as
introduced. A Japanese who speaks English very well was present to act
as interpreter. The great aim of this official seemed to be to induce
the British squadron not to go to Kagosima, and he entreated the captain
to visit another official, the prince's chief envoy. This, he said,
could not be done without permission of the admiral, but, if granted, he
would willingly do as he was requested. No sooner had the interpreter
translated the captain's reply than the great man, taking out writing
materials from a box, seated himself on the floor, and began scribbling
away on a scroll of paper, in wonderfully large characters, a note to
the envoy. As line after line was finished he rolled it up, and then,
with due formality, handed it to the captain, who had the curiosity to
measure it, and what do you think was its length? Why, six feet at the
very least. Official documents, by the same rule, must be thirty or
forty feet long, according to their importance."

"Can you tell us the length of a lover's _billet-doux_?" asked the
assistant surgeon.

"That depends very much on the excess of his ardour, and what he has got
to say," answered Tom; "though, from what I've heard, I don't think the
Japanese are addicted to writing love-letters."

"And what happened next?"

"That's more than I can tell, though I believe that the letter was
delivered and answered, with a hint to Prince Satsuma that whatever
might be said, he had better look sharp and yield to our demands, or
that he might expect to have his town tumbling about his ears. The
British envoy and admiral have been waiting a reply, and I suspect that
it has arrived and is not satisfactory; consequently we shall proceed
immediately to teach the haughty damio that Englishmen are not to be
murdered with impunity. These Japanese will be like the Chinese until
they are taught better. They fancy that their castles are impregnable,
and as they have never been attacked, except by each other, that they
can beat off an English squadron with perfect ease."

This information given by Tom afforded intense satisfaction, and all
hands waited with considerable anxiety to hear how soon they might
expect to exchange shots with the Japanese. They had heard that the
batteries they were likely to be engaged with were somewhat of a
formidable character, having already fired on an American and French
man-of-war and inflicted considerable damage; the American indeed, being
unsupporte