On the 15th we reached the frontier of Echizen, where to the outspoken indignation of our Kaga friends, a petty official, a mere understrapper, had been sent to meet us. Here again the Kaga people exacted from the Echizen men a receipt for our bodies. I wonder how it was worded? Item, received, two English officials, sound in wind and limbs, etc.? I should have liked to have seen the document. It pretty soon became evident that although the Echizen people were ready to entertain us, and even to go to considerable expense in so doing, we must not look for any real friendship. It was, no doubt, kind to give us champagne and to provide smart pages of honour to fan us in the great heat—small gentlemen who reminded one of the dear little boys who waited upon the great Lord Cardinal when the wicked jackdaw of Reims stole his ring, but there was no show of civility, and in Fukui, the capital, such persons of gentle birth as flocked to the temple of Honguanji, where we were, to tell the truth, magnificently lodged, only came to crowd the passages and stare at us as if we had been gorillas. The intentional rudeness was unmistakable. The Prince of Echizen was at that time notoriously opposed to all foreign intercourse, and his feelings were reflected in the conduct of his people. On the 17th we crossed the Echizen boundary, glad to be quit of an unfriendly and surly people, who again handed us over against a formal receipt to the representatives of Ii Kamon no Kami. On the following day we reached Nagahama, a place which had been visited by Sir Harry Parkes and his party in May, so we were no longer a novelty and attracted little attention, which was a mercy. Here we were met by an officer of the Tycoon with a guard of eighteen of the Bettégumi (foreign guards), which very much robbed the journey of its interest, for under the eyes and ears of the Bakufu it was of course out of the question to hold any familiar intercourse with the people of the various places through which we might pass. This day we came to a place called Yanagosé, where there was a curious institution, a _sekisho_, or barrier, which no woman might go through without a passport. Talk about women’s rights!