LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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208 MISSIONARY WORK IN JAPAN. the school. The circumstances under which they came were remarkable, and, in the light of the influence which those young men subsequently exerted upon the general educational and religious movement then in progress, acquire an additional interest. In the year 1871 Captain L. L. Janes, formerly an officer in the United States army, had taken cha1·ge of a school in the castle town of Kumamoto. This school belonged to the class known as private schools, many of which were established at this time, especially in the south~ west provinces, by the anti-foreign party. While of~ fering instruction in English and modern science, this movement was a distinctly national one, the sole ob~ ject of these schools being the formation of a body of young men who by reason of their superior training and intelligence might the more effectively resist for~ eign influences and oppose the spread of western ideas. Kumamoto was an inland town in the centre of a prov~ ince where the feudal spirit was still strong. Isolated from the influences prevailing in the treaty ports, Cap~ tain Janes had found the hatred against Christianity so strong that for several months he did not dare to allow his faith to be known. As soon, however, as he deemed it prudent he began to speak of Christianity, and thereafter, for five years, his work in the school was accompanied by constant and direct religious in­struction. About two years after his arrival he pro~ posed to the members of the advanced class a system~ atic study of the New Testament, and fifteen or twenty young men, after consultation with the school author~ ities, met with him twice a week for the ostensible pur­pose of acquiring that knowledge of Christianity which should the better fit them to oppose its progress. On the 30th of January, 1876, about forty of these young

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