LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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34 EARLY LIFE. So I sent him back, giving him my parting instruc­tion to be ever diligent in his study. (This was my last sight of my brother. He died in the year 1871, three years before I returned to my home.) Early the following morning we sailed out of Yedo bay, leaving that great city beyond the horizon, glancing now and then at the snow-capped, beautiful Fusiyama in the distance. 'V e stopped here and there on the way to Hakodate for the merchandise of the prince. At the entrance of our harbor we might have ex­perienced a sad shipwreck, being helplessly carried by the strong tide against a reef, if we had not re­ceived kindly help from the shore to tow us out of danger. It was in the early part of the spriug of 1864 when we left Yedo, and within a month we reached Hakodate in safety. Here I was planning to get access to some foreigners, that through their favor I might att.empt an escape. Through a friend of mine I was introduced to Pere Nicholi, a Russian priest, to be his teacher of the Japanese language, so that through his influence I might attain my ob­ject. " Being far away from home, I became more care­ful in my observations; what struck me most was the corrupt condition of the people. I thought then, a mere material progress will prove itself useless so long as their morals are in such a deplorable state. ,Japan needs a moral reformation more than mere material progress, and my purpose was more strength­ened to visit a foreign land. "After my being with the Russian priest nearly a month at his house, I gra.dually introduced to him my secret object, and asked his assistance to carry it out. I to]d him theu what Japan needs most is

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