About six o’clock
Situated at the foot of green overhanging mountains , it looked like any other ordinary town . In front of it lay a tangled mass of vessels , flying all the flags of the world ; steamboats , just as in any other port , with dark funnels and black smoke , and behind them quays covered with warehouses and factories ; nothing was wanting in the way of ordinary , trivial , every-day objects . Some time , when man shall have made all things alike , the earth will be a dull , tedious dwelling-place , and we shall have even to give up travelling and seeking for a change which can no longer be found . About six o'clock we dropped anchor noisily amid the mass of vessels already in the harbor , and were immediately invaded . We were visited by a mercantile , bustling , comical Japan , which rushed upon us in full boat-loads , in waves , like a rising sea . Little men and little women came in a continuous , uninterrupted stream , but without cries , without squabbles , noiselessly , each one making so smiling a bow that it was impossible to be angry with them , so that by reflex action we smiled and bowed also . They carried on their backs little baskets , tiny boxes , receptacles of every shape , fitting into one another in the most ingenious manner , each containing several others , and multiplying till they filled up everything , in endless number .