native clerk in his office, was anxious to escape from Japan to the United States, where he hoped to obtain an education. Re­minding the captain that serious consequences were likely to follow his detection in the act o£ taking a native out of the country, Mr. Wilkie called the young man, then about twenty-one years of age, into his office, and Captain Savory, through the clerk, Mr. Munokite, who acted as interpreter, offered him a pas­sage to Shanghai provided he could reach the brig without assistance from those on board, and promised to do what he could towards securing his transfer to some vessel returning to the United States. As a result of this proposition, Mr. Munokite assisted his friend on board the Berlin during the night of July 18th. Owing to the presence of Japanese cus­tom officers on the vessel, the runaway was secreted in one of the cabin staterooms, and given to under­stand by signs that he must remaiu in hiding until

※このページを正しく表示するにはFlashPlayer10.2以上が必要です