Next morning, February 19th, they embarked for Osaki, preferring the voyage by water to a toilsome journey over a rude and mountainous region; and, after sailing through a sea thickly studded with small islands, the greater number of which were fertile and covered with population, arrived in five days at their point of destination. Osaki, one of the five imperial cities of Japan, was a place of considerable extent and great opulence. The streets were broad, and in the centre of the principal ones ran a canal, navigable for small unmasted vessels, which conveyed all kinds of merchandise to the doors of the merchants; while upwards of a hundred bridges, many of which were extremely beautiful, spanned these canals, and communicated a picturesque and lively air to the whole city. The sides of the river were lined with freestone, which descended in steps from the streets to the water, and enabled persons to land or embark wherever they pleased. The bridges thrown over the main stream were constructed with cedar, elegantly railed on both sides, and ornamented from space to space with little globes of brass. The population of the city was immense; and, like those of most seaport towns, remarkably addicted to luxury and voluptuousness. From Osaki they proceeded through a plain country, planted with rice, and adorned with plantations of Tsadanil trees, to Miako, the ancient capital of Japan. It being the first day of the month, which the Japanese keep as a holyday, they met great multitudes of people walking out of the city, as the Londoners do on Sunday, to enjoy the sweets of cessation from labour, With pleasaunce of the breathing fields yfed,