While the young Ronyin thus lay studying in Yeddo, news came
of a Russian ship at Nangasaki. No time was to be lost.
Sakuma contributed "a long copy of encouraging verses and off
set Yoshida on foot for Nangasaki. His way lay through his
own province of Choshu; but, as the highroad to the south lay
apart from the capital, he was able to avoid arrest. He
supported himself, like a TROUVERE, by his proficiency in
verse. He carried his works along with him, to serve as an
introduction. When he reached a town he would inquire for
the house of any one celebrated for swordsmanship, or poetry,
or some of the other acknowledged forms of culture; and
there, on giving a taste of his skill, he would be received
and entertained, and leave behind him, when he went away, a
compliment in verse. Thus he travelled through the Middle
Ages on his voyage of discovery into the nineteenth century.
When he reached Nangasaki he was once more too late. The
Russians were gone. But he made a profit on his journey in
spite of fate, and stayed awhile to pick up scraps of
knowledge from the Dutch interpreters - a low class of men,
but one that had opportunities; and then, still full of
purpose, returned to Yeddo on foot, as he had come.
It was not only his youth and courage that supported him
under these successive disappointments, but the continual
affluence of new disciples.
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