of December, consisted of forty-nine officials, with interpreters and servants making in all over one hundred persons. They were accompanied to the United States by the American minister, Mr. De Long, and his secretary; and the Japanese consul at San Francisco, an American citizen, was made a member of the embassy and continued with it through Europe. It arrived in San Francisco, January 15, 1872, where it was received with the greatest attention by the public officials and citizens. In the receptions and festivities, Vice-Ambassador Ito, who had been abroad and was familiar with the English language, was the chief speaker. The spirit which animated this distinguished body of statesmen may be seen from the following extracts from his speeches.
At a banquet given by the citizens of San Francisco, in the course of his remarks, he said: "Japan is anxious to press forward. The red disk in the centre of our flag shall no longer appear like a wafer over a sealed empire, but henceforth be in fact what it is designed to be, the noble emblem of the rising sun, moving onward and upward amid the enlightened nations of the world." And at Sacramento: "We come to study your strength, that, by adopting wisely your better ways, we may hereafter be stronger ourselves. … Notwithstanding the various customs, manners, and institutions of the different nations, we are all members of one large human family, and under control of the same Almighty Being, and we believe it is our common destiny to reach a nobler civilization than the world has yet seen."
