He would offer himself as a cook or servant, in payment of his passage and meals.

Once at San Francisco, he would find some means of going on.

The difficulty was, how to traverse the four thousand seven hundred miles of the Pacific which lay between Japan and the New World.
Passepartout was not the man to let an idea go begging, and directed his steps towards the docks.

But, as he approached them, his project, which at first had seemed so simple, began to grow more and more formidable to his mind.

What need would they have of a cook or servant on an American steamer, and what confidence would they put in him, dressed as he was?
What references could he give?
As he was reflecting in this wise, his eyes fell upon an immense placard which a sort of clown was carrying through the streets.