Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

MEN AND BOOKS
Sakuma was in a position to help Yoshida more
practically than by simple countenance ; for he could
read Dutch, and was eager to communicate what he
knew.
While the young Ronyin thus lay studying in
Yeddo, news came of a Russian ship at Nangasaki.
No time was to be lost. Sakuma contributed ' a long
copy of encouraging verses ' ; and off set Yoshida
on foot for Nangasaki. His way lay through his
own province of Choshu ; but, as the high-road to
the south lay apart from the capital, he was able to
avoid arrest. He supported himself, like a trouvere,
by his proficiency in verse. He carried his works
along with him to serve as an introduction. When
he reached a town he would inquire for the house of
any one celebrated for swordsmanship, or poetry, or
some of the other acknowledged forms of culture ;
and there, on giving a taste of his skill, he would be
received and entertained, and leave behind him,
when he went away, a compliment in verse. Thus
he travelled through the Middle Ages on his voyage
of discovery into the nineteenth century. When he
reached Nangasaki he was once more too late. The
Russians were gone. But he made a profit on his
journey in spite of fate, and stayed a while to pick
up scraps of knowledge from the Dutch interpreters
— a low class of men, but one that had opportunities ;
and then, still full of purpose, returned to Yeddo on
foot, as he had come.
It was not only his youth and courage that sup-
ported him under these successive disappointments,
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