Empress of China. Antipodes Day - it was the 17th yesterday and will be the 18th tomorrow. I got a 'normous [sic] letter from you, dear Papa, oh dear Papa! just before we left Japan telling all about the Non Cons. and the Committee, a thrilling tale of base ingratitude and deceit and the Tees Commission (my warm congratulations) and the ball and the ahl sorts. (By the way I think that last phrase ought to be taken out before you publish this letter!) We've been 6 days on this boat - what with one thing and another I've not had time to write so much as a postcard, however I've got 6 days more in which to catch the mail so there's no 'urry [sic]. It's too cold. I do sit out all day long wrapped up in fur coats and rugs but it's really too cold for pleasure. The temp is 42° and there's no sun. I won't travel by this line again. The boat is very well, but we're packed like sardines. I have a mother and daughter (of 12) in my cabin, very nice but still too much of them, and H. [Hugo] has 2 men in his. And they're quite small cabins. Moreover the food is bad, sometimes absolutely bad - the eggs no one ventures on. It's rather monstrous. The C.P.R. mocks itself of it's public. It won't get me again, nor you either when you and I come out to stay with Mlle Sontag and the King of Korea at Seoul [Soul]. The people on board are mostly English - a fair sprinkling of Indian officials and their wives, rather nice some of them, one or two tourists and Durbar people with whom we have made many a former voyage and none of whom we are particularly glad to see again, and then the usual riff raff of Americans and dim family parties not a member of which one can contrive to remember even by sight. A whole week of Japanese adventures I must tell you about now or never. First of all on a Wednesday ever so long ago after I last wrote to you we lunched at the Legation and had a very pleasant afternoon there. Lady Susan intil't, Mrs Stokes, a number of naval people, one of whom, Captain Jerrum, who sat by me, was extremely agreeable and I'm told he's a rising man. He commands the Flag ship. Lady Mac was very friendly. After lunch I took Sir Claude to a secluded spot and photographed him. After which he took me to a secluded spot and talked for an hour or so of politics, China, Japan, his part in things past and his view of things to come. He gave me a detailed history of the causes of his move to Tokyo - I thought I could have put it into fewer and more pointed words, but I ain't say nuffin. I came to the conclusion that his position in Peking [Beijing] was more difficult before the Boxer business than one gives him credit for, but that he is distinctly not the man to control restive circumstance. He is, however, most pleasant not to say charming and he has got some fine loot. Lady Mac had a garden party, the fine fleur of Tokyo. It was a delicious hot afternoon, I had the satisfactory feeling that I had put on my smartest clothes and was much entertained. That night after dinner, Mr Farrer took me to a fare [sic]. It was perfectly charming. Booths and booths of dwarf trees and toys and minute cages of singing and chirping insects, and surprising foods all lighted with rows of Japanese lanterns and the cheerful Japanese people crowding round, carrying lanterns on the end of long poles and buying a variety of exquisite and useless objects and indigestible foods and something less than nothing. Next day we started off on our tour, H and I and Mr Farrer, and the party was completed by a very small and extremely inefficient Japanese servant whose real name you needn't know for we called him nothing but the Rat. He appeared in patent leather boots, black cotton stockings with red clocks on them, a check suit so pleated down the shoulder seams to make his small back appear to be humped, and a sailor hat. He was perhaps the stupidest person in Japan. We went by rail until midday when we reached a point at the foot of Fuji where we got out and committed ourselves to a tram. The tram set off uphill at a snail's pace over a curious lava country covered with azaleas. Presently it began to rain a heavy thunder shower and at that moment did we, on a single line, meet a lot of trucks and trams coming down. We all had to get out and lift our tram off the line to let them pass and put it back again before we could go any further. Then the rain blew over and Fuji came out clear and splendid and beamed upon us for the rest of the afternoon. It was extraordinarily lovely. We went over a shoulder (walking up which Mr Farrer found a wonderful rose pink cyprodium) and down to a little lake, when we paused long enough to eat 6 soft boiled eggs without spoons or eggcups (I invented the procedure and flatter myself that I did it with taste and skill) and then in the dusk all along the base of Fuji till we arrived at a charming village called Yoshida where we lay at a very good Japanese inn and the Rat cooked us an indifferent dinner. Next morning we set off again on foot, a lovely enchanting day, and walked and boated over the charming country and the more charming lakes that lie at the base of Fuji till 2 o'clock we reached the 3rd lake, Shoji, and rowed across it to our inn. The innkeeper, an Englishman, met us and told us he hadn't a bed in the house. However as it was 6 hours and more to the next possible sleeping place, he said we must stay and he would do what he could for us. Eventually a kind man gave up his room to me and H and Mr Farrer were accomodated in the dining room. It was an exquisite place. You saw the cone of Fuji from the hotel between the branches of the pines that overhung the lake, and again reflected in the water Bellow you, and at night the moon shone and the badgers cried to one another along the water's edge. Next day, Saturday, we walked over the ridge behind the hotel and had a most wonderful view from the top of it. Fuji and his long train of densely wooded lava stream dropping in beautiful suave lines to the lakes at our feet which indeed were formed by some great erruption [sic] which dammed back the streams from the opposite hills and made the chain of lakes Bellow them. We had a delightful walk along ridges and down valleys till at 4 in the afternoon we reached the Fujikawa river and dropped down it in a boat to Yokaichiba where we spent the night. It looked a very good clean inn, but no sooner had we gone to bed, than the fleas and the mosquitoes so devoured us that we did not sleep at all that night, not a single minute. In consequence of which we got up with the dawn, sent out for our boat and set out soon after 5 down the rapids about which I can't tell you much for I was asleep very peacefully most of the time. Just as we got to the end of the river, about 10 o'clock, it began to rain and it streamed all the afternoon. However we didn't mind much for we took train and went by train and by tram to the foot of the Miyanoshita [Myanoshita] hills and so rickshawed up through warm mists to the excellent hotel where we found our rooms prepared and the two Miss Wanchopes anxiously expecting us, dear old things. We were rewarded for next day was lovely and we 3 rode (the old things joined our party in litters) over the hills to Hakone and over more hills down to Atami on the coast where we spent a balmy and very agreeable evening and bathed in the hot sulphur baths. It was so warm there that I slept out on my balcony in front of the sea. It is really delightful travelling about Japan in the time of the flowering shrubs. For variety and beauty they are incomparable. Weigelias, azaleas, rhododendron, spiraeas, deutzia, a lovely clustery rose, briars and thorn without number, guelder roses and lots of things I didn't know. Next day we went by a sort of rickshaw train, the carriages pushed uphill by coolies and coasting down, back to the train line where we parted with the old things, and then by train to Kamakura meeting Eric on the way. So we all established ourselves at the hotel and drove about in rickshaws seeing the big Buddha and the famous image of Emma God of Hell (his name gives you no indication of how terrible is his countenance) and spent the evening talking on the verandah. Gerard had a horrid accident in Hokkaido. He went up a volcano with a Jap guide and the guide, who seems to have been a foolish and headstrong man, insisted on climbing down into the crater by a way that Gerard saw was too dangerous, slipped and fell 200 yards and was killed. Poor Gerard had written Eric a long letter about it which I read. The Tokyo papers announced that a Russian peer had come to his death on the mountains, his suite having lost their footing and that all had been killed! I met the d'Anethans (he is Bellgian minister) and the Aokis in the Buddha garden (and by the way the [space left empty] lilies were growing wild all about and just on the point of coming into flower) and Madame d'Anethan asked us to go and see her which we did next day, on our way back from Enoshima. We had a charming morning at that island of the sea goddess's and bought most wonderful little toys made out of shells and lanterns made out of fish skins, and came back to Tokyo in the afternoon. The whole party, Eric, Mr Farrer and Mr Herbert, dined with us and Lord Lonsdale, who had just arrived, rose up and fell on my neck (metaphorically speaking) after dinner, and came and talked to us all the evening on the verandah till 11 o'clock. And most entertaining he was, full of his recent journeys in the Gulf of Chili [Bo Hai] and in Korea. He propounded many new theories about Russian projects and diplomacy, settled the Korean question and told us how to train horses and elephants, and the best way to shoot tigers. He is vastly amusing. Next day, our last in Japan, it streamed, and we spent most of our time packing, with Eric's help, and started off next morning to our ship, with Eric and Mr Farrer to escort us, and that's the end of our adventures. 12 days in mid ocean are very long. Each day passes quick enough but when one looks back one seems to have been at sea a lifetime and there's another lifetime of it ahead.

Tuesday 23 [23 June 1903] Vancouver. Yes, we're here! Our voyage continued without a hitch, absolutely calm. I have seldom seen such a glassy sea even in the tropics. We got to Victoria at 10 this morning, a lovely hilly country covered with immemorial forest. The Hanburys were on the quay, we were very glad to see them again. We stayed only an hour, but we had time to go for a little walk. How good the earth smells after 11 days of sea! We got here about 7. The wide channels between Victoria and Vancouver are most beautiful; wooded bays, forest slopes and behind all, great snowy peaks. A surprisingly narrow channel leads into Vancouver harbour. As you approach you see a somewhat gaunt business town stretched along the edge of the exquisite bay and behind the broken uneven lines of its houses, some one storey high and some ten, and behind them the naked trunks of huge burnt pines standing up against the sky, the ousted and ...... protesting forest. We had a most easy debarcation and dined at the hotel. I have not had time to make an exhaustive study of this great continent, but I note the following particulars: 1. you can't get your boots cleaned except by the man in the street. 2. I rang 6 times for hot water and nothing happened, so Hugo went down to the office to complain. "Waal" said he in authority "I guess the boys have got something else to do." 3. If the boys have nothing else to do, by ringing twice, says a notice in my bedroom, I can get iced water. We found letters at Victoria and Vancouver. I am most sorry about Phyllis, poor little thing and truly grieved about Mr Strong. I'm going to write to him. The various engagements fill us with amusement and joy. Jack! Janet!! I'm immensely interested about the amalgamation and the P&P directorship. At this moment comes a telegram from you of which part[?] runs: both Maurice Phyllis operation performed successfully. We are at a loss about Maurice and rather perturbed, but all seems to be well. We have taken our passages on the Bavarian, Allan Line, from Montreal 18th, arriving Liverpool 25th or 26th and we hope we shall not be too late for the Summer Meeting. Thank you very much for the various letters of introduction. I don't see that we shall have occasion to use them much, however, as all the people will be away. We intend to stay a week in the Rocky Mts. The first 2 words in your telegram are a mystery: they read stanium agricola. We make wild guesses at Stanley agricola and can make nothing of it but a possible reference to Eddy. I wonder if some letters have missed. Poor Jack Read! I'm so sorry. Every your affectionate daughter Gertrude
We decide to ask for further news of Maurice

We're delighted and surprised to receive the Dean of St Patrick's which I shall read at once.