One of the longest of these fragments relates to an alleged conspiracy, in the year 1767, against the reigning Shōgun, for which a number of persons suffered death. There is, also, an account of an extensive volcanic eruption, which took place in September, 1783, in the interior of the island of Nippon, in the province of Shinano, northwest of Yedo and north of Ōsaka. The mountain Asama vomited sand, ashes, and pumice-stones; the rivers flowing from it were heated boiling-hot, and their dammed-up waters inundated the country. Twenty-seven villages were swallowed up, and many people perished. The councillor of state, Tanuma Yamashiro-no-Kami, was assassinated the next year (1784), in the emperor’s palace; but of this event, and of others connected with it, Titsingh gives a fuller explanation in his Introduction to the Japanese “Marriage Ceremonies.” He there informs us that “though many Japanese of the highest distinction, and intimately acquainted with matters of government, still consider Japan as the first empire of the world, and care but little for what passes out of it, yet such persons are denominated by the more enlightened _I no uchi no Kayeru_,—that is, ‘Frogs in a well,’—a metaphorical expression, which signifies that when they look up they can see no more of the sky than what the small circumference of the well allows them to perceive.” Of this more enlightened party was the extraordinary councillor, Matsudaira Tsu, who proposed, in 1769, the building of ships, and junks suitable for foreign voyages; but this plan was put a stop to by his death. Tango-no-Kami, the governor of Nagasaki, one of this more liberal party, with whom Titsingh, while director, kept up a secret intercourse, proposed to him, in 1783, to bring carpenters from Batavia, to instruct the Japanese in building vessels, especially for the transport of copper from Ōsaki to Nagasaki, in which service many Japanese vessels had been lost, with their cargoes; but this Titsingh knew to be impossible, as skilful carpenters were too rare at Batavia to be spared. He therefore proposed to take with him, on his return to Batavia, a number of Japanese to be instructed there; but the prohibition against any native leaving the country proved an insurmountable obstacle. He then promised to have a model ship built at Batavia, and conveyed to Nagasaki, which was done by himself, on his last visit to Japan; but the assassination of Tanuma, above mentioned, which had happened during his absence at Batavia, put an end to all hopes that had been formed of a modification in the exclusive policy of the Japanese.