nceited bird as he strutted proudly along
before the admiral; and I feel assured that, though the
commander-in-chief may not have thought much about the matter, there was
no doubt in pussy's mind as to _his_ being one of the "greatest folk
here to-day."

By the third day out we had reached the Corean archipelago, and found
ourselves off the northern coast of Quelpart, where we had recently met
with such rough handling. The course was slightly altered to enable us
to touch at a small island in the same group, named Port Hamilton. This,
until very recently, was, I believe, the only place in the peninsula
empire where foreigners--Europeans and Americans--were allowed to hold
any intercourse with the natives. It was left to our admiral to alter
this edict, and to break through their prejudices.

October 23rd.--At four o'clock this morning we dashed through the strait
of Simoneski under steam and canvas, with the wind dead aft and fresh,
in company with some hundreds of junks, whose bellying snowy sails and
neat trim hulls had much the appearance of a yachting contest.

By sundown we had made the original anchorage. Owing, I suppose, to the
season being further advanced, the scenery has lost that freshness we
noticed during our first trip through, but not its charm--I think it
could never do that. The little bay looked very lovely to-night with the
moon's flood of silver light streaming down on its thousand isles.

"Fair luna" had scarcely left us to gladden another world of night
before the anchor was at the bows and the ship holding on her onward
course; and though the wind was both strong and favourable, no advantage
was taken of it to sail, for we were navigating such intricate
labyrinths, cutting so sharply around islets, and dodging in and out so
many channels and passages, that the jib and spanker were the only sails
that could be used with any degree of safety; but when at length we
broke out into the open again, we spread our wings to the gale and made
short work of the distance to Kobe.

Our arrival was most opportune, both for ourselves and also for society
on shore. To the regatta committee we were specially welcome, for a
regatta was to be held in the afternoon, and the presence of our band
was certainly a pleasing and unlooked-for item in the programme of
proceedings. Our third cutter took the first prize in the navy race,
though it was an open question whether the Russian boat did not deserve
it. It was r