beautiful coloring on the waters, which glistened like diamonds in an
emerald setting around the vessels, our own flag waved its colors and
the soul-stirring strain, "Should Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot," aroused
all the patriotism and tenderness in our hearts. As we waved a good-bye
to the land of "The Rising Sun" it was with the desire that we might
return to the scenes that had contributed so much to our enjoyment. The
twelve guns fired from the "Centurion" in honor of the occasion seemed
as echoes from the hills bidding us adieu with an au revoir.

FROM JAPAN TO CHINA AND CEYLON.

STEAMER EMPRESS OF JAPAN,
YELLOW SEA, October 4, 1895.

Seated at the table with the first officer, who proves most loquacious
and intelligent, we discuss the "Prince of Wales," the English rule in
foreign lands and the works of George D. Curzon, a man of great
expectations and great possibilities. He loaned me "Problems of the Far
East," which I found most entertaining, clear and authentic. On my left
are seated Dr. and Mrs. Ashmore. The former has been forty-five years in
the missionary field in China. Mrs. Ashmore, as Mrs. Brown, was the
founder of the "Mary Colby Seminary" at Yokohama, afterwards removing to
China with her second husband. One of her daughters married Mr. Curtis,
editor of a Kobe paper, the other, Mr. McCarty, a transportation
merchant of Yokohama. Mrs. Ashmore expressed her views freely regarding
the Dobisha school in Kiota. The great extravagance in building and in
furnishing the university had forced it to the verge of bankruptcy. Dr.
and Mrs. Ashmore labor under the Baptist auspices, and both feel that
the most encouragement is offered the missionary in China rather than
Japan. The conversion of the Chinese was far more permanent when once
accomplished than that of the Japanese; they were more truthful and with
less varnish. We have on board Isabella Bird Bishop, gray-haired and
with mild blue eyes, rather below the average height of woman. She
writes so much in favor of Japan that the freedom of the hotels is
offered her. After the third day of smooth sailing we anchor in the
Yang-tse-kiang, as one writer says, "a stream of lofty dignity of
conscious might." Broken short ridges of mountains are seen from a
distance, with valleys and plains interspersed. The great plain lying on
the sea coast is alluvial, made so by the deposit of the Hoang-Ho