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226 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
of seventeen guns respectively in honor of the Tycoon
and of his
envoy, Professor Hayashi.
" There are the men whom our people call barbarians,"
said Okuma Ei, the teacher whom we met in
Yedo, to his pupil Noge" Toro.
Both were standing in the crowd on a little
of land at the foot of
the bluffs.
swell
" Yes, teacher," respectfully answered Noge". "
Do
you think it a strange name to give them ? "
" Why, yes ; we may live to see the day when our
rulers and people will be ashamed to apply the term
i-jin to men who can build ships and cannon like
these."
" Yet, teacher, are they not barbarous, who, ignorant
of the doctrines of the sages, know nothing of
the ambition and ideals of a Japanese " ?
" Well, their religion is
very different from ours ;
yet I imagine they must be men of study and moral
culture, or they never could do what they have
done."
"Are not the Americans inferior to the Europeans?
Have I not read that the country of the
United States of America was once used by Great
Britain as a penal settlement and place of exile like
our Hachijo Island?"
The teacher laughed and said :
"No; that idea, I think, is not correct, though
some of our people believe it. The Americans are
much like the English, speaking the same language.
They revolted against Great Britain about seventyfive
years ago, and became a separate nation. They