ality for to-morrow, as well as to avail myself of
an opportunity to get my proper bearings. Nothing in the way of a
reliable map or itinerary of the road I have been traversing from
Shimonoseki was to be obtained at Nagasaki, and I have travelled with but
the vaguest idea of my whereabouts from day to day. Only from them do I
learn that the city we meet in is Okoyama, and that I am now within a
hundred miles of Kobe, north of which place "Murray's Handbook" will
prove of material assistance in guiding me aright.

The little missionary colony is charmingly situated on a pine-clad hill
overlooking the city from the east. Several lady missionaries are
visiting from other points, all Americans, making a pleasant party for
one to meet in such an unexpected manner.

On Sunday morning I accompany Mr. Carey to see his native congregation in
the nice new church which he says they have erected from their own means
at a cost of two thousand yen. This latter is a very gratifying
statement, not to say surprisingly so, for it savors of something like
sincerity on the part of the converts. In most countries the converts
seem to be brought to a knowledge of their evil ways, and to perceive the
beauties of the Christian religion through the medium of material
assistance provided from the mission. Instead of spending money
themselves for the cause they profess to embrace, they expect to receive
something from it of a tangible earthly nature. Here, however, we find
the converts themselves building their own meeting-house, and bidding
fair ere long to support the mission without outside aid. This is
encouraging from the stand-point of those who believe in converting "the
heathen" from their own religion to ours, and gratifying to the student
of Japanese character.

About five hundred people congregate in the church, seating themselves
quietly and orderly on the mat-covered floor. They embrace all classes,
from the samurai lawyer or gentleman to the humblest citizen, and from
gray-haired old men and women to shock-headed youngsters, who merely come
with their mothers. Many of these same mothers have been persuaded by the
missionaries to cease the heathenish practice of blackening their teeth,
and so appear at the meeting in even rows of becoming white ivories like
their unmarried sisters. Numbers of curious outsiders congregate about
the open doors and peep in and stand and listen to the sermon of Mr.
Carey, and the singing. The hymns ar