ohama.--Excursion into the Country.--Visit to
Kamakura.--Peculiar Scenes on the Road.--A Wonderful Bronze
Statue.--Popular Religions of the Country.--The Hakone Pass.--A
Youthful Mother.--Native Jugglers.--Temple of Shiba.--Review of the
Soldiery.--Ludicrous Sights.--A Native Fair at Tokio.--A Poor
Japanese Woman's Prayer.

Passengers arriving at Yokohama are obliged to land in small boats, as
there are no wharfs; and vessels, on account of shallow water, anchor
half a mile off shore. A small steam-tug came for us, and we found very
comfortable quarters at the Windsor Hotel, kept by an American,--a
large, well-organized establishment. The housemaids were little Japanese
men dressed in black tights, but very quick, intelligent, and desirous
to please. The servants all spoke English; indeed it is the commercial
language of the world, and there are few ports open to commerce where it
does not form the basis of all business transactions. French is the
polite or court language of many countries, and with these two tongues
at command, one can get along easily in nearly any populous region of
the globe.

When Commodore Perry, in 1854, cast anchor with his little fleet of
American men-of-war in the harbor of Yokohama, it was scarcely more than
a fishing village, but the population to-day must exceed a hundred and
thirty thousand. The space formerly covered by rice fields and vegetable
gardens is now laid out in well-built, wide thoroughfares, smoothly
macadamized and faultlessly clean and neat. The town extends along the
shore, which is level, but is backed by a half-moon of low, well-wooded
hills, among which are the private dwellings of the foreign residents,
built after the European style, on the location known as the Bluff. The
two principal hotels, the club-houses, and some consular business
residences, are located on the water-front, a wide thoroughfare known as
the Bund. A deep, broad canal surrounds the city, passing by the large
warehouses and connecting with the bay at each end, is crossed in its
course by half a dozen handsome bridges.

Ascending the bluff one gets a fine and extended view, embracing the
city on one side and Jeddo Bay on the other, with a foreground composed
of the harbor of Yokohama, where more or less shipping, representing
foreign nations, is always to be seen. In the distant west, over seventy
miles away, the white, cloud-like cone of Fujiyama can be clearly
discerne