alongside the cruiser, that was quite out of the question, and they were
obliged to hoist me aboard in a standing bowline at the end of a whip.

Upon being shown into Admiral Misamichi's cabin, I found its occupant
somewhat ruefully contemplating the rather voluminous communication from
the shore which he had just received. He welcomed me with much
cordiality, and then passed the document over to me.

"Be so good as to read that, Captain," he said, "and then kindly tell me
what you make of it. It purports to be General Oku's instructions for
to-morrow; but so dense is my stupidity that I am compelled to confess
my inability to understand it."

I read the communication carefully through from beginning to end three
times, and was then obliged to admit that I had only been able to glean
a very hazy, imperfect notion of what the General required. I gathered
that he desired the squadron to concentrate its fire from time to time
upon certain points, as directed by signal; but the mischief of it was
that we out there in the bay had no means of identifying the points
named by the General; in other words, he gave them designations of which
we were completely ignorant. We produced the chart of the place,
likewise the map, and studied them both intently, with Oku's message
beside us, and finally came to the conclusion that it was
incomprehensible. Then the Admiral sent for the captains of the other
ships, and they had a shot at it, with a similar result.

At length I said:

"It appears to me, sir, that there is but one thing to be done, namely,
for me to go ashore, find General Oku, explain to him our difficulty,
and _get_ him to mark on the map the several points mentioned here,"--
touching the dispatch. "As you are aware, I have already been ashore
here; I spent a whole day among the hills, reconnoitring the ground and
making observations. I therefore know the country well, including our
own and the enemy's positions; and probably half an hour's conversation
with the General will enable me to identify the points mentioned in this
dispatch with some of those already marked upon my chart. Thus, for
example, this point, the position of which we are wholly unable to
identify, may be the position which I have marked 1, or 3, or 7, or, in
fact, anything; but it _must_ be one or other of those which I have
numbered, for I numbered every one of them."

"Yes, yes," agreed the Admiral, "that is all quite comprehensible; and