pment which is surprising.
Next in importance to the production of rice, which is the staple food
of the people, come the mulberry and tea plants, one species of the
former not only feeding the silkworm, but it also affords the fibre of
which Japanese paper is made, as well as forming the basis of their
cordage and some descriptions of dress material. In usefulness the
bamboo is most remarkable, growing to a height of sixty feet, and
entering into the construction of house-frames, screens, many household
articles, mats, pipes, and sails. The camphor-tree, which is seen in
such abundance, is a grand ornament in the landscape, lofty and
broad-spread. The camphor of commerce is extracted from both the stem
and the roots of the tree, which, being cut into small pieces, are
subjected to a process of decoction.

No sooner have the Japanese been fairly introduced to American and
European civilization, than they have promptly taken a stride of four or
five centuries at a single leap, from despotism in its most ultra form
to constitutional government. When America opened the port of Yokohama
to the commerce of the world, it also opened that hermetically sealed
land to the introduction of progressive ideas; and though,
unfortunately, the elements of civilization which are most readily
assimilated are not always the most beneficial, still the result, taken
as a whole, has been worthy of the admiration of the world at large.

The natural intelligence of the Japanese has no superior among any race,
however much it may have been perverted, or have lain dormant. There is
evidence enough of this in the fact that the young men of that country
who are sent here for educational purposes, so frequently win academic
prizes and honors over our native scholars, notwithstanding the
disadvantages under which a foreigner is inevitably placed.

When we speak of the progress of the Japanese as a nation, we must not
forget that the national records of the country date from nearly seven
hundred years before the birth of Christ, and that a regular succession
of Mikados (supreme rulers), in lineal descent from the founders of
their dynasty and race, has since that remote date been carefully
preserved.

CHAPTER III.

From Nagasaki, in following our proposed course, we sail for Hong Kong,
through the Yellow and Chinese seas, a distance of eleven hundred miles.
This is very sure to be a rough passage, and the marvel is rather that
more vess