but unfortunately Tell into the mistake of he next day I prepared to leave Higo, day I prepared to leave making Hak-kwan, the port of Kumamoto and five miles from the city, my point of departure by steamer to Nagasaki. I made enquiries at the agent's office in Kumamoto, and was informed that a steamer would leave that evening for Nagasaki, so I consequently packed up my baggage, left the comfortable Kumamoto yadoya' and proceeded by kuruma to Hak-kwan, only to find that I was of necessity compelled to take up my quarters at a wretched inn at twice the cost of the much superior Kumamore yadoya, and there wait for thirty hours for the steamer, thoroughly exasperated by the continued and unblushing lies that were told me about her expected arrival. At six o'clock on the morning following my arrival the Hak-kwan steamer agent sent me up a telegram form which he pretended had been received at 3.a.m. at Kumamoto from the agents at the port of departure in Chikugo, and forwarded by messenger at once to him, announcing that the steamer had been unaccountably delayed, but would leave Chikugo at noon and arrive positively at 2 pin. I was foolish enough to believe in this message at first and rejoiced accordingly, but reflection and subsequent events led me to believe that the message was entirely fictitious, and that a blank tole-gram form had been filled in by the agent with such information as he thought I would like to receive. Atnoon it was dead low water, and therefore impossible that the steamer could have left the Chikugo port and so the day passed without any sign of her appearance, " About o'clock I went out for a walk, and had not proceeded far before I was recalled by a message to go off to the steamer. I joyfully returned to the yadoya, paid my bill which was the only exorbitant one I had met with in all my trip—and thankfully got on board a large open boat filled with native passengers, and away we went for the anchorage, expecting there to find the long-looked-for steamer awaiting us, as owing to the shallow nature of the coast even light draught steamers cannot get within six miles of the port, The day was closing as we got clear of the river, and on we went still hoping that the steamer was outside, but when we arrived at the anchorage we found there were several junks laden with cargo waiting there, but never a steamer. Three hours and a half we passed in that miserable open boat, and a blessed relief it was when the steamer's lights appeared at last about nine o'clock, At half-past nine she had anchored, and we lost no time in getting on board. I found to my surprise that the steamer was the Hohken-mau, a small paddle-wheel steamer which I well' knew when she ran between Kobe and Osaka in 1871. Shewas fairly comfortable, and the captain was very obliging, He told'me that he had left the Chikugo Pee on tat rang, tat 6 o'clock that evening, and that the the fact that it was never intended that he should leave sooner, and that he could not be due at Hak-kwan until 9 p.m. at the soonest. Had the truth been told me T might have employed my time in the ascent of Kibo-san, only a short. distance from Hak-kwan, which is the hill that was fissured to so large an extent by the late earthquake, but as I was led to Delieve that the steamer might arrive at any moment during the day, I dared not go far from the wretched stinking village of Hak-kwan. It is far better for the traveller to avoid Hak-kwan altogether and proceed from Kumamoto to Misumi, a pretty place at the foot of a hill which is the proniontory of a tongue of land running out due west from Higo, and which is only divided from the great group of islands in the middle of Shimabura Gulf by a narrow and deep channel. Misumi is twenty-one miles from Kumamoto, but there is a good road all the way, and the accommodation for foreign travellers is first rate, as there is a hotel at the port kept in foreign style, Steamers Teave Misumifor Nagasakialmostevery aftornoon, andas they are made fast alongside a pontoon in port, passengers can embark without any trouble. Should any detention occur, the time might be devoted to the ascent of Misumi-take, prominent hill in that part of the country, and from the summit of which a good view can be obtained of the coast of Higo to the east, Unzen to the west, and in the centre the long line of islands backed by Amakusa in the distance.
If time is precious to the traveller and he hesitates to depend on the small coasting steamers, safe return route from Higo is by native boat from Hak-kwan straight across the gulf to Shimabara, and thence by jinricsha to Nagasaki, there being a good broad road all the'way from the latter place. The mail from Higo to Nagasaki appears to be carried this way, but from nagasaki to Higo letters are forwarded by steamer, as the time of departure from that port is advertised and can be depended upon.
When I found myself provided with a commodious first class cabin on board the Hohen-maru, the fare for which waa yen 1, all my troubles were at an end. After taking in cargo we started for Shimabara about eleven o'clock, where more cargo was
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.