d through it several times. Still his book is a
treasure of geographical information, and most of his discoveries and
reports were confirmed five hundred years later. His life was a long
romance, and he occupies one of the most foremost places among
discoverers of all ages.

FOOTNOTES:

[14] Since this was written, China has become a republic, the Emperor
P'u-yi (born February 11, 1906) having abdicated on February 12, 1912,
in consequence of the success of a revolution which broke out in the
autumn of 1911. He still retains the title of Manchu Emperor, but with
his death the title will cease. A provisional President of the Republic
was elected, and the first Cabinet was constituted on March 29, 1912.

[15] The Republic has adopted a new flag consisting of five
stripes--crimson, yellow, white, blue, and black--to denote the five
principal races comprised in the Chinese people, Mongol, Chinese,
Manchu, Mohammedan, and Tibetan.

[16] A Russian coin, worth about 2s, 1 1/8d.

XIII

JAPAN (1908)

NAGASAKI AND KOBE

Marco Polo was also the first European to make Japan known in Western
countries. He called it Chipangu, and stated that it was a large, rich
island in the sea east of China. Accordingly the Chinese call it the
"Land of the Rising Sun," and Nippon, as the Japanese themselves call
their islands, has the same poetical signification, derived from the
rising of the sun out of the waves of the Pacific Ocean. The flag of
Japan displays a red sun on a white field, and when it flies from the
masts of warships the sun is surrounded by sixteen red rays.

We leave Shanghai by the fine steamer _Tenyo Maru_, which is driven by
turbines and makes 18 knots an hour. The _Tenyo Maru_ belongs to a line
which plies between Hong-kong and San Francisco, calling at Shanghai,
Japan, and the Sandwich Islands on the way. From Shanghai it is 470
miles over the Eastern Sea to Nagasaki, a considerable town situated on
Kiu-shiu, the southernmost of the four islands of Japan proper.

As we near Japan the vessel crosses the great current called the "Kuro
Shiwo," or the "Black Salt." It comes from the region immediately north
of the equator, and flows northwards, washing the Japanese coast with
its water, over 200 fathoms deep, and with a temperature of 72 deg.,
just as the Gulf Stream washes the east coast of Europe. Off Japan the
sea is very deep, the lead sinking down to 4900 fathoms and more.

In Nagasaki the visitor is