Mongolians. When the sea became rough and the ship labored
with the storm, a visible anxiety was depicted on the Mongol faces as
they gathered in groups and gave up all attempts at amusement. On such
occasions they prepared pieces of joss-paper, bearing some Chinese
characters, and cast them overboard to appease the presumed anger of the
special gods who control the sea.

As we were losing one hour in each fifteen degrees of our course, or, to
state it perhaps more clearly, in each thousand miles of progress
westward, when half round the world from Greenwich twelve hours would be
lost. It is therefore customary to drop a day in mid-ocean, which we did
on crossing the hundred and eightieth degree of longitude west and east
of Greenwich. When the traveler shall have reached Greenwich again on
this course, the remaining twelve hours will be exhausted, and his time
will agree with that of the starting-point. During the voyage two of the
Chinese passengers died, and were embalmed by the surgeon of the ship.
It is a conviction of these people that their soul cannot rest in peace
unless their ashes be buried in their native land. When a Chinaman dies
in a foreign country, sooner or later his remains are carried home for
interment. If only the bones are left, they are finally dug up and thus
disposed of by surviving friends. This sort of cargo has formed no small
source of profit to ships sailing west from San Francisco, bones and
bodies being shipped like merchandise.

As we crept slowly at half speed into the harbor of Yokohama, among the
merchant shipping, surrounded by a myriad of little shore-boats,
steering in and out through the Russian, English, and Japanese
men-of-war, the twilight was gradually approaching; and when we rounded
to, three hundred yards from the shore, under the lee of the United
States sloop-of-war Richmond and let go our anchor, she fired her
evening gun. At the same moment her band, in recognition of the flag
that floated from our topmast head, as we carried the American mail,
poured forth the strains of the "Star-Spangled Banner" with a thrilling
spirit which caused a quick and hearty cheer fore and aft the Belgic.
Perhaps it is necessary for one to be thousands of miles from home, and
to have just arrived in a foreign port from a long sea voyage, to fully
appreciate this little incident.

CHAPTER II.

Landing in Japan.--Characteristic Street Scenes.--Native
Bazars.--Women of Yok