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

MEN AND BOOKS
already with the elegant and learned. The man
instantly burned up into a true enthusiasm ; his mind
had been only waiting for a teacher ; he grasped in
a moment the profit of these new ideas ; he, too,
would go to foreign, outlandish parts, and bring back
the knowledge that was to strengthen and renew
Japan ; and in the meantime, that he might be the
better prepared, Yoshida set himself to teach, and
he to learn, the Chinese literature. It is an episode
most honourable to Yoshida, and yet more honour-
able still to the soldier, and to the capacity and
virtue of the common people of Japan.
And now, at length. Commodore Perry returned
to Simoda. Friends crowded round Yoshida with
help, counsels, and encouragement. One presented
him with a great sword, three feet long and very
heavy, which, in the exultation of the hour, he swore
to carry throughout all his wanderings, and to bring
back — a far-travelled weapon — to Japan. A long
letter was prepared in Chinese for the American
officers ; it was revised and corrected by Sakuma,
and signed by Yoshida, under the name of Urinaki-
Manji, and by the soldier under that of Ichigi-Koda.
Yoshida had supplied himself with a profusion of
materials for writing ; his dress was literally stuffed
with paper which was to come back again enriched
with his observations, and make a great and happy
kingdom of Japan. Thus equipped, this pair of
emigrants set forward on foot from Yeddo, and
reached Simoda about nightfall. At no period within
history can travel have presented to any European
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