The next day (Wednesday, March 7) they passed through several considerable places, of which Yoshida, present Toyohashi, with a castle and about a thousand small houses, was the most considerable. Arai, twelve or fifteen miles distant, was a town of about four hundred houses, situate not far from the sea, at the inland extremity of a harbor called Sao, narrow at its entrance, but spreading out within. Arai was the seat of certain imperial commissioners appointed to search the goods and baggage of all travellers, but particularly of the princes of the empire, that no women nor arms might pass. “This,” says Kämpfer, “is one of the political maxims which the now reigning emperors have found it necessary to practise in order to secure to themselves the peaceable possession of the throne; for the wives and female children of all the princes of the empire are kept at Yedo, as hostages of the fidelity of their husbands and parents. And as to the exportation of arms, an effectual stop has been put to that, lest, if exported in any considerable quantities, some of those princes might take it into their heads to raise rebellions against the government as now established.” The harbor of Sao was crossed in boats, on the other side of which the road led through a flat country, rather thinly inhabited. They slept that night at Hamamatsu, a town of several hundred inferior houses, with a large castle. The next day (Thursday, March 8), travelling on through a beautiful plain, in the afternoon they reached the town of Kakegawa; as they were passing through which, a fire broke out, occasioned by the boiling over of an oil kettle. Perceiving only a thick cloud behind them, they thought a storm was coming on, but were soon involved in such a cloud of smoke and heat as to be obliged to ride on at a gallop. Having reached a little eminence, on looking back, the whole town seemed on fire. Nothing appeared through the smoke and flames but the upper part of the castle tower. They found, however, on their return, some weeks after, that the damage was less than they had expected, more than half the town having escaped. It was necessary, shortly after, for the travellers to take kago to cross a steep mountain, descending from which they were obliged to ford the river Ōigawa, proverbial throughout Japan for its force and rapidity and the rolling stones in its bed, but just then at a very low stage. The road thence to Shimada, a small town where they lodged, was close to the sea, but through a barren country, the mountains approaching close to the shore.