LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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PERE NICHOLl. 35 moral reformation, and so far as I am convinced the reformation must be brought through Christianity. He was much pleased with my talk, but wal'Oed me against such a project as I had revealed to him. He urged me to stay with him, and told me he would be glad to give me lessons on the Bible as well as in English. Being discouraged with his warning, I began to seek some friends in the foreign eoncession. The very first friend I found there was a Japanese clerk employed by an English rnerehant, who showed me a strangely kind attention at a brief interview. I liked him very much and asked him the favor to be received at his office quite often. He told me he would wel­come me at any time when he was free from business, and, furthermore, he agreed to teach me English. But after a few interviews with him I revealed to him my long-cherished plan. He was much pleased with it and promised me he would keep it in mind. ~Having an intense desire to ca1Ty out my project, I assumed the costlUne of the common citizen, and tried to keep myself unnoticed when I went out on the street at Ilakodate. I laid aside my long sword, which was then regarded as a mark of the samurai class. I also dressed my hair more simply. It was not more than a week after my confidential conversation with him, when he told me I might equip myself at on0e for leaving the country. An American captain had given him a consent to take me as far as China. It was his plan that, if I got away as far as China, there might be a better opportunity for me to £nd a pas­sage to the United States. How glad I was then when I was informed of this fair chance of my seek­ing something in an unknown land beyond the sea! "Just at that time Pere Nicholi was absent from

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