How employed.
But the eyes of the Japanese have been recently opened to the advantages of foreign trade,[410] and they are moving onwards in a manner which could hardly have been anticipated from what is known of their previous history; indeed, they have recently (February 1875) announced the establishment of a regular line of steamers under the Japanese flag. The shares of this undertaking, which they have named the “Mitsu-Bishi Steam Navigation Company,” are held almost, if not exclusively, by Japanese. This company already possesses four steamers, the Tokio-Murin (late New York), the Kunayana-Murin (late Madras), the Takar-Murin (late Acanthia), and the Zazon, while others are in course of construction in Great Britain, which are to form a “weekly line” between China and their own ports of Nagasaki, Hiogo, Imioseki, and Yokohama.
What an advance on the rude craft of which the following is an illustration![411]
When we consider the enterprising character of the Japanese, we cannot but feel surprised that such vessels as this clumsy hulk, should, in spite of their restrictive laws, have been found sufficient for all their wants, and that through countless ages. But now the spirit of progress in maritime affairs guides their councils, and though, at present, their steamers are commanded by Europeans or Americans, and have foreign engineers, in other respects they are manned by Japanese. Ere long the junks, alike of China and Japan, will be things of the past, strange toys to the children of these countries, as they have long been to the children of Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
[380] The Diana was sent out first in 1821 for Mr. Robarts, with the view to employment in the Canton river. She had a pair of 16 horse-power engines by Maudslay. At Calcutta she was nearly reconstructed by Messrs. Kyd and Co., and launched again on July 12, 1823.
The first actual steam-boat of which we have any record, in connection with India, was built at Batavia, shortly after the conclusion of the Java war in 1810-11. She was called the Van der Capellen, and was built at the expense of English merchants. She was engaged by Government for two years at the cost of 10,000 dollars a month, which well repaid the original outlay on her. She proved very effective for the transport of troops, &c. After some years she came into the hands of Major Schalch and was used by him, under the name of the Pluto, as a dredging-boat in 1822. Thence she went to Arrakan as a floating battery. She was afterwards lost in a gale in 1830.
In 1819, Mr. W. Trickett built a small steam-boat of 8 horse-power at the Butterley Works, for the Nawâb of Oude, to ply on the Jumna. “Early Steam Navigation to India,” by G. A. Prinsep, Calcutta, 4to, 1830.)
[381] These vessels were named the Burhampooter and Hooghly; they were each 105 feet in length and 18 feet in breadth. Each had two engines, which were sent from England, of the combined nominal power of 50 horses, but working up to 80 horse-power on a consumption of 709 pounds of coal per hour.