"They're The Worst And Wickedest
Coolies In All Japan," He Stammered; "Two More Ran Away, And Now
Three Are Coming,
And have got paid for four, and the first three
who ran away got paid, and the Express man's so
Ashamed for a
foreigner, and the Governor's in a furious rage."
Except for the loss of time it made no difference to me, but when
the kuruma did come up the runners were three such ruffianly-
looking men, and were dressed so wildly in bark cloth, that, in
sending Ito on twelve miles to secure relays, I sent my money along
with him. These men, though there were three instead of two, never
went out of a walk, and, as if on purpose, took the vehicle over
every stone and into every rut, and kept up a savage chorus of
"haes-ha, haes-hora" the whole time, as if they were pulling stone-
carts. There are really no runners out of Hakodate, and the men
don't know how to pull, and hate doing it.
Mororan Bay is truly beautiful from the top of the ascent. The
coast scenery of Japan generally is the loveliest I have ever seen,
except that of a portion of windward Hawaii, and this yields in
beauty to none. The irregular grey town, with a grey temple on the
height above, straggles round the little bay on a steep, wooded
terrace; hills, densely wooded, and with a perfect entanglement of
large-leaved trailers, descend abruptly to the water's edge; the
festoons of the vines are mirrored in the still waters; and above
the dark forest, and beyond the gleaming sea, rises the red, peaked
top of the volcano.
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