that
beautiful rosy tint suddenly changed to gold as it caught the first rays
of the rising sun, invisible to us, as yet, behind the high land to
starboard, and as speedy as thought the light flashed down the
mountain-side, revealing its matchless perfection of form, and bathing
it in the glory of a hundred varied and beautiful tints.

Moving forward at reduced speed, to avoid the destruction of a few of
the fishing-boats or junks that were ever becoming more numerous as the
land closed in upon us on either side, we at length sighted and passed a
lightship with, somewhat to my surprise, the words "Treaty Point"
painted in large letters upon her red sides. If I had thought upon the
matter at all, I should naturally have expected to see the name of the
ship set forth in, to me, unintelligible hieroglyphics, but instead,
there it was in plain homely English, and I comforted myself with the
reflection that if the Japanese used British characters and words to
distinguish their lightships, my as yet very imperfect knowledge of
their tongue was not going to handicap me as heavily as I had feared.

In due time we arrived in the roadstead of Yokohama--not so very long
ago a small fishing village, but now an important city--and made fast to
our buoy. Instantly the ship was surrounded by sampans, and the
occupants, not a few of whom were Chinese, swarmed aboard, eager to find
buyers for the fruit, _sake_, and other articles which they had for
sale. The jabber of tongues was incessant and deafening, and the
importunities of the salesmen a trifle annoying; but Nakamura quickly
sent them to the right-about, and inviting me to go up on the bridge
with him--we were staying aboard to lunch with the skipper--we amused
ourselves by watching the debarkation of the other passengers, my
companion, between whiles, pointing out the various objects of interest
visible from our standpoint.

I must confess that I was not very greatly impressed by Yokohama, as
viewed from the roadstead. The most prominent object was the "Bund," or
water-front, which is a wide wharf or esplanade, backed by gardens,
hotels, and well-built dwelling-houses. Then there is the "Bluff,"
covered with fine villas and dwelling-houses, large and small, and of
pleasing varieties of architecture; and, finally, there are the
"Settlement" and the native town, about which I need say nothing.

After luncheon, by which time all the passengers but ourselves had gone
ashore,