By my friend Boyd's advice I sallied forth early the next morning in
search of Admiral Togo, who was of course up to his eyes in business,
and who would be difficult to find unless I could catch him before he
left his hotel. I was fortunate enough to arrive while he was still at
breakfast, and, having sent in my card, was at once admitted.

I found him still seated at the table, in company with several other
officers, all of them dressed in a naval uniform almost identical in cut
and appearance with our own. Like every other Japanese I ever met, he
received me with the utmost politeness, and, having read Baron
Yamamoto's letter of introduction, again shook hands with me most
heartily, expressed the pleasure it afforded him to welcome another
Englishman into Japan's naval service, and forthwith proceeded to
introduce me to the other officers present, one of whom, I remember, was
Captain Ijichi, of the _Mikasa_, Togo's flagship. They all spoke
English, more or less, Togo perfectly, for he had served as a boy aboard
the British training ship _Worcester_, and later in our own navy. Also
he had taken a course of study at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
He was a typical Japanese, short and thick-set, with black eyes that
seemed to pierce one through and through and read one's innermost
thoughts. His hair, beard, and moustache were black, lightly touched
here and there with grey, and though it is a little difficult to
correctly estimate the age of a Japanese, I set him down at about fifty,
which I subsequently learned was not far out.

Like Baron Yamamoto, the Admiral asked me quite a number of questions;
and at length, when he found that I had qualified for gunnery, torpedo,
and navigating duties, and had seen service in a destroyer, he said:

"You seem to have an exceptionally good record for a young man of your
years, Mr Swinburne; so good, indeed, that I feel disposed to avail
myself to the utmost possible extent of your services. I foresee that
in the coming war the destroyer is destined to play a most important
part, and while I anticipate that the service which that class of craft
will be called upon to perform will be of the most arduous description,
and of course exceedingly dangerous, it will also afford its officers
exceptional opportunities to distinguish themselves. Now, it happens
that I have one destroyer--the _Kasanumi_, one of our best boats--for
which, thus far, I have been unable to find a suita