In reality I had quite made up my mind to carry out
the scheme I had unfolded to him. Yes, actually,
led on by ennui and solitude, I had gradually arrived
at dreaming of and looking forward to this absurd
marriage. And then, above all, to live for awhile
on land, in some shady nook, amid trees and flowers.
How tempting it sounded after the long months we had
been wasting at the Pescadores (hot and arid islands,
devoid of freshness, woods, or streamlets, full of
faint odors of China and of death).
We had made great way in latitude, since our vessel
had quitted that Chinese furnace, and the constellations
in the sky had undergone a series of rapid changes;
the Southern Cross had disappeared at the same time
as the other austral stars; and the Great Bear rising
on the horizon, was almost on as high a level as it
is in the French sky. The fresh evening breeze
soothed and revived us, bringing back to us the memory
of our summer night watches on the coast of Brittany.
What a distance we were, however, from those familiar
coasts! What a terrible distance!
At dawn of day we sighted Japan.
Precisely at the foretold moment Japan arose before
us, afar off, like a clear and distinct dot in the
vast sea, which for so many days had been but a blank
space.
At first we saw nothing in the rising sun but a series
of tiny pink-tipped heights (the foremost portion
of the Fukai islands). Soon, however, appeared
all along the horizon, like a thick cloud, a dark
veil over the waters, Japan itself; and little by little
out of the dense shadow arose the sharp opaque outlines
of the Nagasaki mountains.
The wind was dead against us, and the strong breeze,
which steadily increased, seemed as if the country
were blowing with all its might against us, in a vain
effort to drive us away from its shores. The
sea, the rigging, the vessel itself, all vibrated and
quivered as if with emotion.
By three o’clock in the afternoon all these
far-off objects drew close to us, so close, indeed,
that they overshadowed us by their rocky masses and
dense green thickets.
We now entered into a shady kind of channel enclosed
between two high ranges of mountains, curiously symmetrical
in shape—like stage scenery, very fine,
though unlike nature. It seemed as if Japan opened
to our view, through a fairy-like rent, which thus
allowed us to penetrate into her very heart.
