“He assured me that it was, and somehow after he had gone it impressed itself more strongly on my mind the more I thought of it. I lay ill, and part of the time in delirium, for ten days. When I at last got up, the Beagle was gone. I sent inquiries to the Naval Academy, but no one seemed to know anything about her. As soon as I was able to go out, I lost no time in setting on foot inquiries of the whereabouts of the missing ship. I finally learned that she had probably gone to the Imperial Navy Yard in Yokosuka, about thirty miles from Tokio. As soon as I was able to travel we started to go to Yokosuka in search of the missing vessel. Before this, however, I had taken the precaution to put on the track the Englishman, Mr. F. W. Hammond, who taught the young Japanese gunnery in the Imperial Naval Academy at Tokio, and he promised to do all in his power--which in this instance was very great--to help me in my search for the Beagle. To aid him, I gave him the following list of questions, to which he sent me the answers given below months afterward. My questions had gone through the regular naval channels. The answers show how methodical the Japanese are, even if they are slow. In these answers I use their language: “‘Question. How did the Japanese Government happen to get the Beagle?’ “‘Answer. The details of getting are not plainly known, but the Prince of Kagoshima procured it on seventy-five thousand dollars, at the 23d of July, first year of Genzi (1860), afterward he offered it to the Government at the June of the third year of Genzi.’ “‘Q. Are there any good photographs of her as she was when a war ship?’ “‘A. No, we have no one.’ “‘Q. Where is the Beagle now?’ “‘A. After out of use, she was applied as a Chastising Place for seamen at the Yokosuka station, and then was auctioned at the March, twenty-second year of Genzi.’ “‘Q. What was the date of her arrival in Japan?’ “‘A. She was received by the Prince of Kagoshima, at Nagasaki, July, the first year of Genzi.’ “‘Q. What is her present name? When was her name changed?’ “‘A. At the present this ship has no name in the consequence of out of use, but after procured by the Kagoshima Prince the name of Beagle was changed into Kenko Kan.’ “‘Q. Do you know how old this ship is, and what she was used for by the British Government before the Japanese got her?’ “‘A. She was actually used during twenty-three years, after which she was put out of use, having been constructed at Liverpool, and we can not know what she was applied for before got by Japan, but she remained more or less than one year in England.’ (Darwin made his famous voyage in her from 1831 to 1836.) “‘Q. What is the name of the captain who had charge of her after she became the property of the Japanese Government?’