LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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THE JAPANESE MISSION. 193 for fixing up his old house. I was hoping to take my parents to Kobe, but I fow1d it best to leave them, as the living is much cheaper here. J.H.N. At its meeting at Pittsburgh in 1869 the Ameri­can Board had decided to establish a mission in Japan, and as Tokyo in the north and Nagasaki in the south were already occupied by other societies, its first mis­sionary, Mr. Greene, was stationed in the central por­tion of the empire at Kobe. He was soon after fol­lowed by Mr. 0. H. Gulick, who was located at Osaka, and in 1873 eighteen missionaries of the Board were on the ground. The translation of the Bible into the vernacular had been vigorously begw1 in 1872, but the version of the New Testament was not finished until 1880, while that of the Old Testament was completed only in 1887. The existence of Chi­nese versions had, however, rendered the Bible acces­sible to the educated class. The first Protestant church had been organized at Yokohama in 1872, and there were also small churches at Kobe, Osaka,, and Tokyo, at the time of Mr. Neesima's arrival; but nothing had been accomplished outside of the treaty ports, and in his visit to Annaka Mr. Neesima was the first to carry the gospel to the interior. His bold utterances and open violation of the edicts still in force against Christianity led the governor of the prov­ince to visit Tokyo to consult the authorities. Fortu­nately, through his connection with the Iwakura Em­bassy, Mr. Neesima was well known to those in power, his work was not interfered with, and he was thus left free to originate a movement which resulted in the foundation of one of the most thoroughly Christian

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