eclared nearest heir to the throne, in case the Mikado
should die without male heirs, and his name, KITA-SHIRA-KAVA-NO-MIYA,
was changed a second time to YOHI HISHA. The former name was at the
bottom of the speech he made for us at the dinner, and which he gave me,
and the latter, with the addition, "Prince of Japan," was on his calling
card. The dinner was quite European, with a large number of speeches,
principally in European languages, but also in Japanese. Before every
guest lay a map, of the form of a fan, with the course of the _Vega_
marked upon it. As a memorial of the feast I received some days after a
large medal in silver inlaid in gold, of which a drawing is given on
pages 306, 307. We were conveyed back to the Tokio railway station in
European equipages, in the same way as we had been brought to the
dinner. During dinner musicians from the band of the imperial navy
played European pieces of music with great skill, to the evident
satisfaction of the Japanese.

On the forenoon of the 17th September we were presented at the court
of the Mikado in Tokio by the Swedish-Dutch minister. We were
fetched from the railway station by imperial equipages, consisting
of simple but ornamental and convenient _suflett_ carriages, each
drawn by a pair of beautiful black horses of no great size. As is
common in Japan, a running groom, clad in black, accompanied each
carriage. The reception took place in the imperial palace, a very
modest wooden building. The rooms we saw were furnished, almost
poorly, in European fashion. We first assembled in an antechamber,
the only remarkable ornament of which was a large piece of nephrite,
which was a little carved and had a Chinese inscription on it. Here
we were met by some of the ministers and the interpreter. After a
short conversation, in the course of which the interpreter got a
sight of the written speech, or more correctly the words of
salutation, I was to speak, we were conducted into an inner
apartment where the Emperor, clad in a uniform of European style and
standing in front of a throne, received us. The only thing unusual
at our reception was that we were requested at our departure not to
turn our backs to the Emperor, and on entering and departing to make
three bows, one at the door, another when we had come forward a
little on the floor, and one at the place where we were to stand.
After we had been presented the Emperor read a speech in Japanese,
which was translated in