rations to the crew;--china, a legion of vases, teapots, cups, little
pots and plates. In one moment, all this was unpacked, spread out with
astounding rapidity and a certain talent for arrangement; each seller
squatting monkey-like, hands touching feet, behind his fancy
ware--always smiling, bending low with the most engaging bows. Under
the mass of these many-colored things, the deck presented the
appearance of an immense bazaar; the sailors, very much amused and
full of fun, walked among the heaped-up piles, taking the little women
by the chin, buying anything and everything, throwing broadcast their
white dollars. But, good gracious, how ugly, mean and grotesque all
those folk were. Given my projects of marriage, I began to feel
singularly uneasy and disenchanted.

* * * * *

Yves and myself were on duty till the next morning, and after the
first bustle, which always takes place on board when settling down in
harbor--(boats to lower, booms to swing out, running rigging to make
taut)--we had nothing more to do but to look on. We said to one
another: "Where are we in reality?--In the United States?--In some
English Colony in Australia, or in New Zealand?"

Consular residences, custom-house offices, manufactories; a dry dock
in which a Russian frigate was lying; on the heights the large
European concession, sprinkled with villas, and on the quays, American
bars for the sailors. Further off, it is true, further off, far away
behind these common-place objects, in the very depths of the immense
green valley, peered thousands upon thousands of tiny black houses, a
tangled mass of curious appearance, from which here and there emerged
some higher, dark red, painted roofs, probably the true old Japanese