LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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VOYAGE TO TAMASIIIMA. 29 "In the winter of the same year I had the first op­portunity to take a voyage on a steamer to Tamashi­ma, a seaport a little beyond Okayama. The schooner belonged to the prince of Matsuyama, who was closely related to my prince. On that account he gave me a hee passage. It took us a little over three months to Qome back to Yedo. I enjoyed it exceedingly, and was also benefited by staying away so far from my prince's square inclosure where I spent all my younger days, and where I supposed that the heavens were but a little square patch. It was my first experience in mingling with different people and seeing different l)laces. Evidently the sphere of my mental horizon was much widened by that voyage. I visited the city of Osaka, where I had my first opportunity to taste beef. Being filled by a fresh idea for freedom., I planned to get rid of my obligation to my prince by connecting myself with the Shogun's government. The way to secure it was to be employed by him as a navigator, but that plan was soon banished from my thought when I found out something of the life of those employed in the Shogun's navy. Their base and licentious life shocked me. I did not like to min­gle with them. So I found no way to sever myself from my prince. Still my strong desire to obtain freedom became a real incentive to disregard and dis­obey him. I refused his order decidedly when I was compelled to take up a musket and prepare myself to be his soldier. " The war-cloud was then becoming intensely thick in the country. My prince was obliged to stand up for the cause of the unfortunate Shogun against the rising imperial party. As for me, I had full sympathy with the latter party, and often wished to join them.

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