Yokohama, Oct. 12, 1889.
THE Grand Hotel, where I am located, is very large and first-class in all respects. It is two hundred feet long, fronting the matchless bay, with an extension along a canal of two hundred feet.
From the room I occupy, I look down upon the canal and a fine bridge which spans it. Across this bridge goes a constant procession of men, women, and children, some horses and carriages, and occasionally a single ox drawing a cart. But every thing looks so different, and is managed so differently from what one has been accustomed to, that I am more and more impressed with the idea that I am no longer in this world, but in some wonderland beyond the stars.
The view of the bay from the front of the hotel is said to be, by some, the finest in the world. The harbor is very large, and could float all the navies of all nations. At anchor, in different directions, are iron-clad war-ships, English, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Japanese,—only one showing the stars and stripes, the St. Mary, an old side-wheel boat, about as large as a Brooklyn ferry-boat, and of course about as useless.
One of the naval vessels flying the British flag is an immense iron-clad of six thousand tons. With the commander, Captain May, I became acquainted. He has on board an Armstrong gun of one hundred and twenty tons, the largest I think ever made, which will throw a bolt of half a ton a dozen miles, and penetrate through a wrought-iron plate twelve inches thick.
The captain expressed himself as having serious doubt of the efficiency of such monster ships and guns in actual warfare, as smaller, swifter crafts could run around them, and have great advantages in that respect.
Most of the coal used in this part of the world comes from England, and is consequently very high-priced.
The harbor is crowded with many large passenger steamers, and a great fleet of fishing craft. Towards evening the latter presented a beautiful appearance, coming in.
I took a short walk beyond the canal and over steep hills. There are few horses or oxen to be seen. Most of the transportation is done by men. A two-wheeled cart, loaded with perhaps five hundred brick, was being pushed up a steep hill by eight men, who rested often and were much fatigued by their exertions.