LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA
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46 EARLY LIFE. a detailed explanation of the principles involved and the uses subserved. Under the picture of a windlass occurs the first sentence in English : " I will write the figure of everything in this ship if my eyes does get better." The ;r apanese junk in which he made the voyage to Takashima, and afterwar·ds to Hakodate, touched at several ports along the coast, either for trading purposes, to make surveys, or to seek shelter. His journal describes these ports minutely, and contains maps of their harbors, the names of their governors, the condition of the castle defenses, a history of the outlying provinces, with statistics of their products, exports, taxes, and population, as also his own personal observations on the moral condition of the people. He keenly regrets the prevalence of drunkenness and prostitution, and the conviction that no merely material progress would be sufficient to secure his country's prosperity sharpens his hunger for Christianity. At Hakodate he went daily to the Russian hospital for the treatment of his eyes, and records his surprise on finding that the poor were received and cared for without money and without pl'lce. It appears from his own statement that he was, from a Japanese point of view, well educated. His knowledge of the Chinese classics was extensive ; he was an expert penman and a natural artist. Before leaving Hakodate he had mastered in Dutch the elements of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and navigation, and acquired the rudiments of physics and astronomy. His notebooks on the former subjects are almost treatises. He rewrites in his own language every demonstration, and solves innumerable problems and exercises. At every page one is impressed by
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