The Project Gutenberg eBook of Japan and Around the World, by J W Spalding.

WITH SKETCHES OF
MADEIRA, ST. HELENA, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, MAURITIUS, CEYLON, SINGAPORE, CHINA, AND LOO-CHOO

By J. W. SPALDING
OF THE U. S. STEAM-FRIGATE MISSISSIPPI, FLAG SHIP OF THE EXPEDITION

The kindness and courtesy of that fine officer and estimable gentleman, Commander Sydney Smith Lee, in conferring upon the writer a position on the ship under his command, gave him the opportunity of seeing the “wonders of the world abroad,” in the Japan Expedition.

The following pages do not profess to be a history of Japan, of which there are already a number extant, but only embody observations of what came under notice, in a cruise of nearly two and a half years. They do not pretend to invariable accuracy, the writer having kept no journal, and having had to depend on scattered memoranda, jottings down to friends, and to memory. He has endeavored to tell the tale of his travels, as his eyes told it to him.

He has indulged in no adjectives about the ocean, because he believes that there has been more deliberate nonsense written upon it, than upon any other thing in all Nature.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I .
Leave the United States—“Old Ironsides” Mississippi—A Man-of-War at Night—Gulf Stream—Music—First Foreign Land—The Washerwomen—Funchal—Its Harbor—Cavalleros—The Wine—A Consul— Nossa Senhora do Monte —The Coral—A Hospital—A Prison—Dago Pauperism—Donna Clementina—Good-by, Madeira	PAGE 8
CHAPTER II .
At Sea again—The Canaries—The “Trades,” Incipient and Real—Man-of-War Existence—Drills—Running down the “Trades”—Small-Pox—Christmas that was not Christmas—First General Order issued—Under Steam again—Man Overboard—Crossing the Line—Arrival at the Ocean-Prison—St. Helena—Hot January—Reverberation—Slavers—James’ Town—A View from a Summit—Tomb of the Great Emperor—Jonathan—To Longwood—The New House—Plantation House—A Bust of Napoleon—Departure from St. Helena	27
CHAPTER III .
Cape of Good Hope—Shadows—Cape Town—Sights in the Street—Drive to Constantia—The Wine—Kaffir War—Botanical—Leave Cape Town—The Birkenhead—Cattle at Sea—Anti-Scorbutic—St. Valentine’s Day, and the “Styx”—The Indian Ocean	45
CHAPTER IV .
Isle of France—John Bull under a Torrid Sun—Port Louis and its Bazar—Different Races and Religions—In the Country at Mauritius—John Chinaman—Pamplemouses—Paul and Virginia—A Botanical Garden—Reality as well as Romance—Hurricanes—History of the Island—The “22d”—Fruits—Leave Mauritius—Difference of Time	56 6
CHAPTER V .
“Light, Ho!”—Ceylon’s Spicy Breezes, and Sir John Mandeville—Point de Galle—Ceylonese Troops—d’honies—The Natives—Walled Town—Sandal Shoon and Mohammedan Temple and School—Greek Slaves in Bronze—Hirsute and Citronella—Priessnitz’ Doings—Pigeon Express—Ceylon Historically—A Siamese Captain—Departure from Point de Galle—Bay of Bengal—Straits of Malacca—Pulo-Penang—The Cleopatra—Letters—Anchor at Singapore—Malay Boats—The East by Anticipation—Junks—Gong-Beating—The Esplanade—Malay Houses—Sago—Hospitals—Joss-House—Prison—Rajah of Johore—Leave Singapore—First of April—Intense Heat—Cathay—Macao-Hong Kong—Salute of Welcome—Oriental Salute	64
CHAPTER VI .
Macao—The Donna Maria —Cathedrals and Forts—Camoens—An English Missionary—Death of the Governor—Fast and Tanka Boats—Bocca Tigris—Clipper-Ships and Junks—Chartering a Tender—First of May—The Yang-tse-kiang—Agriculture and the Chinese—Shanghai and the Bund—The Missionaries—Sing-Song—Gambling—Dead Beggars—Nautical Dramatics—The Shanghae Races—Shifting the Flag—Supply Ashore—Wreck of a Junk—Bring the Crew of the Junk Aboard—Left for Loo-Choo	87
CHAPTER VII .
Great Loo-Choo Island—General Orders—Outer Door of the Hermetic Empire—Historic Outline of the Loo-Choo Islands—Approach to them—Loo-Chooan Simplicity—Dress—Bettelheim—Napa—Language—Foreign Graves—Horse-Portage—The Prince Regent—To Sheudi—Feast—International Sentiment—Sheudi-Cyclopean Masonry—“Old Napa”—Bonin Group—Return to Napa—First Visit to Japan—“ The Fourth” on the Sea—A Meteor	100
CHAPTER VIII .
Cipango—Japan an “Unknown Land”—Works on Japan-Kœmpfer—Japanese Mythology—Geography—History—Japanese “John Doe”—Napoleon No. III. of the Mongols—Kublai-Khan—European Intercourse—English Views about the Opening of Japan	132
CHAPTER IX .
Sounding-Spars— Foogee Yama —Entrance to the Bay of Yedo—Precautionary Measures—Uraga—Troops—“Old Hundred”—Sounding—Yezimon—Gorihama— The Landing—Joust or Tourney—Audience—President’s Letter—Anecdotal—Fortifications—Sounding—Japanese Presents—Costume—Junks—Leave Japan—A Burial at Sea—A Cyclone—Loo-Choo	143 7
CHAPTER X .
China—The Rebellion—Hong Hospitality—Blenheim Reach—Torrid—Consular Courts—Canton—Feast of the Lanterns—Howqua’s Garden—Sallie Baboos—Cum-sing-Moon—Death of an Officer—Opium Hulks—The Traffic—Effects of Opium—Its Sale—Smuggling—Emperor of Japan Dead—Loss of Boat’s Crew of the Plymouth—The American Commissioner—Around the Walls of Canton—Chance for a Wife—Temple of Honan—Hong Kong	176
CHAPTER XI .
Leave China for Second Visit to Japan—Formosa—Napa-Keang—A Refugee not a Koszta—Proselyting—Dr. Bettelheim and a Loo-Chooan Sangrado—Coal Dépôt—Sheudi—Cumshaws—Off for the Bay of Yedo—Dangerous Navigation—Snow—Macedonian Ashore Foogee Yama—Bay of Yedo—Where to Negotiate—22d of February—Japanese Boats—Visiters—Japanese at Dinner—Swords—Aversion to the Cross—The Landing—The Commissioners—The Audience—Answer to the President’s Letter—A Japanese Repast—Their Troops—“T’su-bi-ki”—Coal—A Christian Burial in Japan—American Presents—An Ericsson Two Centuries Ago—A Chaplain—Negotiations—Japanese Presents—Athletes—Entertainment of Japanese Commissioners—Signing of the Treaty—Yezimon—Attempt to reach Yedo—The “Happy Despatch”—Emperor in Disguise—Leave Bay of Yedo for Simoda	204
CHAPTER XII .
Simoda or Lower Field—Surveying—Japanese Spies—Temples—Sintooism—Another Pilgrim’s Progress—A Night’s Lodging—Bargaining—Japanese Women—Indiscriminate Bathing—Turtle Soup—An Adventure—Buddhist Temple—Midnight Visiters—In a Cage—Japanese Epistolarians—A Great Secret—Defences—Foogee Yama	264
CHAPTER XIII .
Departure for Hakodadi—Ohosima—Printing at Sea—Straits of Sangar—Arrive at Hakodadi—Magnificent Bay—The City—A Stampede—Interview with the Authorities—Arranging the Currency—Purchasing—A 8 Large Temple—Bonzes—Worshipping—Order of the Blind—A View from Hakodadi Yama—A Lion Playing Painter—Ni! Ni!—A Fort—Burials from the Vandalia—Japanese and Ethiopics—Arrival of Functionaries—Characteristic Communications—Hakodadi Eggs—Leave Hakodadi—Fog	292
CHAPTER XIV .
Foogee—Return to Simoda—Additional Regulations—Veneration for Iyeyas—The Dutch at Desima—Japanese Princes and Mercantile Pursuits—Russia a Bugbear—The Currency Question—The Monetary System of Japan—Buoys—Sample of Coal—Stones for the Washington Monument—Taste for Music—Things by Lottery—Japanese Lacquer and Porcelain—Tea—Japanese Game of Chess, or “Sho-ho-ye”—A Second Robinson Crusoe—Leave Japan for China—Macedonian to Keelong and Manilla—Island of Oo—A Strange sail acting strangely—In Napa Roadstead—Man Deservedly killed—His Highness the Prince-Regent—Russian Admiral Pontiatine—Sermons on Shipboard—The Status of Loo-Choo—Compact with Loo-Choo—Boom-a-Laddying with a Broad Pennant—Great Pomp in our Institutions—Farewell to Loo-Choo	312
CHAPTER XV .
Hong Kong Again—Letters—The Intestine Troubles—Triangulating between Hong-Kong, Macao, and Whampoa—The Rebels—Chinese Fighting—An Emperor’s Proclamation—Preparations for the Departure of the American Opperbevelhebber—Daybook and Ledger Epistolarians—A Title—Protection—A Jollyboat Steamer—Erudition about Columbus, De Gama, and Others—A Letter from His Excellency Perry—Syce Silver Service—More Mercantile Epistolarians and Parvenuism—No Treaty of Commerce with Japan—Name Great among the Heathen—Departure of Opperbevelhebber in the English Mail-Steamer—Mississippi’s Third Visit to Japan—The Last of the “Porpoise”—Arrive at Simoda again—Official Intercourse of Captain Lee with the Authorities—Courtesies—Its-evoos and a Revolver—The Ship Ho-o-maro—Cotton Cloths distributed—Chances of a Trade with Japan—Final Departure from the Country—Supplemental—Exchange of Ratifications of the Treaty—Simoda after an Earthquake—Loss of the Russian Frigate Diana—The Inexorable Laws of Japan—English and French at Nangasaki—The Cruise of the Mississippi around the World	345
Appendix	363

CHAPTER I.

The cruel treatment which had long been practised by that singular and secluded people, the Japanese, toward American whalers who were thrown by the misfortune of shipwreck upon their coasts, the incentive of mercantile cupidity, and the urgency of personal ambition, induced the government of the United States, in 1852, to project an expedition to Japan, to obtain some assurance from the government of the country against a continuance or repetition of the inhospitality and cruelty inflicted upon our unfortunate citizens, and, if possible, to open the sources of trade. The East India squadron was accordingly augmented for this purpose, and Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry was invested with the command, and charged with the performance of the duty.

After almost conjugating delay in all its moods and tenses, induced by the failure of the boilers of 10 the unfortunate “Princeton,” and other causes, his flag-ship was ready for sea in November, 1852; and on the 24th of this month and year, with a desire to visit the hermetic empire, whetted by reading the Dutch historians, I found myself, as commander’s clerk, on board of her. At mid-day we had dropped, not below the “kirk or hill,” but below the hospital at Norfolk, and night found us ploughing deeply the ocean in the direction of Madeira; and before a very late hour the gleams from the Cape Henry lighthouse disappeared altogether.

The ship was the old steam-frigate “Mississippi,” which, as her name is a synonyme for the “father of waters,” may be termed the father of our war-steamers, having been the consort of the pioneer ship, the Missouri, destroyed by fire on her first cruise, under the rock of Gibraltar. She had been engaged unremittingly since she first slid from her ways. The power of her engines had pulled from a reef in the Gulf a large ship, and saved to the country the fine frigate Cumberland. The shot and shell from one of her sixty-eights, in the naval battery at Vera Cruz, had contributed to the downfall of the castle of San Juan. She had lain at her anchor near the site of once classic Athens, and in full view of what now remains of the once great city of Hannibal. She had once sought shelter from a Levanter near Brundusium that was, with its Appian way. Her paddle-wheels churning up the water of the Black sea, announced 11 the first appearance of an American man-of-war in that stormy water; and on her decks, surrounded by his late fellows in exile, Kossuth, fresh from the damp of his Kutahia prison, addressed the seething populace around in the harbor of Marseilles, with a fervor and eloquence which almost extenuated so indefensible a violation of the national hospitality which our nation was then extending him; and now the old Mississippi was leaving her own country, bound to the other side of the great globe, bearing the hopes of many, and embarked in a mission which might be successful—which might, perhaps, come to naught.

I said she ploughed deeply on getting beyond the Capes, because, with the considerate intelligence and humanity which preside over our naval affairs, sending boxes of guns to sea with national names, bringing about such sad losses as those of the Albany and the Porpoise, the Mississippi, designed by her constructor to draw eighteen feet of water, and to carry four hundred and fifty tons of coal, has her bunkers enlarged to the capacity of six hundred tons, additional lines of copper put upon her, and goes out drawing twenty-one feet, her guards but a short distance from the water. In this state we left the United States; her decks not yet cleared of the stores hastily put aboard for the different messes; the lengthened visages of sad people all around, thinking whether they had omitted anything in their notes of last adieu sent back 12 by the Pilot; the mustering and stationing of a new crew at their division and fire quarters; the making everything ready for sea, all presented such a novel scene to one who was on a man-of-war underway for the first time, that he was too much engrossed in observing, to tell his “native land good-night,” turning to do which, he found that it had “faded,” not over the “waters blue,” but behind an expanse of dull slate-colored ocean, which the heavy striking of our deeply-immersed paddles was slowly and drowsily disturbing. There was none of the graceful undulatory motion, and bellying out of the great white canvass of the sailing-ship, which writers of much imagination and nautical turn of mind, delight so much to sing about. It was only the sturdy prose of a warlike old steamer belching from the jaws of her great funnel columns of thick black smoke, which separated at her mainmast, or rolled away in dense masses astern, perversely holding on her way to the port of her destination. The “loguey” motion of the ship, while it kept her decks wet from the swashing of a cross sea over her head rail, at least had the advantage to a landsman of enabling him to get on his “sea-legs” all the sooner.

The scene at night on a man-of-war, is one full of interest to him who sees it for the first time. The decks, busily thronged during the day by the men in the performance of their duties, at an early hour of the night, with the exception of the watch, are appa 13 rently deserted; a number equal to the population of a small village, crowded close together, swing in their pendent beds in oblivious sleep, which the exertions of the day makes more profound, leaving nothing to disturb the quiet of the vessel, save the half-hour striking of the ship’s bell, and the quick responses of the different look-outs assuming their watchfulness, or the drumming of the wheels as they send the yesty water along the side.

In a few days we crossed that great liquid fortification of our coast—the Gulf-stream—when the temperature became greatly moderated, our stoves were taken down, the cloudy skies that we had had disappeared, and we hailed the sun. The water had changed from 41° to 71°, the sun came up magnificently from the ocean, and the air felt like a balmy spring morning; away off in the southeast floated piles of clouds like inverted illuminated pearl-shells, and for the first time since leaving Norfolk, we were enabled to look upon the deep blue sea, and the blue deep sea. Then, too, our fine band, composed of twenty-three brass and reed instruments, discoursed its most pleasant strains for the first time since we had been out, under the leadership of a talented old Italian musician—the only man I ever saw who, with a nice “ear for music,” kept both of his auriculars continually stopped with wool.

The cry of “Land, ho!” on the evening of the 11th of December, announced our vicinity to Madeira, after 14 a rough and lonely passage from the United States of eighteen days. The weather proving rough, we wore ship and stood off during the night, and early in the morning again stood for the island, and it was not long before we were running under the lee of its northern side. Madeira at a distance, wrapped in its hazy robe of blue, presents the appearance of a huge monster reposing on the water, but running in under the land, the aspect is far more attractive. Being the first foreign land on which my eyes had ever rested, I gazed with increasing pleasure on the parti-colored soil, on the graceful and silvery cascades precipitating themselves down its steep shores, presenting the appearance of tapering spires of churches, while nestling here and there on the cliffs, amid thick verdure, were the happy-looking quintas and farmhouses. Toward evening, leaving the singular formed rocks “Las Desertas” on our left, we rounded the northeasternmost point of the island, and Funchal, in its terraced beauty, came in full view. We fired a gun and hoisted a jack for a pilot, but we were permitted to approach without the aid of that functionary. It being Sunday, perhaps they did not officiate on that day. Just before sundown we came to in the harbor, near the Pontinha, and immediately on anchoring were boarded by the Portuguese health-officer, who, finding we had no contagious disease aboard, granted us pratique . The second promptest visiters to welcome us were the washerwomen, who 15 are all eager for the possession of the soiled linen, at the same time evincing a wonder of recognition and recollection perfectly satisfactory to themselves, but not at all convincing to anybody else. One old shrivelled dame of a laundress insisted that I had visited the island before, and pretended to adhere to the opinion with the tenacity of Dolly, in Oliver Twist, when she called upon the good bystanders to make her brother go home. This was old Madam Yesus, and, as my poor battered garments subsequently proved, she washed “not wisely, but too well.” They were eminently communicative on general topics, told us how “mucher pauvre” they were, gave us the first news of the approaching famine, and to men who had been tumbling about the ocean for over half a month, the unsavory intelligence that wine, which but a short time before could be bought for forty cents per bottle, could now only be obtained for a dollar.

Funchal, from the water, presents a very attractive appearance to the traveller who sees it for the first time. I don’t know when I have been more impressed with the beauty of any scene, than when from the deck of our ship, with a delicious atmosphere that obliterated all recollection of the month being December, a setting sun more keenly defining and causing to loom up each object, I looked upon its bright houses, made more so by the deep red of their tiles, as they rose in a terraced crescent, one above another, the con 16 vent of Santa Clara, the deep-hued verdure that filled up the interstices of the picture, the Loo Rock fort, and the cathedral in the foreground, with just enough of time-stain on its towers to make more venerable its front, and the tortuous paved road, running up the hills like an immense, stony serpent, terminating at the church of our “Lady of the Mount,” elevated nineteen hundred feet above the sea; and the vineyards in the distance.

Being an open roadstead, with the wind from a certain direction a very heavy sea tumbles into the harbor, and there is at all times a considerable surf breaking on the beach. On going ashore you have to employ Portuguese surf-boats, which are much better constructed for purposes of landing than our own. On either side, not far from the keel, they have projecting pieces resembling the side-fins of a dolphin, which gives them much steadiness in a sea-way, while head and stern they have perpendicular handles as it were. As they near the beach, one of the boatmen jumps over into the water, and, seizing the piece at the prow, keeps the boat head on, when the succeeding swell sets her high, if not dry, upon the sand, and you are ashore. Your way thither may only be delayed a short time, by the officer contrabandista, who, pulling alongside, touches his hat, and proceeds, by an inspection of your boat, to see whether his aquatic countrymen are not attempting to smuggle ashore such things as soap and tobacco, which his most gracious sovereign of 17 Portugal has been pleased to reserve as a government monopoly. When the weather is rather rough, the customary place of landing is the Pontinha, a steep rock terminating an arched causeway, or kind of breakwater, from which the coal is usually embarked for the steamers stopping at the island. The scene presented, or the horrible clamor that salutes your ears, is not particularly calculated to prolong the pleasant illusion which the more distant sight of the place gave you. You no sooner put your foot on the stone stairs than your winding way of ascent is beset by innumerable lazzaroni most offensive in habit and appearance, whose rabid importunities for alms will not permit you to say them nay. Once through this crowd of “dago” pauperism—the most squalid and effete of all pauperism, your movements on the causeway are impeded by the boisterous calls of the Borro Querros, with their horses already saddled and bridled for “gentlemin” to ride. The bellowing guttural of one fellow provokes your attention to his steed, in whose praises he is loud, having gotten which, he digs him in flank, and dashes off over the stony pavement, to show you his paces. Your charger selected (I had a weakness in the matter of a fine bay myself,) the din ceases. Our party, consisting of five or six well mounted, determined on a gallop to the “Petite Coral,” calling on the polite and hospitable consul on our way thither. One peculiarity strikes you on starting, that is, that your dago friend, of whom you 18 obtained your charger, acts as a kind of equerry during your ride, and the better to enable him to accompany you, when you are inclined to give your horse the rein, he seizes that animal by the tail with one hand, keeping off the flies with a wisp in the other, or uses it as an accelerator on his haunches, holding on meanwhile with a grip which the Kirk Alloway witches would have envied when they brought about that finale to “poor Maggy.”

The streets through which we rode were quite narrow, and enclosed by balconied houses of two stories, or stuccoed garden walls, over which the graceful banana leaf bent, or a cornice of beautiful running flowers was to be seen. From the nearly closed casement pretty dark eyes peeped down upon you, pretty I fear, because scarcely any other features were visible. The native women we met in the street walked closely veiled, which none who met them desired to have done away with, if a truant zephyr once gave a sight of their swarthy faces. Your attention is attracted by the rather picturesque costume of the natives, which consists of a loose shirt drawn at the waist, knee breeches made full, white boots which are regularly chalked, and on the summit of their cranium they wear a cap of cloth bearing an identical resemblance to an apothecary’s glass funnel inverted. The manner in which the peasants retain these head coverings in their place, has been as perplexing to strangers, as how the apple got inside the 19 dumpling was to England’s sovereign, but considering the population, it would not be uncharitable to conclude that the tension is induced by the vacuum in the noddles they surmount, on the principle of the “sucker” with which philosophic juveniles raise a brick. The continued “Boo-ah” resounding in the streets, as the driver of the sleds with casks upon them spurs up the two poor little oxen, whom a small boy leads with a string from the horn, soon convinces you that you are in the land of the elevating “Tinta,” and generous “Serchal.” Should the sled drag heavily over the stones, the small boy throws down in front of it a wetted cloth, passing over which, the runner is lubricated.

On reaching the residence of the American consul, we dismounted and partook of a lunch, which his hospitality invariably provides for his visiting countrymen. It is unnecessary to tell with what gusto, men who eighteen days before were gathered around a stove in their own land, were now in the genial air of Madeira, windows open, and perfume coming in all around from beautiful plants, partook of the rich treat of guavas, the small banana, and the Mandarin orange just plucked from the tree that thrust itself in the casement. The snack over, we ascended to the consul’s observatory; a fine glass, mounted on a tripod, swept the offing and anchorage, giving every object much nearness. Our old ship lying stately at her anchors, was just saluting with twenty-one guns the 20 Portuguese flag floating at her fore, which was promptly returned by the fort on Loo Rock. Around and below us were patches of green-vine and trellis, amid an expanse of red tile roofs, on many of which were placed wine-casks that they might sweeten in the sun. We then descended to the wine-houses, where butt after butt of large dimensions, reached by foot ladders, of Tinta and Serchal, and “Navy,” told how the delightful grape of the island had swelled into fullness, and then been crushed into wine. Ah! Clarence, thou shouldst have lived till now.

We mounted and started for le Petite Coral, by the way of the church Nossa Senhora do Monte . The angle of ascent of the road is over twenty degrees, but the style of going up is usually to give your horse his head and his rider’s heel, and if like Putnam’s he dashes up, racketing it over the stones, and sending back fire from his heels, why it’s the way. Being bantered for a dash up by one of my messmates, and my friend the Borro Querro in the rear not being a party thereto, I regret to remark, that the last I saw of that respected individual after the start, he was engaged in performing some very sudden gyrations proximate to the roadside hedge. However, a glass of the country wine, on his joining me at the blowing place, about half-way up, enabled me to make my entire peace with him for the suddenness of my leaving. The way up was lined with vines and dogs, peasant girls and chapels, mendicants and donkeys, which would knock 21 Mr. Laurence Sterne’s sentimental blubber all in the head. The clatter of the approaching hoofs caused the dark browed senoritas to “come unto the window,” but the horses appeared to hurry on the faster for their presence. The descent of this mountain is generally made at a rapid pace, on a rude sled, two boys riding behind and giving it proper direction. The mode of movement about the streets, is, if a foreigner and invalid, in a hammock suspended from a pole, and borne on the shoulders of two men, steadying themselves as they walk with quarter-staffs; if a native gentleman in a canopied sled drawn by unsightly oxen, which quick mode of movement will convey a very good idea of the enterprise of the people who employ it.

But we were on the way to the Church of the Lady of the Mount. It was not very long before we dismounted at the foot of the long flight of discolored stone steps that led to its front. On reaching the terrace we looked down on the view below us. The town had dwindled into a white-washed amphitheatre; the ships were not quite as much changed as the objects to the sight of Edgar from the cliffs of Dover, but appeared greatly reduced in proportion. I could scarcely believe that the Mississippi, riding at her anchors in the bay, was the floating home of over three hundred human beings!

On entering the church, we were met at the door by a pussy snuff-taking priest, whose besmeared outer 22 garment looked as if it would have been all the better for the application of a cake of brown soap in connection with some of the clear water which coursed down the mountain past his sanctuary. The interior of the edifice displayed the most garish taste, and with its sickening amount of gilding, was embellished in the most tawdry manner. There was the customary proportion of relics, and the paintings around looked very old. Our stay was short, and after leaving a small sum for our footing, as Jack would say, we returned to our steeds, leaving the wax figure of the lady patroness of the island in a glass case in the rear, looking as demure and as indifferent to our presence as when we entered. The whilom legends of the devout tell of her, at a time when breadstuffs were scarce, having left her crystal enclosure and gone to hurry on cargoes of grain to Funchal, which, like Buckingham, were “on the sea.”

The descent to the Coral—a deep mountain gorge of singular and circular formation—is by a narrow shelf of a road cut in the face of a precipitous hill, and running in inclined planes. One does not entirely fancy the task of going down; but then the horses are rough-shod, with reference to such places, are remarkably sure footed, and move instinctively with much caution. On getting to the bottom, the road by which we had just come looked like a mere thread-line on the face of the cliff that hung over us. Its depth is some sixteen hundred feet, and you look 23 up to the azure above you as from an immense pit. We stopped at a small mill situated at the lowest point of the Coral, to give our horses a little time to blow, and our borro querros a little country wine, which was likewise patronized by ourselves. I noticed around clumps of pines planted for fuel, and a number of exquisite flowers growing spontaneously. We ascended from the Coral by a road equally as narrow and precipitous as the one by which we had gone down, only proving less clear; a large rock which had caved from the bank nearly barricaded the path, and on reaching it my horse, whose reputation I subsequently ascertained to be one for shying, came quite near treating himself and rider to a Tarpean fate. On reaching the top, we were refreshed by a breeze redolent with perfume, and turned into a road enclosed on either side by hedges of bona fide geranium. It is feeding on this sweet plant that imparts to the meat of the native cattle, when eaten, a peculiar flavor; and the honey of the bee who gathers his sweets from it, is strongly impregnated with its pleasant odor. No wonder that the attenuated invalid should resort to thee, beautiful Madeira, to revive his drooping spirits. We returned to the city in the evening, by a road running past pleasant gardens, and by a bridge that spans the canal which receives the quickly-swollen mountain streams, and put ourselves in charge of mine host of Guilletti’s.

The next day I landed near the governmental 24 house, where was staying as a guest the invalided empress mother of Brazil, who had, with a broken constitution, gone to Madeira, since to die. I visited the charitable hospital of the place, which fronts on the grand plaza. No sight can be more loathsome than the one to be seen in the wards of a Portuguese hospital, unless it be that of the dead mendicants that you pass in the streets of some of the cities of China. The most terrible ailments that flesh is heir to, and the greatest suffering that “age, ache, and penury, can lay on nature,” were present all around. And then there were others in whom the flame of life, after flickering lowly, had just gone out. I was very willing to get away from the apartment, and after descending to a dimly-lighted chapel below, where a solitary priest was engaged in prayer for the repose of the dead and dying above, and glancing at its characteristic decorations, I left the building. The edifice itself is quite an extended one, though it has no architectural beauty to attract attention. Over its main entrance, cut elaborately in a massive block of stone, are the royal arms of Portugal.

My next place of visit was to the local prison, through which I was accompanied by a sergeant. The inmates, who were composed of both sexes, confined for offences of smuggling a bar of soap, up to those of a graver character, are allowed to indulge in any handiwork for which they are competent, and the product of their hands, tied on the ends of poles, is 25 thrust through their prison-windows into the street, of which they solicit the purchase by the passer-by. But not even in the prisons are you exempt from the “ por sua suade ”—the interminable solicitation for alms; and the distance which the prisoner may be from you is no barrier, as he is provided with a small car which, with a pole, he can push to his outer grating, and as quickly withdraw. I can mention a circumstance to show with what little sense of degradation or hesitancy this thing of alms-asking is indulged in by a dago population. I was sitting in front of the consul’s, conversing with some friends, when quite a genteel and tidily-dressed person, rejoicing in a much better pair of patent-leathers than I could muster, approached us and solicited alms, and was quite pertinacious in his request. I had heard of the Spanish beggars on horseback, who solicited aid of pedestrians on the ground that they had more need of assistance than other people because they had to support their beast as well as themselves, but I had never met with anything quite as deliberate until I encountered my patent-leather-shoe friend at Madeira.

And now we have been at Funchal two days, and the third, on which we are to take our departure for St. Helena, has arrived. In taking leave of the pleasant isle of vine and bower, the writer regrets that he can not, for the benefit of those of a more sentimental mood than himself, follow the example of others, and say something about the Santa Clara 26 convent, that stands embosomed by deep foliage on the hill, and tell in touching tones about the fair and unhappy Donna Clementina, who, besides being admired because Heaven had vouchsafed to her a visage blonde, when those around were brunette, was also loved for other qualities, for which vide her devotees—how she “would be a nun,” and how she “wouldn’t be a nun;” and how some “young Lochinvar,” who they say came “out of the west,” once wished to do something both romantic and desperate, and rescue the fair lady from the holy precincts where, it was represented, she was most unwillingly detained; but, with Mr. Aminadab Sleek, in the play, “we are really afraid we can’t.”

Good-by, Madeira, whose tropical beauty was so fresh to me, and the picture of whose loveliness will be ever in mind.

CHAPTER II.

On the afternoon of the 15th of December, all hands being on board, with coal dust, and wine for distinguished functionaries in the U. S. on our decks, an orange and banana smell over the ship, and six little Madeira bullocks, who, upon being hoisted in by the horns, no sooner reached the decks, than they indulged in a series of cavortings, to the no small amusement of the old shell-back denizens of the forecastle, we lifted anchor, and steamed away from Funchal, to the south. At nightfall Madeira’s lines of green, and basalt, and red soil, were lost to view.

We were now entering on the longest run we anticipated making during the cruise. On the second morning out at an early hour we made Palma, one of the westernmost of the Canary islands. When the sun came up from behind it, defining its sharp peaks and irradiating the whole outline of the island, I had the happy consciousness that it fully compensated me for the rupture of my matinal slumbers, necessary to get a glimpse of it. The celebrated peak of Teneriffe 28 was wrapped in cloud when we passed, and I did not see it; though others with “optics sharp,” at one time, said they discerned it in the extreme distance. We subsequently passed in sight of the Cape de Verde islands. During the day we ran into what is termed the incipient northeast trades, and as our coal was not deemed sufficient for the run before us, the engines were stopped, twenty tons of water blown from the boilers, fires extinguished, sufficient number of the paddles removed from the wheels, which were lashed, the large smoke stack lowered on the hurricane deck, and the ship put under sail. Many of us thought if the Japanese could only get a sight of the funnel as it lay in its chocks like another huge “peace-maker” when we reached their country, they would prove quite accessible. The spars of the Mississippi being tall, she spread a great deal of canvass, but the wind continuing quite light we made but little progress for several days. A whale saluted us by tapping his head against our port guard. On the 18th we tacked ship, and on the 21st we got the trade-winds proper, and under studding-sails ran quite well. Life on the ocean, monotonous, nearly, at all times, was rendered more so to us, by the transition from a steamer to a sailing ship. To study on shipboard, or even to read with profit, as I had heard before, is next to impossible, unless it may be with an old sea-dog to whom for some forty years the “ocean has been a dwelling-place.” Try it, and you will find your eyes 29 wandering from the type, and your thoughts bolting from the subject, like a refractory quarter-horse over a track railing. The weekly routine of the ship was comprised in going to quarters, morning and evening, for inspection; and once a week the whole ship’s company are beat to general quarters, when the magazines are open, the powder-boys busy in passing and repassing cartridge-boxes, the guns are cast loose and worked by their crews, boarders are called away, pikemen are posted to repel boarders, marines are stationed near them, &c.; the master gives his orders for sail-trimmers to put stoppers on such portions of the rigging, as an active imagination suggests must have been shot away, and all the evolutions of an actual engagement at sea are gone through; together with exercise at fire-quarters, when an alarm with the ship’s bell is rung, at which sentinels are placed at the falls of each boat, so that in an actual emergency there could be none of the inhuman desertion and infamous flight which marked the sad catastrophe of the “Arctic.” All of these exercises, which increase the discipline of a crew and the efficiency of a ship, are of course possessed of more interest to those officers who have military duties to perform on board, than others, who are too apt to experience the indifference of the Emerald isle native, who being informed that the house was on fire, replied it was nothing to him, he “was only a boarder.”

The weather we experienced in the trades was very 30 pleasant, though it became hot with much suddenness. Pretty white clouds trooped across the sky like pilgrims in white, bound to Mecca. The regular waves as they came chasing one another from the horizon, rolled the whitest caps, and the sea was of the bluest, particularly as the lashed arms of our wheels divided the water in their passage, and the wheel-houses keeping off the direct rays of the sun, made it exquisitely transparent. Though the dews at night were so heavy that the moisture would run like rain off the awnings, yet the shadows of the big sails that had gone to sleep from the steadiness of the wind, made deeper by the bright moonlight and the illuminated image of the engine of our Savior’s agony—the “southern cross”—with its twinkling stars looking down from the sky, made one forget that the distance from the coast of Africa was not the greatest, and that the wearing of a thick coat at night, was a decided improvement on a thin one. Porpoises were almost in the daily practice of thrusting their swinish nozzles upon public attention, and innumerable graceful little flying-fish, disturbed by our passage through the water, or chased by the dolphin, flew continually across the waves ahead of us, like flocks of sparrows over briers. But then we had the smallpox on board, on the person of a Portuguese boy shipped at Funchal, and the possibility of contracting this loathsome disease, or the possession of an arm rather sore from vaccination, did not make the run more pleasurable.

The events of Christmas day were, that we were in 13° 23′ north latitude, and 23° 48′ west longitude; a very pleasant repast was spread by the ward-room, where “home with all its endearments” was drunk in Serchal; and a poor little bird very much resembling the partridge of our own country, was blown aboard. This little representative of Africa’s feathery race fell a victim to the taxidermist aboard. What he thought previous to his demise, of the day, I know not, but to me it was not Christmas; and no mental effort could “bring back the features that joy used to wear” when the mistletoe was hung, and the back log placed; nor could the defunct gobbler, who lately bestrode our coop, sole tenant, now lying in very brown state on a festive table, even provoke the pleasant memories.

The next day, promulgated by Commodore M. C. Perry, and signed by the then hiatus secretary of the navy, Mr. Swallow-Barn Kennedy, was read on the quarter-deck, General Order, No. 1, which, it is said, had a precedent in the expedition of Lieut. Wilkes, but which was as bad as its precedent, and equally unjust, being based upon the ridiculous premise that because a government may have claim upon your thews and sinews, or your mental aptitude in the line of your profession, that it likewise has property in the product of your brain, no matter in what other way, out of your calling, it may be exercised. This order was violated subsequently in China, in the grossest way, with the tacit consent of the commander 32 -in-chief who first issued it; as if the prominent, in rule, or law, under our government were any more exempt from its provisions, than that the humblest are not beneath its control. I say in the grossest way, because he permitted, if he did not personally supervise, the preparation of an account of the movements of his squadron, for the colonial English newspapers at Hong-Kong, in preference to our own; papers too, whose columns at other times displayed the village squabbling, which marked the thunders, of the “Eatanswill Gazette” in Pickwick, in response to the shafts of “The Independent.”

“In promulgating the subjoined extract from the instructions addressed to me by the honorable secretary of the navy, and bearing date 13th ult., I have to enjoin upon all officers and other persons attached to the vessels under my command, or in any other way connected with the squadron, a most rigid adherence to all the requirements of said order.

“Whatever notes or drawings may be prepared by the officers or other persons before mentioned, whether by special order, or by their own volition, will be endorsed by the respective parties, and transmitted through the captain of the fleet to the commander 33 -in-chief, who will in due time lodge them at the navy department, from whence they may be reclaimed as it may suit the convenience of the government.

“All arms, curiosities, and specimens of natural history, are also to become the property of the United States, unless voluntarily relinquished by the commander-in-chief.

“ M. C. Perry ,
“ Commander of the U. S. Naval Forces ,
“ Stationed in the East India, China, and Japan Seas .”

“A subject of great importance to the success of the expedition, will present itself to your mind in relation to communications to the prints and newspapers, touching the movements of your squadron, as well as in relation to all matters connected with the discipline and internal regulations of the vessels composing it. You will therefore enjoin upon all under your command to abstain from writing to friends and others upon these subjects, the journals and private notes of the officers and other persons in the expedition must be considered as belonging to the government until permission be received from the navy department to publish them.”

The effect of this order was to cause officers to decline keeping journals, and only note down their previous conceptions and present impressions of things and places seen, in their letters to relatives.

In 8° north of the equator we became becalmed, 34 when the paddles were put on and we steamed away about eight knots. Our drinking water about this time showed a degree of vitality which was not made more agreeable by the fact that the naval regulations did not allow the wearing of the mustache, even for straining purposes.

About ten o’clock on the last night of ’52 there was a cry from the poop-deck of “man overboard!” when the engines were stopped, and the life-buoys suspended from either quarter of the ship were attempted to be gotten away, but not going quickly, nor their matchlocks igniting from some cause, gratings were hove overboard, lights sent up in the mizzen-top, and a metallic boat, the 2d cutter, in which went Lieutenant Webb, and Passed Midshipman K. R. Breese, was lowered and went in search of the unfortunate man. There was much solicitude felt for the poor fellow by those who stood on the poop peering into the darkness astern, eager to hear the least sound that indicated the man still afloat, but it was scarcely shown by the scene enacted during the absence of the boat. Up came the commodore: “What’s the bearing of that star?—Where did that man fall from?” Voice :—“Show the Commodore where the man fell from!”—man goes over to port side—“Take care of the paint!” “How does she head?” After a lapse of fifteen or twenty minutes the boat was heard returning, when the following was the hail:—“Mr. Webb?”—“Sir?”—“Have you got the buoy?”—“Yes, sir. 35 ”— “Have you got that man?” Answer : “Yes, sir,” which was one of much gratification, as every one regarded him as gone. The boat it appeared, had passed him, and having given up the search, was returning, and would have pulled over him, but for his being discovered in time by a bow-oarsman. He was floating without effort on the surface, although there was considerable sea on at the time. The poor fellow upon being taken on board was found to have swallowed a great deal of water, and it was thought that he might die from congestion of the lungs. He had the antithetical name of Dry, and his mind being afterward found affected, he was sent home in a merchant-ship from the Cape of Good Hope.

We crossed the equator on the 3d of January, in longitude 11° west, and when the “sun came up on the left” on the morning of the 10th, right ahead, perhaps in the very track of the Northumberland, looming sternly up from out the ocean, like the dark high walls of an ocean-prison that it is, we saw St. Helena. The tallest peak, that of Diana, is visible in the clouds for a great distance. At mid-day we anchored in the roadstead fronting James’ town, and shortly after saluted the flag of England with twenty-one guns. At no time, during a cruise of two years and over, did I hear any reverberation from our heavy pieces, half so magnificent. The sound of each explosion, at first seemed to recoil from the face of the immense rock which upreared itself in front, and then 36 as if gathering strength from the temporary rebuff, it broke, in and up the wedge-shaped valley in which James’ town is situated, and appearing for a moment to die away, again went on over gorge and peak, tumbling, roaring, thundering in the distance, as if “Jura answered through her misty shroud.” The salute was returned by one of the number of forts that were looming away above us on the island.

In shore of us lay a number of sharp rakish-looking little vessels, slavers, that had been captured by the English cruisers, on the African station, and brought to the island to be adjudged by a local court of admiralty; better than our system where captor and prize have to return frequently, great distances to the United States.

The landing at St. Helena is made on a mole at one end of the small beach that lies only immediately in front of James’ town. A few minutes’ walk, and crossing a drawbridge, over a moat, you pass through an embattled wall, from which some iron pieces frown down on you, by a lofty gate, at which sentinels are always posted. On getting inside, a triangular street made of rolled gravel is before you. On the left are the guard quarters, the governor’s house and offices, and a public garden; on the right a church, hotel, and the ascent to Ladder hill, where is situated the highest fort of the place, reached by six hundred and twenty-five steps. Right before you, running from the apex of the triangle, is the road which leads to the spot 37 which has made St. Helena famous, and England infamous for ever. As you ascend this road, you may look down on the settlements of the Chinese who have left the flowery kingdom to dwell in this place of isolation and desolation; also see the fine English soldier as he is being closely drilled from company to battalion, not by duke of Cambridge, or Earl Cardigan, all of whose bravery will not make up for want of tactical knowledge, but by sergeants.

Our stay at the island was to be only until we could get coal enough aboard to take us to Cape Town, and so on the following morning I started for Longwood and the now vacant tomb of Napoleon. I was not aware when I started on foot, that I had to walk a distance before returning to the town, of nine miles, and that too over a road of lava formation, and under the burning rays of a vertical sun. The ascent, at the first, is very great. Much fagged on reaching the summit point I sat down to rest, and surveyed the scene around. Near me on a road-stone, his bridleless and heavily-ladened little donkey cropping thistles not far off, in his parti-colored dress sat a Lascar quietly discussing his cigar. On the stone which he occupied, I read “1124 distance: 1180 feet elevation.” The road in the direction in which I was going was shut in by clumps of brushwood and some scrubby pines, above which, far away—its ragged top currying away the bottoms of the southeast trade-clouds which, blowing continually over the island, 38 ever and anon drop their genial drops on the arid earth beneath—rose Diana’s peak hundreds of feet in air. But the view looking seaward: Sir Joshua Reynolds said that the horizon-line of the great and wide sea in mid-deep is one of the most striking emblems of the infinite and the eternal to be found in all the works of the Almighty. This idea, of all other places, arises in the mind when gazing from the eminences of St. Helena; but then, as you look upon “the sea here, the sea there, the sea all around,”—contrasted with the vast expanse, how small in the imagination becomes the spot on which you stand, and how coffined before death, must have felt the great spirit, to whom all Europe was once a theatre,— qui fait le tour du monde !

From where I sat, I could see in the gorge beneath, very plainly, the “Briers,” the home and habitation of Napoleon until Longwood could be gotten ready for his reception. It is situated behind a naked, stony hill, and must have been a warm abode, but Napoleon liked it for its quaintness and solitude; preferring it to better houses in the town, where privacy would have been impossible. The place is enclosed by low walls and rows of the prickly pear. On resuming my tramp, I passed some swarthy-featured, black-haired, fine-formed young women, barefooted, and lightly clad, carrying bundles of twigs on their heads, with which they walked, with apparently perfect indifference, notwithstanding the steepness of 39 road and the intense rays of the sun. I soon reached and went by an old cottage in decay, a rusty signal-gun, a wayside inn with an embowered doorway, and then passing through a lane of trees, I entered upon a level road, which, in the space of three quarters of a mile, turned in crescent to the left. Some distance below, within this crescent, a lot of fir, cypress, and other trees, with grassy sod, terminated a small valley which commenced in desolation from the seaside. This spot was enclosed by a low, straggling fence, having a kind of sentry-box at its gate, and contains the vacant tomb of Napoleon. I descended to the place, paid the shilling entrance required of me, and entered the enclosure. The willow-tree which so invariably figured in all drawings of the spot, is now gone. The grave is enclosed by a plain iron railing, and, when I saw it, covered over with an awning. Its present appearance is that of the strong foundation of an elongated old spring-house, lined with cement. It is eight feet deep, having at the bottom a small recess sunk below the general level, which received the coffin, and about five feet wide. Desirous of getting the exact measurement of so much greatness, one of our party stretched himself at full length in this lower deep, but its chilliness soon made him have as little desire to continue there, as the old hero of New Orleans had to repose after death in the sarcophagus of one of the Cæsars, which the very considerate kindness of a commodore had 40 brought for him. The whole surface of the plastering down in the tomb is covered with scarcely-legible names, or petty ambition’s trashy verses. The same very limited aspiration is to be seen in the pages of a register kept at the place, where the national animosities of visiting-strangers play shuttlecock and battledore. The obstinate and collected Englishman repeats the commonplace of Sir Walter Scott, in wishing you to behold the spot which held him for whom the earth was once too small, or ethically informs you, that one life being taken constitutes murder, but that of thousands makes a hero; then comes the mercurial Frenchman, who, after relieving himself by a great big “ sacre ” on the English nation generally and the island jailer in particular, says Napoleon is avenged, for Hudson Lowe “ est mort ;” or breaks out with “ J’ai vu: J’ai maudit! ” Next comes that peripatetic philosopher, Jonathan, who, smacking as usual of the shop, furnishes the edifying information that he belongs to the “Mary Brown, of New Bedford, has bin out over two years, and hain’t got but four hundred barrils of oil; hopes to be to ‘hum’ soon; and stopping at the island, has just come out to see Boney’s tomb!”

When the tomb contained the body of the great emperor, it was filled to within one foot of the surface, with earth, and covered in mound form with cement. The three slabs that closed the grave, were taken from the kitchen hearth of the Longwood jail. 41 A cicerone , in the person of a gray-haired old negro woman, who saw both the interment and the exhumation of the remains of Napoleon, tells you in an Ethiopic vernacular, of the incidents of the spot; after enumerating the number of coffins in which the body was placed, she said, “Dare, sir, laid his head, and here was his feet.”—“He always used to drink at dat dare spring, dare.”—“I’s seen him many a time come down dat hill dare wid his snuff-box and one of General Bertram’s children.”—“When he used to stop still, he’d do jest so”—folding her arms. She was also quite minute in her mention of the “Prince de Jonnyville” in the “Belpooly.”

The spot was pointed out to me where Bertrand, Gourgaud, Las Casas, and Marchand, erected the tent to put the body under after exhumation, which took place amid wind and rain. All around the tomb was wet and miry; in times of heavy rains, now, the tomb is not unfrequently filled with water. The work of disinterment was begun after midnight, and by seven o’clock in the morning the stones that closed the lower vault were raised. The anvil employed by the men engaged upon the work to keep their tools in order, sank at every blow, and the men were ankle deep in mud. I have nothing pathetic or philosophic to add, upon the spot;

Ascending the hill on the other side, by a winding 42 path which led up through a pretty garden, I stopped at the little residence of “Hutt’s gate,” formerly occupied by General Bertrand, with his family, previous to moving out to the building in the vicinity of Longwood. After resting here, I footed it a mile further, to the outer entrance to the grounds of Longwood. The prospect before me during this walk was of the dreariest and most desolate kind, presenting the most marked contrast to the verdure at the tomb. It was along this road that Napoleon walked to his favorite spring, and over which his Chinese coolies carried his water from it. After passing a dilapidated wall and gate, you enter upon a lawn of some hundred yards, on one side of which are straggling fir-trees, bent down in the same direction by the continual pressure of the southeast trade-winds, which are felt at this part of the island very strongly, and the other side was hedged by a long row of the stately aloe. In a few minutes you are in front of a dilapidated low building, with a small verandah in front of one of its wings, and partly enclosed in an old stone wall. This is Longwood as it now is. When I reached it, the place looked abandoned in the extreme, with the exception of the cows and a scrawny donkey that browsed around, or a solitary turkey who broke the silence with his gobble. There was the decayed and silent guard-house and signal-tower, its halyards rotted away and pole tottering, from which the restless bunting was for ever telling by day to the 43 sedulous jailer at “Plantation House” how his great prisoner at Longwood, after the mental exhaustion of dictation, or the fatigues of a morning walk, now slept, or that, having slept, he was now feeding his pet fishes in the little pond in the rear of his cell abode. This quiet was soon broken; a dirty-faced, uncombed-haired English girl approached, and informed us that the fee for admission to the house was two shillings—Longwood, like the grounds around the tomb, being leased by the government to others, for the purpose of speculating on the interest of association connected with the great emperor. If we are the “dollar people,” can any man who has ever visited English domain say, that they are not entitled to the name of “shilling nation!”

The first room you enter on going into the house, is the one in which, amid storm and rain, and when

its booming reaching the now drowsy ear which was once attuned to the roar of cannon on a hundred fields, with the ejaculation of “ tête d’armée ” on his nearly motionless lips, died Napoleon. The head of his bed rested against the sill of a window, from underneath which the French have removed the stone, and placed it in the Hospital des Invalides as a precious relic. Through the sashless opening, the sun now streams in on the floor of a room occupied by 44 a thrashing-machine, and with a manger overhead; while the room in which he mostly slept, and ate, and read, is now paved with cobble-stones, and filled with horse-stalls. The fish-pond is dry, and the grave of his favorite horse you can not find.

Just across the road I visited the new house of Longwood, its walls sound, its porticoes and floors in a perfect state of preservation, and its spacious rooms unoccupied. Napoleon visited it once, but feeling that one jail was no less one for being better built than another, spurned this offer of the English to conciliate him in his cage, as the lion spurns the leavings of the jackal though he die in his den.

On my way back to James’ town, I passed in sight of the grounds and former mansion of

At James’ town there is a very fine bust of Napoleon, said to have been made from a plaster cast of the face, taken after death; the nose is much more exquisitely chiselled and beautiful than any other representation to be seen of his face.

Before nightfall on the 11th of January, we were under way for the Cape of Good Hope from St. Helena.

CHAPTER III.

We reached Cape Town after a run of thirteen days. On the morning of the 24th of January we made the long, low sandhills in the vicinity of Saldanha bay, South Africa, and continuing our run in sight of the coast during the day, anchored after nightfall, with bright moonlight around, in Table bay. We encountered the whole way a strong head wind and sea, and at one time doubted whether our coal would be sufficient to enable us to reach our port. The men were exercised at target practice, with pistol and musket. On the 15th, the sun being vertical , the friendly wish “May your shadow never be less,” would have been superfluous, as on that day the thing was impossible. As we neared the guano islands, lying off the harbor, we were surrounded by booby-birds and sea-gulls innumerable; the “albatross” also “did cross,” and very large birds they were.

Cape Town, from the water, looks like a long, low, yellow fortification. Its population is about thirty thousand, made up of the representatives of nearly every nation. It was captured from the Dutch by 46 the English in 1806. Being the great stopping-place for vessels bound round the Cape of Good Hope, or returning from Australia and the East Indies, the occupations of the inhabitants are mostly mercantile. The streets are wide and well laid out. They have a number of fine churches, a botanical garden, and quite an extensive library. High behind the town, flanked on either side by the conical hills of the “Lion’s Rump” and “Devil’s hill,” rises that remarkable formation, which is visible a great distance from the sea, called Table Mountain , four thousand feet high, and level on the top. The weather is nearly always unsettled, but a blow may be expected when the inhabitants remind you that the “cloth is spread” on Table mountain, which is suddenly covered with a thick white cloud, which curls over the steep face of the mountain, and extends itself down it, as a deep snow from the roof of a house when the melting begins. When this continues, the ships in the harbor, which is a very unsafe one, look to their moorings, and are frequently driven ashore. The day after our arrival we were compelled to change our berth: the old Mississippi reared and plunged at her anchors like an impatient steed endeavoring to slip his rein, and at night the royal mail steamer Bosphorus broke from her moorings and went ashore. We were unable to go to her assistance because the weather had prevented our getting any coal aboard.

As your boat approaches the mole, you pass through large flocks of the black gull and cormorant, and nearer the shore, groups of the pelican are feeding. Should a southeast wind prevail when you reach the wharf, you will scarcely be able to see the place. Dense clouds, not of dust, but of coarse red sand, fill the streets, and are borne in fitful eddies around the corners. It fills your eyes, if you are so rash as to open them but for a second, your ears, nostrils, and insinuates itself underneath every garment that you wear; you are doing the penance of walking with gravel under your sock, although sandal-shoon be on. The male residents who move about wear veils attached to their hats, but to a stranger the annoyance is horrible. During the prevalence of this wind, the houses are closed as well as they may be, but it is insufficient to keep out the plague. In the parlor-windows of an English hotel at which I dined, the dust had accumulated in a morning to the thickness of velvet, and from the front of the house I saw a Hottentot servant removing the sand piled on the pavement, as we would a small snow-drift in our own country.

But when you can open your eyes, strange-looking people and strange things meet them. At the hotel, you were waited upon by Bengalese servants, with their fantastically-wound turbans of cashmere nearly the size of a market-basket, their blue gowns reaching to the knee, tied with red riband in front, making their waist appear just under their arms, and moving so stealthily with their bare feet, as they came and 48 went, that you were not conscious of their presence. In the streets you see the high-cheeked-bone Malay, the emaciated-looking cooley, and the red-capped, half-naked, simial-faced Hottentot, whom the mistaken philanthropy of English law has removed from the authority of the Dutch boor, that they may go lower in the scale of humanity. By you wheels some lately-arrived cockney in one of the patent safety cabs from London, the driver perched behind, and slowly following comes a lumbering wagon, its tents covering some large casks, it may be, drawn by sixteen or eighteen yoke of the enormous horned oxen of this colony, who are ever reminded of the proximity of their Hottentot driver, by his unceasing guttural calls and the continual application of his immense whip, whose lash, after being whirled in air an instant, he can cause to descend with unfailing accuracy on the back of any particular ox in his team, though he be a leader. In the windows of the stores you notice the graceful feathers of the ostrich, and its eggs; elephants’ tusks, and those too of the wild boar left in the skull; and the skins of the leopard and lion, remind you that you are where “Afric’s sunny,” &c. Innumerable jargons salute your ear as you move about.

On a bright Saturday morning, a Malay, with a good coach and four very good horses, drove a party of us out to Constantia, famous for the making of the celebrated wine of that name. The distance from 49 town is about nine miles, and the road a very good one. You pass through long rows of the pine-tree, which I saw planted for ornamental effect for the first time, and here and there you see the native silver-tree, its bright leaves glistening prettily in the sun. The residences on the route are very cosy-looking, and much taste is displayed in laying off the approaches to them. A house not long before occupied by Sir Harry Smith, while governor of the colony, was a very attractive place.

The proprietors of the wine-producing establishments are very polite in their receptions and show you over their places with pleasure. We visited their brightly white-washed and steep-thatched roofed wine-houses, in whose extended walls were seen the huge wine butts like those of Madeira, but filled with the thicker-bodied and sweeter Pontac and Frontenac. The wine-house of Mr. Cloete has on its front quite a well-executed bacchanalian scene in basso-relievo , and was erected in 1793. The roofs of their houses are steep and smoothly thatched, which covering is said to last for forty years, without the accident of fire, of which they are very careful. The decorations of their grounds are tasty, and the sire, bending outward the limbs of the oak when young, leaves a canopied place for table and chairs in the centre of its branches, for the son.

The mode of cultivating the grape for the production of wine at Constantia is peculiar. They use no 50 arbor for the support of the vines, but sustain them, a small distance from the ground, with sticks. When the fruit has reached maturity, the leaves are cut away to permit its being reached by the rays of the sun, and is only plucked for pressing when it has become nearly as sweet as a raisin; hence the taste of the wine, its high value, and its body.

During our stay at Cape Town, the Kaffir war still continued, and on our way back from Constantia, we drove to the little settlement of Wynberg to take a look at the captive Kaffir chief Seyolo, whom the English had confined in the prison at that place. We found the prisoner in a small cell, a stalwart woolly-headed negro, not of the darkest complexion, standing six feet one and three quarters inches high. His dress consisted of a lit cigar, and a single blanket thrown round his person. His wife, Niomese, with a good countenance and very small hands and feet, was with him. In an adjoining cell was his chief counsellor and his wife. They appeared quite cheerful and decidedly lazy. When the unintelligent face and elongated heel of Seyolo, was considered, it was a matter of surprise, how such a creature could have exercised with any force the power of command, or displayed any strategic skill to the annoyance of the English; but it was said that he had not been anything like as troublesome to the colonists as a withered-legged Kaffir chief named Sandilli, who having been once taken and turned out on his parole, would 51 be shot in obedience to the sentence of a drum-head courtmartial, if again captured. The accounts from the seat of hostilities, during the time we lay at Cape Town were very unpropitious, owing to the severe fatigue and exhaustion which the hale hearty soldiers in their illy-adapted uniform, were compelled to undergo in bush-fighting or climbing steep places in pursuit of the alert and fleet-footed Kaffir, while with the best protection that could be extended to the kraals of the settlers, their cattle were continually being driven off by the thieving enemy.

A stroll through the botanical garden remunerates one very well. The exotics are rare and tastefully displayed, while the Fuchias and the Cape Jasmin laden the air with sweet perfume. The wheat of the colony is ground in steam-mills situated in the midst of the city.

Having had the good fortune to have such weather as we could coal ship in, and also employed carpenters to build frames for the protection of our fire-room hatches, against the water which might extinguish our fires, should we have the misfortune to undergo one of the severe gales that are so frequently met with in the ocean which we had to traverse before reaching our next port, we sent our letter-bag to a merchant-ship bound to Boston, raised anchor on the 3d of February, and steamed away out, passing the Lion’s Rump, False Bay, and Cape Hanglip, bound to the Isle of France, or as now called, the Mauritius. On getting a short distance from the place we 52 encountered a mountainous, foamless swell, which did not break, but rolled up to a very great height with regularity. Our ship was sluggish in the extreme, and when we slid slowly down into the trough of the sea, the wave before and behind us was apparently as high as our mizzen top. The colors of a ship hoisted at her mizzen peak, but only a short way off, at times, were entirely shut in from our view by the swell. If this sea had only broken it would have proved the propriety of the old Dutch name for the cape—“the Stormy cape.” In rounding the cape the fate of the unfortunate “Birkenhead,” an English transport steamer, lost off it some years ago by running on a sunken rock, came to mind; and we also thought of the collected bravery of the large number of troops on board of her. It is one thing to face death from the belching mouth of cannon or the deadly rifle, for then a man is hurried on by the clangor and excitement of the strife, and moves under the illusory belief that makes more than half the soldiers of the world, that somebody else may be killed, but that he will not. But what is to be said in praise of the placid courage of the poor soldiers on the Birkenhead, who, with death inevitable, not amid “the sulphurous canopy,” but death from the yawning wave facing them , yet fell into rank at the roll of drum, as if on a dress-parade, and sank into the yesty deep with the engulfed vessel, patterns of discipline and martyrs to duty.

We ran to the eastward for some days for the purpose of getting a favorable wind and then headed northward for our port. The weather continued rough and disagreeable. The anti-scorbutic notions of the commander-in-chief—although we were not a sailing vessel liable to be out of port for any considerable length of time, but a steamer whose necessity for coal would require short runs, caused to be put on board of us before leaving Cape Town, twelve of the large, wide horned cape-bullocks, and a number of the cape-sheep with tails as wide as a dinner plate. The stalls of the larger cattle were on the forecastle and on the quarter-deck, tied up to the halyard racks. When the ship rolled heavily, the noise of these poor animals endeavoring to conform to her movement, or disturbed by the men in getting at the ropes which their large horns covered, and their continued tramping over the heads of those below deck, was of course increasing the comfort of shipboard hugely. Then during a rough night although cleats had been nailed on the deck to steady them, some steer would tumble down and dislocate his thigh, requiring the butcher’s axe to despatch him next morning. On the port side of the “quarter-deck,” y’clepted, I believe, in the time of Drake, the “king’s walk,” the impromptu bleating of the sheep from a fold made by lashing oars from the breach of one gun to another, was quite mellifluous.

If the necessity had arisen of fighting the ship, 54 overboard would have to go the beef-cattle: if the ship had been required to salute a superior command met on the sea, the orders would have been given, perhaps, as follows: “Starboard (look out for the bull) fire!” “Port (you’ll get kicked) fire!” “Starboard (don’t hurt those sheep) fire!” &c. The efficiency of the ship for war purposes was seriously impaired, if not destroyed, during their presence.

Two days from port, the anti-scurvy idea still predominant, punch made with ship’s whiskey and lime juice, was served out to the crew, but many an old shell-back as he took his tot, looked as if he would have preferred the ardent minus the other ingredients.

On the 14th of February we discovered a tant vessel to the windward of us. It proved to be a steamer under sail alone, her engines out of gear and dragging her wheels. She stood down in our direction as if desirous of speaking us, and many expressed much surprise at our not stopping, but all at once we had stopped, and the stranger shot across our stern. In answer to the hail, “What ship is that?” the reply was: “Her majesty’s steamer Styx, bound to the Mauritius; please report us under sail.” Our stopping was involuntary, a screw of one of the “cut-offs” to our engines having come out, which was promptly fixed with a block of wood by one of the admirable engineers which it was the good fortune of the Mississippi to have; so that we were ready to go ahead again in a very few minutes. The 55 Englishman, no doubt, was none the wiser for the belief that we stopped in courtesy to him.

The weather just before reaching Mauritius was much smoother than it had been; the sun now came up upon the right, and his going down in the Indian ocean at night, was a sight most beautiful to look upon, its whole bosom bathed in fiery floods, and way above, tower above tower, rose in radiance and glory illuminated clouds. When our band’s best strains were filling the ship at evening and these sights preceded night, we could hardly realize that we were in the Indian ocean—the ocean of squalls, calms, heavy rains, gale, storm, and hurricane.

CHAPTER IV.

About 11 o’clock on our fifteenth morning out from the Cape of Good Hope, the southwestern end of the island of Mauritius was visible from the masthead, and we put on all our furnaces so as to reach Port Louis before night. On approaching the land we ran for two hours, past highly-tilled fields encompassing the cosy houses of the planters, sloping to the water’s edge in living green. As we neared the small crescent on which is built the little town of Port Louis, we were boarded by two English harbor-masters, who conducted us to our anchorage, and assisted in mooring the ship head and stern, as the place is too contracted for a vessel of any size to swing in. Their costume showed the philosophy which John Bull always carries into torrid temperatures. They were dressed in white linen roundabouts, pants and shoes, and on their heads were wide-brimmed hats, made of the pith of a tree and covered with white. We had gotten the ship secured just about the time a gun from one of the forts nigh us, announced the hour to be 8 o’clock. I sat upon the wheel-house looking at the necklace of 57 lights that marked the town; the moon as if moved by the notes of our band which was playing delightfully “Katy Darling,” and the “Old Folks at Home,” seemed to rise more rapidly, and as it came it displayed the lofty outline of Peter Botte mountain, of Penny Magazine memory; the tall palms that fringed the beach on the right looked more stately and graceful in the silver light, and the scene altogether was so enchanting, that no one who looked upon it, could keep from feeling Bernardin-St.-Pierreish.

At daylight next morning we got a look at Port Louis. The town is not extensive, though nestling prettily under tall volcanic hills. Its suburbs are composed of the red-roofed huts of liberated Africans, making long streets. In its bazar, like nearly all places in that portion of the globe, your attention is first arrested by the grotesque—the kaleidoscope of costume. Of course your ubiquitous pig-tail friend “John Chinaman” is present. Here he attires himself in dark nankeen clothes, wears his clumsy shoe without sock, twists his plaited queue under a Manilla hat, and with his Paul Pry umbrella which he seldom hoists, looks as much like another “John Chinaman” who passes him, as two bricks in a house. You see the Arab with his head entirely shorn, or the dark-haired Lascar most diminutive in loin wardrobe, but gaudy in the vest that covers his fine-formed chest; the Parsee clothed in his gown of white muslin, his 58 turban and pointed shoes; the Malayan women in very brief attire, their children strapped on their backs, sitting on the wayside, chewing the areca-nut or the betel-leaf that they may spit blood-red saliva, and none the better looking for having a large ring fastened through the skin of their foreheads, or hanging from one nostril. These people are all very graceful in their movements. Their religions are comprised in Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Hindoo, &c. They number some six thousand of the population of the place.

I had a pleasant drive into the country, over fine English roads, Macadamized with volcanic stone by chain gangs. Our fancy-turbaned Lascar driver kept up the while a noise like that of our swamp-sparrows, to encourage his horses. We saw the large fields of sugar-cane, rustling in their deep green, with here and there the tall white chimneys of a sugar-house, or the painted roofs of the chateaus of the Creole, who live very luxuriously, rising in the midst of the promising crops, whose aggregate yield it was thought would be one hundred and sixty millions of pounds of sugar. The foliage that encroaches on the roadside with its luxuriance, or stretches way back to the base of the steep volcanic hills in sight, says “Tropical, tropical;” “the acacia waves her yellow hair,” you have the wide-spreading banyan, the tall rough barked cocoa, the cabbage-tree—its branches interlocked, the banana, the plantain, the ever-graceful palm, 59 — each one of its leaves large enough to make a fan; and then too the traveller’s tree, which on being tapped, affords the weary and athirst a substitute for water. Underneath this mass of rank green, you notice the straight-stemmed aloe with its graceful top-knot, and in the hedges that porcupine plant, the cactus, whose prickly leaf and long thorn, prevent the hump-backed, or Hindoo cattle of the country from getting in the fields of green cane. Then the birds are beautiful to see: the pure white boatswain, the noisy little paroquet, the black frigate bird, and the pretty little cardinal with his feather cowl.

The morning scene along the roads is at all times animated. With his proverbial industry, in rope-harness, one John Chinaman is pulling and another John Chinaman is pushing, heavy burdens in a small wagon; or, footing it in a trot to the town, with his bamboo-baskets strapped on shoulder, goes the chicken-merchant with his juvenile Shanghaes. Walking past you in groups, their hands clasped one with another, or stretched on their back, the rays of the sun kept off by the shady branches of the palm, or sitting under a roof made of its leaves, having his head shaved, or the hairs of his moustache plucked out here and there, to make the outline more graceful, is the semi-denuded and meat-hating Lascar.

I visited the village of “ Pamplemouses ,” where is situated the church—as the delightful story, hath it 60 —in which worshipped the mother of Paul and the mother of Virginia. Not far from this building, in the grounds of a resident, placed on either side of an artificial lake containing red and gold fish, are two square cemented pedestals, surmounted by rude urns, entirely overgrown with the pretty “Pride of Barbadoes.” These are the tombs of Paul and Virginia—so said the good old lady who accompanied us to the sentimental spot, and called our attention to the fact that they were drowned, when these cocoa, palm, and camphor trees around, were not so large as now. Mauritius being an English colony, of course we paid a shilling. Some sentimental Laura Matilda perhaps “in tears and white muslin,” has striven for affectionate immortality, by writing on the tomb of Virginia, in a rather masculine hand, her name; and also lets admiring gazers know, that when she is “to hum,” she is in Massachusetts.

Next you have a view of Tomb Bay, where the young unfortunate went to her death by shipwreck, and after thinking about the height of the breakers, and the hardness of the coral reef, you soothe the fervid mood by a stroll through one of the most attractive botanical gardens that the whole East presents. The sun poured down his hottest rays, but the lofty and strange trees that meet above your head, as a Gothic archway, afford shade, and the great moisture produced under foot, by this exclusion of the sun, brings up a thick green moss, so you walk 61 on a thick velvet carpet, while on both sides of you, rivulets of clear water run gurgling all the time. Whether there was ever such people as the two little loving recipients of morality, Paul and Virginia, or not, or that the Saint Giran was ever wrecked, it is a beautiful spot apart from the story.

But there is reality as well as romance in the Isle of France; the present owner, John Bull, supplies it. On the iron gateway under which you pass, in landing, is “Victoria Regina,” and Victoria Regina levies heavy taxes on the planters. A walk on the esplanade shows you a fence of half-buried cannon—the trophies of the English when they captured the island from the French. In front of the house of the governor, who gets ten thousand dollars more salary than our president, red-coats continually mount guard. Policemen throng the streets in the same uniform I saw in Canada, and in the barrack is quartered a fine regiment of fusiliers to keep the people in subjection.

The island, like others in the Indian ocean, has suffered from hurricanes; the cane may be most promising in the field, but destroyed before garnered. The most violent hurricane they ever had, piled three hundred houses of Port Louis in ruins, and stranded thirty ships in its harbor.

The Portuguese, the discoverers of the island, called it Cerni; the Dutch who came afterward, “Mauritius,” after Prince Maurice of Holland; and the French, Isle of France. In the Champ de Mars, a 62 fine open plain, where the regimental bands play, the troops drill, and the pretty Creole women take their evening drives and promenades, I noticed a very tasteful tomb of a French governor, Malartie, which was finished by the munificence of Sir William Gomm, an English governor.

Four days after our arrival, being the anniversary of the birthday of the Father of our Country, our ship was appropriately dressed with our national ensign, and at mid-day we fired a salute of twenty-one guns, in which the English man-of-war, the “Styx,” which had reached port, would have joined us, but an order from the admiralty forbids the firing of salutes by their national vessels unless their battery reaches a certain number of guns.

We reached Mauritius just in time to enjoy its pleasant fruits, consisting of the pine-apple, the banana, the plantain, the mangoe, and the alligator pear, which could be plentifully obtained from the fruit boats that flocked around the ship; and then, too, before breakfast, we drained the cocoa’s milky bowl.

With a pleasant remembrance of the hospitalities received from the people of Mauritius, we left Port Louis for Point de Galle, on the 25th of February.

We had a run before us of two thousand five hundred miles, and expected in the stormy ocean we had to traverse, to meet with rough weather on the passage, perhaps one of those dreaded typhoons; and that its approach might be indicated at the earliest pos 63 sible moment, our barometer had been compared with the standard one in the observatory at Mauritius, whose able and persevering superintendent is devoting himself to the advance of meteorological information in that quarter of the globe, and the increase of nautical science, like our own Maury. His name is Bosquet, and, at the time of our visit, he was preparing a moveable index card, showing the various quadrants of a revolving gale or cyclone, which must prove of great benefit to the practical navigator in those seas. We had a smooth sea during the run, hot weather, and a light head wind. When General Pierce was taking the oath of office, on the 4th of March, our nine o’clock lights were extinguished.

CHAPTER V.

About nine o’clock of the night of the 10th of March, the lookout in the top sang out, “Light, ho!” which we knew must be on the island of Ceylon. The entrance to the harbor of Point de Galle, being quite narrow, we endeavored to get such soundings as would enable us to come to anchor until daybreak, but not succeeding in this, the ship’s head was put off shore, and we lay-to for the night.

That most ancient and quasi-veracious traveller, Sir John Mandeville, who had great injustice wrought him by the wits of his day, I think it was, who, in speaking of the approach to Ceylon said, that the spicy odor therefrom could be smelt long before “the land thereof might be discerned from the tallest masthead of a ship.” If this be true, Sir John, great changes have taken place in these latter days. We did not detect anything unusually odoriferous in the atmosphere; and I subsequently found that one might walk through a cinnamon grove without being attracted by the scent, as the cinnamon proper is hermetically sealed by a kind of epidermis bark, which 65 has to be removed before it is gotten at. The nutmeg, with the mace around it, at first of a deep-red color, is enveloped in a covering as thick as the enclosure of the stone of the apricot, and on the tree resembles this fruit before ripening. The “spicy breezes” blow very “softly o’er Ceylon’s isle.”

The next morning, having gotten a pilot, we ran into the harbor of Point de Galle, which is a very contracted one, though quite secure, surrounded by groves of the tall cocoa-tree, which nearly conceal the town. The town, built by the Portuguese, is entirely walled in and fortified; and since its capture by the English its defences have been increased. It occupies a space equal in extent to Fortress Monroe, and was garrisoned by a native rifle regiment, with English officers, and a small number of royal artillery. These Ceylonese troops are said to show a ferocity of courage when in battle, and the arms of their light-complexioned commanders frequently have to be resorted to, to make them cease firing when the order is given. Point de Galle is now one of the stopping-places for the peninsula and oriental mail steamers en route to China, and the isthmus of Suez. There are two other ports on the island: that of Colombo, celebrated for its pearl-fisheries and white elephants, and that of Trincomalee, from which a great quantity of the teak-wood is brought.

We had scarcely anchored when the ship was surrounded by native canoes, called d’honies, which, at 66 a little distance, resemble planks edgewise upon the water, fifteen or twenty feet in length. They are hollowed out of logs so narrow, that the paddling occupant usually keeps one leg dangling over the side. To prevent their capsizing, a solid log, much less in size and length, pointed at both ends, is placed about ten feet off and parallel with the boat. This is connected with the boat by arched bamboo poles, and forms an out-rigger. A paddle propels them very easily, and they sail quite fast.

These boats were filled with Indiamen and Ceylonese, who would have been dressed if they had only had some garment from the slice of cotton about the loin, up to their neck or down to the heel. In a short time our decks were filled with them; also Mussulmen and Arabs, with their small oval caps and vests, exposing breast and arms, and others wearing kerchiefs of all manner of gaudy colors wrapped about them and hanging to the knees like a skirt. But the thing that strikes you with the most singularity is, that the men whose heads are not shaved, wear their hair in a knot like women, secured to the back of the head with a large tortoise-shell comb. These fellows “salam” you, and their salutation is extremely servile. Some of them come for your clothes—they are washermen, and return your garments with remarkable quickness for the East. Others pull out of their kummerbunds at the waist a lot of what they call precious stones, and say, 67 “Wantshee, me have got good mooney stones—star stones, ruby, cat’s-eye stone, sapphire,” &c.

The “prospect” of being cheated is not a pleasant one at any time; and these men are very “vile.” The fellow will hold the precious jewel to the light, and in the dark, vary its position, rub it, and praise it with great earnestness and sincerity, but should you be verdant enough to purchase the gem, even at half the estimate set upon it by him of the land of Golconda, an ordinary rat-tail file will very soon assure you that you have got a fine specimen of cut-glass. The genuine, or precious stones, are bought up by agents and sent to London. Should their sales grow very slack they are most desirous of trading for any old clothes you may have—oriental and old clothes!

I landed as soon as I could, after our salute, on the jutty, from which Mr. Barnum’s elephants had been shipped, and passing through a walled gate, entered the town, the sun shining down fiercely. The houses were of a yellow stucco, very low, without glass in the windows, generally, and their doors concealed behind mat screens. In my stroll in the direction of a fine new lighthouse, terminating a picturesque point where the sea continually breaks sullenly, my attention was attracted by a very long, notched white flag, with a number of smaller ones on the sides, hanging 68 from a tall mast. On going toward it, I found it was placed at the entrance of a walled enclosure, which contained a mosque and Mussulman school. Fronting the door of the mosque was a pool of not the clearest water, enclosed in handsome masonry. While I stood there, many of the devout, among whom I saw a blind man, came in and washed their hands and face, to say nothing of abluting their dentals, previous to proceeding to their devotions inside the building; while in the interior were a number kneeling on mats, then sitting back on their bare feet, the palms of the hands meanwhile resting on the knees, occasionally striking their forehead against the tesselated floor, facing in the direction of Mecca. Their pointed, clog-like sandals they had left outside. I was told I could enter if I would remove my pedal covering, but I declined. Removing one’s boots after a long walk, in a temperature of ninety odd, is not exactly the thing. I asked, quizzically, a long-bearded old Mussulman standing by, who understood English, whether he had any idols in his temple. He replied quickly: “No; there is but one God: we worshipped your Savior and turned our faces to Jerusalem, until Mahomet our Savior came—now we turn our faces to Mecca.” Pointing to a Hindoo temple, he remarked: “They have idols over there, but we are not allowed even to eat or drink anything when we are near these buildings.”

In a low stone edifice adjacent to this mosque 69 I glanced in at a school, where fifteen or twenty infantile scholars of both sexes whose wardrobe complete consisted of ankle, waist, and wrist rings, and pendent little silver ornaments, squatted on mats. In their midst, a la Turk, sat a shaven-headed, long-bearded Mussulman, chewing the betel-leaf and areca-nut, and uplifting at intervals the rod of correction, which was more effective than the ferula of the Christian, owing to the scanty costume of the juvenile recipients of Mohammedan morality. The scholars were engaged in writing with bamboo pens, on boards covered with a clay preparation, passages from the Koran, which was lying open upon a little stand in front of the red-saliva pedagogue. When he turned a leaf of his sacred book, he did it with a portion of his white garment, never touching the page with the naked hand. It appeared to be a free jabber on the part of the tender nudes, in Arabic, but if a sentence was missed by one, down came the Damocletian ratan, and the humanity of breeches rushed with full force on the mind. The kind heart of Dame Partington would have been greatly grieved, and she would have philanthropically exclaimed, “Bless the inventor of clothing.” And “bless the inventor of clothing;” the vitiated taste that can find nothing repulsive in an exact marble nudity, which, in the flesh of the original would be thought with Dogberry, “most tolerable and not to be endured,” would be most fully satiated—gorged—after continually look 70 ing upon the half-clad and garmentless people of the East, no matter how fine their figures. He will certainly become of the opinion that dress is a part and parcel of a woman, and that she is never so engaging in appearance as when clad in Christian garments. “Greek slaves” in bronze don’t answer.

One is struck with the fullness, beauty, and glossiness of the hair of the natives, especially when he bears in mind, that those who do not shave their heads, walk uncovered under the hot sun of their clime. I had some curiosity to find out the secret of this. They use on their hair twice a-week the juice of limes, obtained by boiling them, and then dress it with an oil pressed cold from the queen cocoa, scented with “citronella,” a very singular and powerful perfume which they distil on the island. Sixty drops of the citronella is sufficient to perfume a bottle of the oil of considerable size.

Should you sleep ashore at the hotel, you are awoke at an early hour and informed that “bathing” is ready. Accoutred in a Lazarus-like robe, generally known as a sheet, you bid the heathen lead the way, and you follow to an outhouse constructed of bamboo and mats. Here two fellows pour cold water over you from copper “monkeys,” in such quick succession, that the most inexorable disciple of Priessnitz, would be soon forced to cry peccavi . Encased in the Lazarus garment you flee into your chamber. You are pursued here by a heathen, who tells you 71 “me barber,” and proceeds to shave one side of the face at a time, shampoos your head with lime-juice, and then withdraws in favor of another idol-worshipping attendant, who mollifies you with a cup of fine coffee. The pleasant persecution over, you sleep again.

The news is conveyed from Point de Galle to Colombo by a pigeon-express, none of your “fly away to my native land, sweet dove,” business, with billet-doux, and riband around neck, but despatches, which are tied to the feet of the bird, who in flying draws them up under him, and in that way the paper is kept from a wetting, should it rain. The birds from one point are sent to the other by a coach, and not being fed in this strange cote, upon being turned out with their despatch they fly home. They fly seventy-two miles in an hour and three quarters.

This is an outline of modern Ceylon. The men who “bow down to wood and stone” here will tell you, that the footprints of a man, in stone, on the top of a mountain, is the footprint of their God, where he stepped over to the main land; but it is called Adam’s Peak, and the Mussulmen say that Adam and Eve dwelt there. They will tell you that Paradise was in the Seventh Heaven, and that Adam and Eve were expelled by the command, “Get you down, the one of you an enemy to the other, and there shall be a dwelling-place for you on earth.” Adam fell on Ceylon, or Suendib, and Eve at Joddah on the Red sea, and after two hundred years the angel Gabriel 72 conducted Adam to where Eve was, and they came and dwelt in Ceylon.

Before leaving Point de Galle, a green boat came alongside, bearing an elephant flag, out of which came the captain of a Siamese man-of-war, to pay a visit of courtesy. He was quite a young-looking man, dressed in a red jacket with a yellow silk skirt. Behind him walked an attendant bearing a pearl box in his hand. One of our midshipmen thought this must contain his “character.” As he spoke but Siamese, and our commodore did not speak Siamese, the interview must have been quite satisfactory.

On the 15th of March we left Point de Galle, and headed across the bay of Bengal, in the direction of the northwest end of Sumatra. We did not take in our entire quantity of coal at Ceylon, but got on board fifty tons of the wood of the place, to try the experiment of its burning in our furnaces. It did not answer; the expense of consumption per hour was twenty dollars, while coal would have been about six, and producing less steam, while it induced greater danger of setting fire to the ship. In our run across the bay of Bengal we had a smooth sea, hot weather, and moonlight nights. In five days we were off the island of Nicobar, and entered the straits of Malacca, the weather changing to squally and rainy. Here we passed the English oriental mail-steamer from China, having on board commodore Aulick, whose late command of the East India squadron was soon to 73 be assumed by the commodore aboard of our ship. Our run through the straits of Malacca was not signalized by any remarkable incidents. We saw the shore on either hand at times; passed in sight of the English East India penal settlement, Pulo-Penang, and close aboard of some most lovely tropical islands, anchored at night, and caught some red fish; made lay to, and frightened half to death, the captain of a Malay boat, called a parrigue, who had been manœuvring very suspiciously about nine at night, by firing a couple of muskets at him; and received and returned a salute. This was the English frigate Cleopatra, in tow of an East India Company’s steamer, one day’s run from Singapore. As they neared, the frigate broke stops with an American flag at the fore, and let slip with twenty-one guns. The old Mississippi was not to be caught napping, and although we had to lower away our quarter boats to prevent their injury by the concussion from our large guns, we soon had flying the English ensign at the fore, and replied with twenty-one. It is not the greater part of a century, that an American man-of-war would have been allowed to pass without any such national courtesy being shown by an Englishman. As the two vessels passed under our stern and stood on their way, our band gave them in its best style, “God save the Queen!”

At one o’clock in the day we were boarded by a native pilot, who brought from the consul at Singa 74 pore a letter-bag for us. It was the first news we had gotten directly, since leaving the United States, then out eighty days, and almost antipodal to our homes, and no one but he who has experienced it can appreciate fully the joy of getting a letter at such a time. It was the first that had come to me away from my own land, and I could have hallooed.

In the afternoon we rounded in among some beautiful islands, standing like verdure indexes to the harbor, and soon after anchored in the English free port of Singapore, about two miles from the shore.

And first the boats—yes, the boats. There are no more characteristic things of a people than their water vehicles. The enormous “Himalaya” steamship is the card that Great Britain sends out upon the ocean; the magnificent clipper-ships of our own America, as they ride at anchor in the “gorgeous East,” or the world over, as impatient steeds to break their tether, not in comparison, but outstripping by contrast far the naval architecture of any other people, do not evince the onward and upward march of the United States, more fully than does the stupid, cumbersome, unsightly junk, show the inertia of the opinionated Mongolian.

The Malay boats around the ship soon after we arrived, were most symmetrical in proportion, and pretty to look at. They are “dug-outs,” rather crank, but beautifully and sharply modelled. The song of the native rowers is quite strange, and far from unpleasing. 75 The man who sits behind you in the sharp stern, steering with a paddle, pitches his voice, and gives the key-note of the “barbaric pearl” ditty (that is, I supposed, it must have been something about barbaric pearls), goes on with the burden, and the two rowers amidships, rather indifferent to the fact that the unsteadiness of their boat does not suit you, musically chorus, “A—lah! A—lah! El—lel—la!” Their larger boats called prahus, with their graceful latine sails, move with great rapidity through the water, and are said to be as elegantly modelled as any yacht “America.” Indeed, some are of the opinion that the fast modern pleasure-boat, owes its origin to the prahus of the Malay.

Thackeray, in his “Cornhill to Cairo,” has most pleasantly and truly described the keen relish which is afforded to travel if one could be taken up, and suddenly translated—or immersed as it were—among a people entirely different in complexion, habit, and costume, from his own. Unfortunately you are deprived of this in the East; your arrival at one place is continually anticipating another; and so at Singapore, most unwillingly, you get too large a slice of the picture, too much foretaste of the grand “central,” “celestial,” “flowery,” “middle kingdom,” though in a few days’ run of China. The first thing that met our gaze, laying in shore of us, their unsightly masts unshipped, their large sails under cover, their high stems and decks in the shadow of mats 76 and bamboo, waiting for a change of the monsoon that they might go back to Quangtung or Fungching, were moored the ungainly Chinese junks. Of course, as is invariably the case, even on their smaller boats, from either side of the square bow peers the big painted eye; and if the stranger should be curious enough to inquire why they are put there, the matter-of-fact Chinaman, with a “Hy-yah,”—more expressive than the shoulder shrug of the Frenchman—would make answer, “No hab eye, how can see?”

On landing, the Chinese features of the place are found to predominate over all others, though the population of the town is also composed of English merchants, Malays, Arabs, Jews, Parsees, Hindoos, &c., amounting in all to about forty thousand. You no sooner put foot on the stairs that lead from the little bridged river, which equally divides the city, than your ears are filled with the interminable banging of gongs, more terrific than those which broke on the tympanum of Mr. Benjamin Bowbell when he was going to be buried alive with an Eastern princess. If a Chinese funeral is progressing, the gong is heard, if some mart has just been opened, or a public sale is to take place, beat the gong, and at sundown from the junk, “Joss” is “chin-chinn’d” by gong-beating. The streets present a scene of much bustle and activity, and traversing them are the most grotesque and picturesque oriental costumes—the large tassel pendent from the Fez cap of the Parsee, of as bright a 77 scarlet, or his loose vest of as deep a blue, and the handle of his pipe just as long, as others that I had seen at prior places.

On the eastern side of the town, fronting on a fine parade or drive, are the residences principally of the Europeans, with the exception of some who have their bungaloes near the suburbs. Here are also situated government-offices, a very plain-looking Protestant church, whose swinging fans mitigate the intense heat to the worshipping congregation; a very fine hotel, under whose pleasant mahogany—located in arbored buildings, kept cool by moving punkas—we so agreeably placed our knees, to enjoy fine fruits, and for a time, keep from the rays of a torrid sun; and a pyramidal column, whose inscription tells in English, Arabic, and Hindostanee, how grateful the people there resident are for the service rendered them, while a prominent member of the East India Company’s government, by one Earl Dalhousie. He may be a scion of Pope’s

On the esplanade, when the sun pales his fire in the evening, a tesselated group composed of the juvenile cockney, the Cingalese, the Parsee, and, of course, “John Chinaman,” take their evening promenade, while the wealthier natives who have been snoozing all day come out in their gigs for a drive. Those of more moderate pretensions, who can muster a half 78 rupee, get into a palanquin—pronounced palankee —for the purpose. These are small four-wheeled vehicles with mat cushions, capable of holding four persons. The turbaned and waist-scarfed Lascar driver, though he has a seat apportioned him, and sufficient reins, prefers coiling them over his arms, takes his little horse by the cheek of the bit, and running beside him, continually encourages him into a gallop. Some meddling English, with accompanying mistaken philanthropy, endeavored to get an order passed by which the dear syces should be made to save themselves fatigue and ride on their seats, but the dear syces preferred their old custom, and protested strongly against any such innovation. About a mile from the settlement are a large collection of houses occupied by the Malays, who, although under the protection of the English, still continue their custom of building their houses over the water, elevated on posts and separately, that they may feel freer from attack, or the visits of live animals. These latter they have not much to dread now. Singapore is on an island separated from the main land by a narrow strip of water, and tigers sometimes swim over, but they are soon despatched, as the government pays a reward of a hundred dollars for each one killed. On my ride to this point I passed some tombs of former rajahs, and also saw a number of wooden houses that were being fitted up for shipment to Australia. We stopped at a factory where that pleasant farina, sago, 79 was being prepared. It is made from the pith of a tree; is first placed in vats that it may become dissolved, then exposed to the sun to dry, after which any foreign substance is removed by sifting, when it is packed, ready for exportation, at three dollars and sixty cents per pecul. The proprietor was a very polite and good-natured old Chinaman; by-the-by, nearly all Chinamen are very good-natured: kick “John Chinaman,” and smile as you do it, and he will smile too; do it with a frown, and he becomes very indignant. The old fellow had the customary number of hogs, whose quarters, whatever may be said of the want of cleanliness of their celestial owner’s house, receive great attention.

Not far from here we went through the ward of a hospital for English sailors, and also another for Chinese, whose inmates were lying on elevated and inclined shelves, the victims of every terrible disease of the climate.

The Joss-house at Singapore is as fine, though it may be not as large, as any to be seen in China. An elaborately-designed and gaudily-ornamented pagoda, of colored porcelain, rises from its centre; its doorway is guarded by two gorgons dire, in a sitting posture, in whose snarling mouths large balls have been ingeniously carved, so that you may place your hand between the teeth and roll them about, yet the whole is cut from a block of blue flinty granite. The court and alley are paved with colored porcelain 80 tiles, while the altar and the sleepy idol that fills its rear, are decorated expensively and fantastically. One of the wings of this temple, from which issued a more cook-shop than savory smell, I noticed was appropriated as a kind of popular restaurant, and filled with Chinamen down to the lower cooly, all seated at small tables, uttering their mushy jargon, and bolting with chop-sticks the boiled paddy. Their proximity to their “Joss-pigeon” neither restrained their appetites nor their noisiness. “John Chinaman” will tell you that “Joss” (a word which they are supposed to have gotten by a corruption of “Dios” from their Portuguese neighbors at Macao) is a very good man, but that there is no reason why he should have a large temple all to himself. Opposite the temple I saw the first Chinese “Sing-Song,” a street-theatre, made by the elevation of a staging of bamboos covered with mats. Upon “these our players,” gaudily attired, and accompanied by caterwauling instruments and “tom-toms,” appear to the infinite delight of their street auditors, who guffaw loud their approval, as they stand protected from the sun under their paper umbrellas.

At Singapore is the prison in which nearly all the convicts from the possessions of the English are confined, and a collection of more villanous visages could not be met with in the walls of any other jail. Those who have been convicted of murder, have the word “Doomga”—Hindostanee for their crime— 81 branded on their forehead. Those who have been guilty of lesser offences are put into chain-gangs, and made to keep the road in order. There was one inmate, in the person of a negro, from Long Island, who had been sentenced for fifteen years.

Singapore was established by the English as a competitor for the trade of the Dutch at Batavia, in the East Indian Archipelago, and being declared a free port, has accomplished the desired result to a very great degree. Numbers of prahus, that can play pirating or trading as the opportunity presents, come there, bringing their commodities, but principally that they may get powder and shot, to play Lambro with neighboring Dyaks. It was founded in 1819, and settled with the consent of the rajah of Johore, a part of whose possessions it was. This rajah still receives a large annuity from the English, and resides in the vicinity of the place. With a friend I drove out to his place. The building was a plain one, fronted with a verandah, and the entrance ornamented with two little brass howitzers. We were received by the rajah’s son, who spoke a little English. He was gaudily attired in turban made by wrapping a parti-colored kerchief about the head, from his side hung a handsomely-mounted dagger, and he also sported a fine gold watch. His features were quite handsome for a Malay. We were ushered into an upper room, at one end of which, on a sofa, with his feet drawn up under him, similarly attired with him 82 self, sat his father the rajah, and his brother whom we understood to be a “sultan” of some neighboring province or country. On the table in front of them lay their krisses, the hilts inlaid with costly jewels. They were quite jolly-looking old fellows, and had a great many questions to ask about the mission on which our ship was bound, &c., but the defective translation of his son made the business of answering a slow one. Before leaving him he caused tea and sweetmeats to be brought in, and joined us quite sociably. The next day his son paid us a visit aboard ship.

On the 29th of March, we left Singapore, and in a short time were heading our course in the China sea. On the 2d of April the heat became very oppressive. What little breeze moved on the water was aft, and the steamer moving faster than it, the windsails which led to the lower quarters of the ship afforded no comfort, and hung collapsed from their halyard. Some of our firemen; whose duties always severely onerous, but particularly so in those burning latitudes, fainted as they stood in the fire-room while feeding their furnaces. Such is the exhausting effect of the climate on those engaged by the peninsular and oriental steamers, that engineers and firemen, it is said, are rotated at intervals, with those engaged on the more healthy part of the route on the other side of the isthmus of Suez. The greatest mortality among them arises from diseases of the liver.

“All Fools’ Day” is not forgotten on shipboard. The better to remember it in the younger messes, it is set apart for the celebration of the caterer’s birthday (of course the caterer is born on that day); the table is spread in the best way, and not until the caterer’s health has been proposed in sherry—“a bumpers and no heel-taps”—and the wine-glasses emptied, does the choking sensation remind the uninitiated that he has bolted a wine-glass of rather strong whiskey.

In two or three days the weather suddenly changed to blanket temperature; we ran into a heavy head sea; the spray was chilly, and the sun sank as if in the cold gray of autumn. On the morning of the 6th April, the Ladrone islands appeared in sight, and we ran into a fleet of some three hundred Chinese fishing boats—we were off the shores of the Middle Kingdom. The sight of these awkward boats, with their build, showing what travellers to Cathay have called the celestial propensity to “reverse” everything, was an interesting one. But why say the Chinese reverse? They had a national existence, when these our moderns were not even in embryo; their laws had an existence long before the code of Lycurgus was promulged, and their hieroglyphic record goes away back to a period which our own sacred revelation does not compass, so it is we who reverse. John Chinaman knows that though the stern of his boat is broad and high; that its bow runs wedge-like and low; that his masts, instead of raking aft, lean 84 forward; and if his boat, under sail, look as if she was going to run under, still that she has borne him safely when many a “ty-fung” blew. We wished a pilot, but in answer to the inquiry whether any could furnish one, they nodded assent, and held up fish and some rice. The weather being thick we ran in under one of the Ladrones and anchored for the night in thirty fathoms water, and fired a gun for a pilot. The next morning at daybreak, we ran in and anchored in the roadstead of the old Portuguese city of Macao, about four miles from the shore. Though the turbid water all around, and the naked islands that encompassed the anchorage, did not afford a prospect calculated to prepossess one with his first glance at the “Flowery Kingdom,” still we had a feeling of gladness that after an almost uninterrupted run of over four months we had reached our goal, or the region which was to be the theatre of our movements—yes, for months.

Our stoppage was short; after communicating with the navy store-keeper and the authorities ashore, receiving an official visit from the Portuguese captain of the port, and procuring a Chinese pilot, we lifted anchor, and stood over for the more flourishing English colonial town of Hong Kong. We reached this place after doubling through denuded steep islands, about seven o’clock in the evening. The ships of the East India squadron lying in the harbor, who having had some intimation of our proximity to the station by 85 the mail-steamers from Ceylon, were on the qui vive for our approach. The old Mississippi, with the broad pennant at her masthead, no sooner emerged from behind the western point of the island, than the “Saratoga” and “Plymouth” sloops-of-war hoisted their numbers and saluted. The storeship, “Supply,” we also found there. Our ship was soon filled by brother American officers from the other ships, come to salute and welcome old friends, and hoping that the mail-bags we had from the United States, had brought each one “good news from home.” The meetings were so joyous and so cordial that we did not remember that they were taking place on the other side of the globe. Officers from the English and French men-of-war also came aboard to pay their respects.

The oriental salute seldom consists of more than three guns, and many of the natives of the East are unable to see why this number should be fired; they can not comprehend why you should burn in compliment the same material, which you would employ in sending deadly missiles at them, if in anger. But we, Christian nations, manage things differently; and the next day after our arrival told it: from the rising to the setting of the sun nearly, it was powder burning. Upon hoisting the colors at eight o’clock we saluted the town with twenty-one guns, and twenty-one were returned by a water-battery; the French saluted us and we saluted them; then came the ad 86 miral and commodorial salutes, English and French, which were returned in the old style by letting fall fore-top sails the while; and so that day the noise of one hundred and seventy-nine guns, broke and tumbled along the naked hills of Hong Kong, with nearly as splendid an effect as at St. Helena.

The harbor of Hong Kong is a very commodious and well-sheltered one, in the shape of a half-moon, and its three entrances of Green Island, Cap-sing-moon, and Lymoon passages, can not be seen from its centre. On a shelf which makes a circular sweep, cut at the base of towering volcanic hills, is built the town named in honor of the present sovereign of Great Britain. Victoria, from the water, presents a fine appearance, with its stuccoed warehouses, or “go-downs,” at the beach, and the private residences and churches rising from plateaus made by immense labor above; and the massive stone government offices and barracks that appear on the left, tell how firmly the English plant their foot in the East, and how triumph, with them, is synonymous with occupancy of a slice of an enemy’s territory. This colony is the result of their opium war in China. Our stay was short: the commodore despatched the “Plymouth” to Shanghae, and, in the Mississippi, ran over to Macao, an inland run of thirty-nine miles.

CHAPTER VI.

We anchored in Macao roads about mid-day, perhaps on the very spot, where a sailor’s malice fired a magazine, and blew high in air, with a noise like thunder, the atoms that composed the Portuguese frigate Donna Maria , some years before. Macao, though in, is not of China; instead of the low hut-like structures of unburnt blue brick and fantastic tile of the Celestial, the eye, as it takes in the fine sweep of the Praya, rests on large mansions whose verandahs exclude the sun, whose portals are spacious and stylish, and whose stucco little discolored by time, only appears all the more impressive, and sees rising on the eminence behind venerable cathedrals; while garrisons, crown batteries, and old-looking forts on either side, with the ensign of Portugal, define its ownership, and make the picture more imposing. It was here that the zeal of the Jesuit commenced the propagation of his faith and questioned the ethics of Confucius; it was here that the “glory and shame” of Portugal—one-eyed Camoens—disgusted at the country which could neither appreciate his genius nor reward his 88 courage, spent in voluntary exile five years of his life and completed the Lusiad—that poem which, when shipwrecked, he saved from destruction by swimming and holding it above water, and that was ultimately to meet with the worse fate of being rendered into another language by Fanshaw. It was here that the English displayed the surreptitious boldness of carrying away, by the power of arms, from Portuguese custody, a missionary who had been guilty of the bad manners and overt nonsense of offending people not his own, by a refusal of compliance with a very ordinary custom, on the occasion of a catholic procession, at a time when the authorities and the greater part of the population were witnessing a boat regatta in their harbor; and it was at the outer barrier of Macao, that its governor, a few years ago, while taking an evening ride with one of his aids, was cut to pieces by the revengeful Chinamen, because of his having caused a road to be made through one of their burial-places in the vicinity.

On anchoring, a number of us paid a visit to the shore, which was some distance, in a Chinese “fast-boat,” the ship’s boats being seldom used in those countries, both because of a sanitary regard for a ship’s company, who would suffer from long rows under a new and sickly sun, and because the Chinese conveyances are scarcely the tax of a song: a “fast-boat,” with a crew of three or four rowers, which also serves as the floating habitation of the 89 owner and a family composed of as many more, can be employed for constant attendance on a man-of-war for a very small number of dollars per month. They are always at hand; when not going they are made fast astern, and when triangulating between Whampoa, Macao, and Hong-Kong, they follow with Ruth and Naomi constancy. Will we forget you, old Ashing?—with your punctuality and good-natured readiness, whether disturbed at your chow-chow, or called at late hour of the night? Then, too, your ever equable philosophy; the Irish pilot knew the rocks in the channel well, especially when he thumped on top of one; but your foresight, far surpassing his, always told us, in answer to the question, “Can you take us off?”—“Supposee too much no good wind, no can catchee ship: Supposee no too muchee bad wind, can catchee ship,”—which was so solacing. The name “fast-boat” is a misnomer, except when chased by a good wind, and then they move through the water, impelled by their large mat-sails, with great rapidity. They are built in a wedge-like shape, generally some twenty feet long, with a small indented place with seats under matting for their passengers, and movable decks, below which the crew stretch themselves to sleep. Since the days of the “old woman who lived in a shoe,” nothing can be found which has been made to contain more human beings in the same space than a Chinese fast, or tanka boat, besides having room for cooking purposes, a water 90 tank, a spare spar, and a small altar, in whose front a joss-stick kept burning propitiates their tutelar deity. Ye pampered denizens of the crowded city, upon whose elbows the bricks and mortar of more plebeian neighbors crowd too close, go and learn of those human bees of the world, economy of space.

The water becomes so shoal before reaching the stone pier, that the little vessel lowers sail and drops anchor—this shoalness is the result of that want of force or energy, which, shown in the decline of Goa, could not maintain the fortifications of Point de Galle after building them, and which from sudden and unhealthy culmination, has marked the downfall of all the Portuguese possessions in the East.

We were encompassed by tanka-boats—so named from their resemblance in shape to an egg—a great number of which they could scarcely contain. Their maiden proprietors, with their pretty teeth, big nankeen breeches, nicely-plaited hair, small bare feet and braceleted wrists, at once set up the cry, “Takee my boatee!—takee my boatee!” Some one having taken the cockle-shell barge of Atti, and some other that of Aqui, a few moves of the powerful skull of the Celestial Charon at the stern, as her small feet step back and forth on a neatly-scoured miniature platform, and a few pulls at the sweep-oar of the Celestial Charon in the bow, and the boat now is in the sand of the beach. One of the maidens, with none of the aversion of the feline species, steps over into the water, 91 arranges a small cricket-bridge, and balance-pole of bamboo, and with the right hand of fellowship helps you up on the nice stone jutty. Up, you walk to Franck’s hotel, on the wide and level praya, leading to the circular promenade on which the Rip Van Winkle population, when the hot sun is nearly down, go to take their ante-supper walk and evening airing.

On the 18th of April we left the anchorage of the old Portuguese city, and started for our first visit to the anchorage of Canton for ships drawing twenty feet of water. We stood across the wide and turbid estuary of the Pekiang, and about twelve o’clock we reached the Bocca Tigris—the proper mouth of the Canton river—and passed the forts of the Bogue, that the English ships Andromache, Imogen, and others, handled so badly as they held on their way up to their great city. We were detained some time before reaching here, by having towed under an itinerant fast-boat who had made fast astern. It took some time to right his boat, bail her, and take off the crew who huddled on her keel. The fellow was attempting to smuggle salt which made his boat too deep. He afterward fell into the hands of some of the river pirates who infest the waters of China. We ran through fish-stakes innumerable, passed pagodas—those lofty, circular, terraced piles of brick and porcelain, which some of the Chinamen tell you were built to mark the commencement of learning and civilization with them, and others that they keep off 92 evil spirits from the country visible from their tops—and at three o’clock were moored in Whampoa Reach, surrounded by merchant-ships of all nations; from the mountainous old East Indiaman, to the (cynosure of all) magnificent American clippers. ’Tis here, of all the world, in a limited space, that the alpha and omega of naval architecture are to be seen—the “Flying Cloud,” the “Sea Serpent,” and the Chinese salt-junk.

After chartering a Peruvian-built bark as a coal-ship for the squadron, and ordering two officers to her, allowing those of the Mississippi to make a hurried visit to Canton, and shipping about forty Chinese coolies, whose names puzzled the purser to enter, we returned to Macao and then to Hong-Kong. On the 27th April we left the latter place for the more northern port of Shanghae, where the steam-frigate Susquehanna awaited the arrival of the commodore, who proposed making her his flag-ship because of her noble spaciousness. We went out by the Lymoon passage, and with the ship deeply laden with coal, staggered along up the Formosa channel. For a few days we had a mist so thick that it precipitated in rain, and afterward a fog so thick that we ran slowly and cautiously not to go over Chinese fishermen, and also to take soundings, for which purpose the engines were stopped at intervals. Our band played at intervals: the English-coast pilot on board had a Kanaka servant with him; this fellow would listen to the music with much interest and seem delighted: the Chinese 93 cooley would move about the deck the while, apparently perfectly unconscious of, or indifferent to the sweet strains, or if he observed at all, his smooth and sinister face looked his disapproval of such a barbarian noise.

Our first of May suggested anything else but floral association. It was cold and raw; blowing fresh, and a heavy head-sea, which, during the night, smashed in the port side of the head-rail of the ship; deck wet, sky overcast; no observations, to determine our position could be taken; poor little land-birds, ejected from domicil, were perched in the rigging, too much benumbed to work their passage, and around were small junks of the Chinaman, “laying-to,” with basket-drags from head and stern, like floating anchors.

On the 3d, we entered the mouth of the Yang-tse-kiang—it being remembered that kiang is the Chinese for river. The water is as muddy as that of the Pekiang. Just inside of an island, bearing the euphonic name of the orientalist and quasi-missionary, Gutzlaff, we got an English pilot who gave us the first intelligence of the doings of the rebel army, up the river, in the vicinity of Nanking. The navigation of the Yang-tse is exceedingly intricate, owing to hard and shifting bars, which rendered it necessary for a ship of our size to proceed with much caution. The shores were low and white, and resembled the coast of Florida. Shanghae is situated on the Woosung river, which empties into the Yang-tse at the village 94 of Woosung, and after reaching the village and anchorage for opium-ships, you run off to the left and southwest for Shanghae. Nothing can exceed the closeness and thoroughness of the cultivation visible on the bank on both sides of this tortuous stream; it looks like one great market-garden, and the wonderful industry of its cultivators, says to the black soil, month in and month out, “Give! give!” The unremitting toil, and the uninterrupted use of ammoniacal fertilizers never allow the earth to be weary of well-doing. No wonder agriculture is so fostered by the government, and that once a year the imperial cousin, &c., to the planetary system, should, by holding the plough in the field, attempt the impossibility of adding dignity to the labors of the husbandman.

A few hours’ run after entering the Woosung, enabled us to descry the Susquehanna and the Plymouth, the bend of the river, and the low and level paddy-fields, causing them to appear as if enclosed by dry land. The salute of the former came to us over any quantity of waving rice. The river, at the city, is quite narrow, and we anchored in the Chow-chow water—which, with the upturned mud, curls and eddies and turns back and runs on, causing the ships to swing every way at their anchors—just opposite to the numerous houses of the foreign residents, and a short row from a stone quay and level walk which imported cockneyism calls “ the Bund .”

Below where we lay, across Suchow creek, was to 95 be seen a neat little protestant church, with a small tower, and the unpretending residences of the missionaries of protestant churches, whose unremitting labors, and social deprivation, deserve better reward than the mere partial success with which they meet. Above the consulate and hongs, commences the city, its walls approaching the water’s edge, and running some distance back. A short walk through a crowded and muddy suburb and you enter one of the gates. The imperial authority, the Taoutae, fearing an attack from the adherents of the rebel chief, Thae-ping-Wang, had fortified the place, and most of the silk and other stores were closed. Previous to our arrival they had experienced the shock of an earthquake, which had shaken down a wall or so. I passed through the narrow, sloppy streets, but the scene was far from the animated one that we had seen in Canton. The population, whose complexions and persons are better than in the more southern districts, were evidently apprehensive that there was soon to be “too muchee bobbery,” or fighting. But nothing can restrain the lower classes from their insatiate vice of gambling. In the tea-gardens, from morning to night, it was to be seen going on; while the “sing-song” theatres were amusing others. At the entrance to a joss-house, and along the streets, were to be seen the horrible ghastly emaciation, and foamy mouths, of dead and dying beggars, in filthy tattered rags, to whose presence the passers-by seemed utterly indifferent. 96 Some had dragged themselves to die on the flag-stone crossing of a small stream, that they might possibly get interment; it being said that any one who touched them, is compelled to have this office performed.

The occupants of the foreign hongs had formed a volunteer, or patrol company, for the custody of their property, and under the protection of the guns of quite a large English and American force, were having their amusement, indifferent to Taontae, or Thae-ping-wang. Dinners were given at the consulates, a la Chinois , at which the American and English envoys were present; and at night parties were given by these functionaries, and well attended; or a neatly-printed bill with “Imperial Theatre, Shanghai, and Vivant Regina and Princess ,” requested the honor of your Company, to witness the dramatic doings of “her majesty’s servants,” of the English brig “Lily.” Then, too, there was the “spring meeting of the Shanghae races,” which were interesting, and ridiculous too, at times. The course was not very extensive, but quite well thronged, here and there a Tartar soldier being visible in the crowd. The races, in which I noticed Mr. T’hën Tih had entered his steed Qui-Qui, were:—

1.— The Griffin’s Handicap. —For China Ponies that have run in the Griffin’s Plate , and whose owners have subscribed to this Handicap; the winner of the Griffin’s Plate excluded.—Heats once round from the Willows.—Ponies to be handicapped after the Griffin’s Plate is run for.—Subscribers may start two Ponies for one subscription. Prizes from amount subscribed to be appropriated to 1st, 2d, and 3d 97 Ponies in six shares.—The winner of the race to receive 3 shares, the second Pony 2, and the third 1 share.—The second and third Ponies in the last heat to be the winners of the second and third prizes.—Entrance $10, and half forfeit if declared on or before 8th April.

2.— The Tsatlee Cup ,—Value $75, for all Ponies .—Entrance $3 each to second Pony.—Weight for inches.—Winner of the Manilla Cup to carry 14 lbs. extra and of Chaa-sée Cup 7 lbs. extra.—Twice round.

3.— The Pang-king-pang Stakes ,—Of $2 each with $20 from the fund for China Ponies .—Weight for inches.—Once round from the Willows.

4.— The Ladies’ Purse and Plate ,—Value $50 for all Ponies .—Entrance $3 each.—Weight for inches.—Twice round.

5.— The Persian Cup ,—Value $50.—Second Pony $15.—For China Ponies only.—Entrance $3 each.—Weight for Inches.—Once round from the Willows.

6.— The Forced Handicap ,—For all Winning Ponies at this meeting to be handicapped by the Stewards.—Entrance $3 each with $30 from the fund.—Once round and a distance.

7.— The Celestial Stakes ,—For all Beaten China Ponies at this meeting.—Entrance $3 with $30 from the fund. Weight for inches.—Once round and a distance.

8.— The Native Purse ,—Value 15,000 cash, for all Ponies .—Indian and Chinese riders.—Post entries to the clerk of the course. No entrance fee.—Twice round.

The native horses are small, and the native saddles clumsy in the extreme, with their large iron-lever stirrups; and when John Chinaman, perched like a monkey on his shoulders, pushed his pony for the purse, the scene was exceedingly ludicrous. Fourteen cash make one cent, so the amount won in the last race was not so great as one would think.

On the 9th the commodore, with the customary manning of yards and salute, shifted his broad pennant 98 from the Mississippi to the Susquehanna, and the British war-steamer “Hermes,” which had been to take the English plenipotentiary to the camp of the rebel chief below Nanking, returned with that functionary, whose mission had not proven propitious. Her officers stated that on their way up the river, near Cheang-foo, they were fired at by the rebel forces, and above Nanking by the imperial troops, but without injury. In an interview with them, the English assured them that their visit was both friendly and neutral. The rebels expressed regret at the firing, and said they would send down an order to prevent its recurrence. There being a difficulty between Thae-ping-wang and the English embassador, Sir S. George Bonham, as to the preliminaries of an interview, the “favorite of Heaven” not willing to make any concessions, the steamer returned, and was again fired at, one shot striking her hull, and another the main-yard and backstay. The “Hermes” let slip at them, knocking over some of their guns, and passed on. At a place called Silver island they stopped to take a look at the idols the rebels had broken, when one of their generals came down with an apologetic letter about the firing; it was a mistake. This general said himself, and those united with him in the struggle, were protestant Christians; that they did not tolerate opium, tobacco, or profanity, and worshipped not idols, but the one God. If they were successful they would open Nanking to all the world. 99 At that time a great deal of aid to the labors of the missionaries in China, was predicted from their movements, which subsequent events have not realized.

The storeship “Supply,” of our squadron having gotten ashore at the mouth of the Yang-tse on the “North bank,” we were suddenly despatched to her assistance, but discovered she had gotten afloat before the Mississippi reached her anchorage. Below Woosung we took in tow a large teak-wood junk, manned by Chinamen, and laden with coal, which we were to take aboard after getting over the bar. On the 18th, while waiting for the Susquehanna, the tide changed, the old junk drifted into us threatening to crush our quarter-boats, so she was cast off. The ancient pig-tail mariner who presided over her crew and helm, though conscious of drifting each moment on a dangerous bank, would not cast his anchor, because, as it was afterward believed, he thought the “fanquis” of the American steamer were going to tow him out to sea; the consequence was, the wind and sea having increased, the junk struck, and the tide soon falling, she was hard and fast. Boats were sent to her assistance, but the breakers prevented her from being reached, before a late hour of the night, when the officer sent with the boats seeing it impossible to get her off, and seven feet water in her hold, she was abandoned, and the crew brought aboard of the Mississippi. A dismal looking set of Celestial scape-graces they were, and 100 presented a motley group as they sat around their pig-tail Falconer encased in an antique fur cape, jabbering about their escape. Before our boats were able to reach them, they had illuminated their cabin altar, burned perfumed sticks and paper, and chin-chinned Joss with great vim, but their stupid little tutelar deity not having responded to their prayers for assistance, they became indignant, tossed Mr. Joss, altar, perfumed sticks, and all, overboard, and betook themselves to the more sensible thing of building a raft of bamboos and their huge mat sails, with which they proposed, when the sea went down, to risk their safety. They were sent back to Shanghae by the pilot-boat, having subjected Uncle Sam to some three thousand dollars’ loss, besides nearly all of the crew of the boat, that slept aboard of her, had the “junk fever,” and one afterward died from it.

The weather continuing very rough, the wind at times changing in five minutes to the opposite point of the compass, we laid under Saddle island for two or three days, when, with the “Supply” in tow, and in company with the now flag-ship, “Susquehanna,” on the 23d of May, we took our departure for the Loo-Choo islands.

CHAPTER VII.

The island of Great Loo-Choo appeared in sight after a run of three days from China. Previous to reaching there, the commodore issued a general order, requiring look-outs to be kept in port as at sea, during the stay of the squadron among the Japanese islands, and all movements of vessels or collections of boats were to be reported to the officer of the deck, and by him to his superiors; sentinels with loaded musket and six rounds of ball-cartridges; general and division exercises of great guns and small arms, with artillery and infantry drills, were to be prosecuted with increased diligence; and in navigating those seas attention was to be given more to precautionary measures to secure safety than to accomplish quick passages. Another general order stated that the countries which our ships were then about to visit were inhabited by a singular people, whose policy it had been, during more than two centuries, to decline all intercourse with strangers, to which end they had resorted to acts at variance and irreconcilable with the practices of civilized nations; that one of 102 the duties enjoined upon the commodore, was to endeavor to overcome these prejudices by a course of friendly and conciliatory measures, and to strive to convince the Japanese that we went among them as friends, though assuring them of our determination never to submit to insult or wrong, or desist from claiming and securing those rights of hospitality justly due from one nation to another. In pursuance of these objects, every individual under his command should exercise the greatest prudence, forbearance, and discretion, in their intercourse with all with whom they came in contact. While distrustful of their apparent friendship and sincerity, and guarding against treachery, they would extend toward those oppressed and misgoverned people every kindness and protection, and would be careful not to molest, injure, or maltreat them in any manner; that it would be in time to resort to extreme measures when every friendly demonstration should have been exhausted. The commodore also stated that his instructions directed him to forbid in the most positive manner the acceptance of presents or supplies, unless those who proffered them, were prepared to receive adequate returns.

That we might be the better prepared, in addition to the great-gun exercises, drill, &c., when “friendly demonstrations should have been exhausted,” the commander-in-chief provided himself with an octagonal marquee made of red, white, and blue, caused ambulances to be made in the different ships, and di 103 rected that all boats of the squadron when prepared for distant or active service, were to be armed and provided, so as to be ready at a sudden call, with anchor and cable, two spare oars, masts, sails, and rigging, spun-yarn and seizing stuff, four battle-axes, a hand-saw for each division, one wood-axe, spikes, bag with hatchet, sheet-lead and nails, spy-glass for commanding officer of division, musket, pistol, and cutlass for each man, cartouch-box filled, screw-driver and nipple-wrench, cleaning rags and oil for each boat, a crow-bar, two blue-lights, two rockets, candles primed, and match-ropes in tin-box, lantern and materials for getting light, boat’s colors and signals, compass, bread, water and provisions, oar-muffles, bandages and laudanum for wounded, lead-lines, small cooking apparatus for largest boat, flash-pans, and awnings.

On getting to our anchorage we felt as if we had arrived at the outer door of the hermetic empire that we had come so far to deal with, we being then only about eight or nine days’ sail from the bay of Yedo. As Loo-Choo had no doubt been selected as the base of operation, upon the principle of reaching the old hen by first going at the chickens, it will be as well to give an outline of its history.

The Loo-Choo islands—pronounced in Japanese Lu Kiu—are a dependency of the Japanese prince of Satsuma. There are thirty-six islands in all, which are divided in three groups: the Northern or Sanbok, the Middle or Tchusan, and the Southern or 104 Sannan group. According to the belief of the inhabitants, the origin of the people of these islands, like that of nearly all the orientals, is divine, and nowise of the Lord Monboddo theory. Their annals always commence with a series of gods, then follow a race of demi-gods, and at last come human beings. To their great veneration for their ancestors, may probably be ascribed these conceits. A son reveres his father beyond everything else; this father likewise revered his progenitor. So the grandfather gets all the love of his son, with a large share of that of the grandson through the grandson’s father. A thousand years in Loo-Choo chronology is a small matter: they note the existence of their islands for seventeen thousand years, that is agreeably to what the Chinaman would call their “fash;” so compound interest for a thousand years in filial veneration gives divinity of origin to their nation.

The Chinese emperor, Kang-hy, in 1719, sent a man of great attainments to Loo-Choo. The report of this learned pig-tail, upon what he saw in the country, was translated by Father Gaubil of the French Jesuit mission in China, whose records probably contain more data relative to the ancient history of the East, than is to be found in any other mission.

The Chinese histories first make mention of Loo-Choo in the year 605. In that year a party of Chinese visited the islands, and on their return brought with them some of the natives, who were taken to 105 Pekin. Here they were recognised as Loo-Chooans by the Japanese embassador at that court. They are described as being very ignorant and very poor. The emperor Yang-ti, however, sent embassadors and interpreters to claim sovereignty over the islands, but the king of Loo-Choo rejected all proposals of the kind, whereupon the emperor sent ten thousand men from Fokien to invade the islands. They landed on the island of Great Loo-Choo, and were bravely met by the king at the head of his army. A pitched battle was fought, in which the king was slain, when the Chinese triumphed, taking five thousand prisoners, and sacking the cities of Sheudi and Napa. The Chinese chronicle the fact that the Loo-Chooans were so lamentably destitute that they did not even know the use of “chop-sticks!” and also state that they sometimes sacrificed human beings at their religious festival, which barbarous custom was at once abolished.

The Chinese emperors of the Ting dynasty, and also those of the succeeding Song dynasty, did not exercise sovereign rights over the islands. A trade had sprung up between the two countries, and all went as well as a junk could sail, until 1291, when the emperor Chit-su, of the Eeven dynasty, resolved upon their conquest. He fitted out and despatched an armed expedition for this purpose, but the Tartars and Chinese, both disgusted and disheartened by the recollection of their terrible failure in a similar attempt on Japan, after a short absence returned to the 106 port of Fokien, not having gone in sight of the islands. The history of the islands speaks of constant civil war, and bloody battles. In 1372 the largest island was divided into three kingdoms. Hong-u, the first of the Ming dynasty, sent an embassador to Loo-Choo, whose diplomacy was such as to induce T’say-too, one of the kings who resided at Sheudi, to declare himself tributary to China. His example was followed by the two other kings, and peace was restored. Thirty-six Chinese families, by order or with the consent of the emperor, emigrated to the island, who received their “quarter sections” from the king, and from that time dates the commencement of civilization and Chinese influence. Young men from Loo-Choo were annually sent to Nanking, to learn the Chinese language at the expense of the emperor; and presents were exchanged by the sovereigns. At the death of T’say-too the emperor sent his son to preside over the realm. Loo-Choo then became prosperous, trade sprang up; and during the reign of Chang-pat-shi, the great grandson of T’say-too, the three kingdoms of the islands were re-united, and the royal family assumed the title of Chang.

Revolutions and civil wars raged from time to time, and a feudal system was established. Commerce with China increased, and the Chinese complained of the scarcity of silver and copper coin in the provinces Tshe-kiang and Fokien, on account of the exportation of it to Loo-Choo. In 1500, the Loo-Choo people 107 sent a trading junk to Malacca, many to the island of Formosa, and a great many to the southern ports of Japan. During the reign of Chang-tching, Loo-Choo became the market where Japanese and Chinese merchants met to exchange their goods. Commerce became brisk, and the constant quarrels between the Chinese and Japanese gave the king an opportunity to extend his influence. The extensive piratical operations of the Japanese, about the year 1525, having their headquarters at Ke-long-chan, on the island of Formosa, compelled the emperor of China to have recourse to the king of Loo-Choo as mediator between him and the emperor of Japan. The mediation did not suppress the piracy complained of, though backed by large squadrons sent to sea by the celestial emperor, to destroy the pirates, over whom his imperial confrere of Japan professed to have no control; indeed, the Japan monarch alleged that there were many Chinese among these outlaws.

The ascent of the throne of Japan by Taico Sama, proved an event of great importance. He was a man of great ability and shrewdness, and attained his high position by his own exertions, and not by birth. He put an end to feudalism in his country, and ruled with an iron hand. He conceived the idea of using to advantage the terror which prevailed because of the Japanese pirates, and the prestige which their daring acts had acquired. His ambition was as un 108 bounded as his belief in manifest destiny, and his object was the conquest of China. He despatched officers to the king of Loo-Choo, ordering him to declare his kingdom tributary to Japan; and similar pressing invitations were sent to the governors of the Philippine islands, the king of Siam, &c. The sovereign of Loo-Choo temporized, and finally refused to submit, relying on Chinese protection. He informed the emperor of the plans of Taico Sama; a league of all these princes was formed against him, when Taico Sama invaded that fighting-ground between the Chinese and Japanese—the peninsula of Corea. Taico’s main object was attained. He reaped all the benefit proceeding from piracies licensed by him or enlisted in his service, and thus giving it the character of a regular warfare. He smothered civil war in its germ, and sent away his most influential opponents to fight in the Corea, not Crimea. Corea was then the safety-valve for ardent spirits against the government, as France keeps its Algiers, or keeps up a foreign war. Taico “savaad” a great deal.

During the reign of Taico, Loo-Choo suffered severely; trade was brought to a stand still, and, like a more modern nation that Americans wot of, Japan proclaimed herself mistress of the sea. The king of the islands, however, managed to send an embassador to China, who was received with great magnificence by the emperor, both on account of the dangers he had encountered from the voyage in the junk, and the risk 109 incurred of falling into the hands of the pirates who swarmed in those seas.

After the death of Taico, and during the regency of Iyeyas for his son, in 1612, a Loo-Chooan chief, dissatisfied with his king, armed three thousand men in Japan, with whom he returned to his own country and made the kingdom by force tributary to Japan, that is, to the province of Satsuma. He took back the king a prisoner. The fallen sovereign of Loo-Choo behaved with so much dignity, that two years afterward he was generously sent back, and reinstated on his throne, remaining still a true friend to the emperor of China.

Commercial relations, but on a small scale, existed with China and Japan, when, in 1708, all the plagues came down on Loo-Choo: it was desolated by the ravages of terrible typhoons; the crops failed; cattle died; the king’s palace was entirely consumed by fire; and frightful epidemics prevailed among the natives. Cang-hi, the emperor of China, sent them assistance, and his embassador, Supas Kang, in his report, according to the translation in French, says the language of these people is so mixed up of Chinese and Japanese, that it forms almost a distinct language. He finds no wild animals or venomous reptiles or insects, but much fish. Their exports at that time consisted of sulphur, a peculiar red dye stuff, dried fish, saki, and timber, principally cedar-wood.

The prospect, as you approach Great Loo-Choo 110 island, clothed in masses of deep green, is very delightful to the eye, after it has been resting for days on the slate-colored ocean. We reached our anchorage late in the afternoon in the midst of a heavy rain, on the 26th of May. The roadstead off the city of Napa is enclosed by large fields of coral, and the entrances through the reefs are quite narrow. When we had gotten inside, large numbers of the natives appeared on the shore, no doubt greatly astonished at the sight of the two large steamers; and shortly after, the sloop-of-war “Saratoga,” from Hong Kong, also arrived. In a short time a rude dug-out boat came off to our ship, containing some officer, but as the flag-ship had previously made signal forbidding any communication with shore, he was directed to that ship—now the Susquehanna. He wished to know what we wanted in their harbor; the answer to this was, “Ask no questions and I’ll tell you,” &c. He was given to understand that he was rather too “small pigeon” for our commodore to see, and that he must go back and send off their “first chop” mandarin, as we could hold no intercourse with any other. This was trying on the dignitate early, but nothing else will answer in the East; any concession of equality, or manifestation of too great courtesy, would be at once construed by them into an admission of their superiority.

Our stripes and stars were a new sight to them, and the sudden advent of our ships in their waters was more than they could comprehend. At night 111 their chief men took counsel together, and came to the conclusion that we were in want of kam-yum-muru , or something to eat; so the next morning off came, in a string of canoes, bullocks, pigs, chickens, and vegetables, as presents. These were sent back with the information that we could not receive presents. Become quite uneasy about our presence, they consented to their prince regent’s coming off to the flag-ship, which he did at an appointed hour, with a suite in their canoes. He was well received, and given the cheap salute of three guns, which small compliment he would have preferred to dispense with. They were shown over the ship: the engines were moved for their observation, and they evinced immense surprise: some of the attendants, however, when the great pistons moved, bolted up the hatchway and made for their boats. The higher officers were quite dignified in appearance and demeanor, but the lower class showed a simplicity most childish. They giggled at a looking-glass, and continually felt behind it; a sight through a spy-glass was most puzzling; a wine-glass they held tightly with both hands, and elevated to the forehead before tasting contents; a watch was most miraculous, and as they gathered round they were all wonderment, and imitated its “tick tick;” when the works were exposed to them, their exclamation of surprise was more like one of pain. The contents of the purser’s chest when exposed to them they seemed to think quite 112 shiny and pretty, but evidently were unaware of the value or use of eagles, dollar-pieces, &c. On a chart of the world, in the cabin one day, I showed a number of them their country, and then designating my own, traced the track by which we had come to their island, which they appeared to comprehend. It was quite amusing to see the rapidity with which they would let go the polar handles of a small galvanic battery, which much persuasion and the example of some of the men were first required to get them to take hold of, as soon as it was slightly charged by pushing in the needles. They would drop their hands and rub their wrists in amazement.

The dress of the Loo-Chooans consists of a loose gown reaching to the knees, with large sleeves, made of a species of grass-cloth, of their own manufacture, and confined at the waist with a wide sash, pendent from which they wear a tobacco-pouch and small pipe. After the interchange of salutations, the pipe is always produced. On their feet, which are generally bare, they wear a coarse straw sandal, secured by a strap passing through next to the great toe, and one around the instep. Like the Japanese, the better classes carry a fan; but only the high officers wear a hat, made of crape, the first class yellow, and the second red—more particularly as a badge of authority. Their hair is brushed up all around the head, and its ends secured in a knot on the summit of the head, transfixed by silver or brass pins.

We knew that Loo-Choo had been visited in 1846 by a French missionary, Forcade, who had subsequently left, but were rather surprised on anchoring abreast of a tall and singular formation, called in the surveys of the “Alceste and Lyra,” “Capstan rock,” but which more nearly resembles a large old barn, with dark thatched roof, and huge projecting eaves—to see flying from its summit the English flag. We afterward ascertained that it was a flag giving protection to Dr. Bettelheim, a converted Hungarian Jew, who had married an English lady, and had been sent by an English naval mission society, some seven years before, as a missionary to Loo-Choo. He did not appear to be a man whose disposition and temperament were calculated to afford him success in his labors, although he had persevered in his study of their language until he could preach to the natives in it, and had occupied his lonely position for years, with no other Christian faces than those of his wife and three children. The Loo-Chooans had tried every way to get rid of him; they had addressed, through the Chinese, to the English minister, Lord Palmerston, remonstrances against the mission, which invariably closed with the petition that he would remove Bettelheim. They may not have known Vattel, but they urged with much energy his doctrine, that a missionary should leave a country when his presence was not agreeable to its people. But the Dr. held his ground, though he was made to undergo some rather rough treatment. Himself, by 114 his professional skill in the healing art, and his wife, during the prevalence of the smallpox, had been very attentive to the people, which caused the authorities to become quite jealous. They were followed and hooted at in the streets, and finally, Mrs. B. during a walk, was forcibly separated from her husband, and himself beaten. The British war-steamer “Sphynx” happened to pay a visit to Napa not long afterward, when the authorities made ample apology for the offence, and promised better things in future. They removed his servants, or constantly changed them. They erected spy-houses opposite the gate of his residence, which were constantly attended. If he preached to a crowd in the street, or market-place, at a signal from the Japanese police on the island, his auditors all ran away. If he distributed tracts in their language at night, the next morning, the police brought them back to him, carefully tied up.

They were much disturbed by our presence, and if our sails were loosened to dry, they wondered why we did not sail away. We made a reconnoissance of their harbor to ascertain or confirm the accuracy of the surveys of Beechy, and the flag, or station staffs, we erected on shore for this purpose, around which numbers would gather, sorely perplexed them.

The principal town of Napa, containing about twenty thousand inhabitants, is located behind the rising beach, and can not be seen well from the shipping. Its kiang , or river, forms a harbor for junks from China, Japan, 115 and their coasting trade, and small boats only. The houses of the town which are low, are enclosed in walls of cyclopean masonry, built mostly without any cement, of coral rock. Over these the limbs of the banyan project, and they are mostly fringed on top by a growth of cactus. The entrances to their dwellings are from narrow alleys running from the streets, and concealed by an abrupt elbow turn, so unless you notice close, you will scarcely observe the doorway. The streets are narrow, and laid out like those of Peking, and unpaved, and the reception that we met with on walking them, was anything but sociable; not that the mass of the people, who, after getting a little over the trepidation which our unexpected arrival produced, were not inclined to be friendly, but because of the surveillance of their suspicious and jealous officials. On our approach the shops were closed, and the way in front entirely deserted, while as soon as you had passed, there was a great throng gazing at you from the rear. Those weaving in the open air with their rude looms seizing their children did flee. Old women, awfully ugly, with tattoed hands, hair piled on their heads like a greasy mop, invested with a single salt-sack-looking garment of exceeding brevity, if you came upon them would betake themselves to flight, leaving the sharks’ meat, or vegetables, which they might have for sale, in the market-place, or else bury their faces in their dirty bluish tattoed hands, and so remain until you had passed. We were forced to 116 conclude that our presence was as moving as that of Mr. Nicodemus in the Spectre Bridegroom; or else that an American naval officer, if he caused those old sycoraxes to shun him, must be ugly enough to scare a horse from his oats.

The origin of the married women tattoeing their hands, according to Loo-Chooan story literally rendered, is this: A husband going on a journey had an agreement with his wife for three years, but contrary to the agreement, ten years passed before his return. Her parents repeatedly proposed that she should change, and marry again, but she earnestly defended her chastity, saying, “A woman should not marry two husbands!” Still gainsaying, with blows they were forcing her to marry. She invented a stratagem—she painted her fingers with ink; she spoiled her beauty. Hence it must be, they say, that all women on marrying tattoe their hands.

In our walks we always had the unsolicited company of some government deputies. If you motioned them about anything, they were exceedingly addicted to salaaming, by bowing and raising their hands to their heads, but they remained exactly where they were. A rare and beautiful flower attracted your attention, and you wished to look closer at it, your attendant functionary pantomimically trusts that you will not enter, but passing through the gate, or scaling the coral wall, in a few minutes he will present you with one of the novel flowers. Should one of your company 117 accidentally or intentionally slip out of the sight of these impromptu attendants, they appear most mentally troubled till he reappears.

The policy pursued with these people was a mild but firm one. They were asked for a house on shore that might be used as a place for our sick to recruit. They declined; and a few days after one of our officers and some men occupied one of their buildings in the town of Tumai, divided from Napa by a small stream. This building had been used as a kind of town-hall, where the chiefs assembled in council, carried thither in sedan-chairs, encased in ratan lattices, and swung from a pole resting on the shoulders of two serfs. The honesty of the natives was shown in the security of clothes and everything else that might be left out; even a boat’s anchor lost, and found by them, was returned to this place, though they kept a spy upon its American inmates night and day. Here, while dining with the young officer in charge, I “tried on,” with some of the more intelligent natives, sentences in their language, from a vocabulary which had been prepared for him, and with which he had been able to negotiate for his daily supply of chow-chow, and eatables for some of the ships. “Cha tooti kwoo”—tea bring to me; and “Midzoo tooti kwoo”—water bring to me; and similar simple sentences they understood readily; but the attempt at more complicate ones, in which the vowel sound is dropped, rather awoke their risibles.

The authorities sent off protests against the further occupancy of the house at Tumai, and requested that we would vacate it. They stated it was the place they had for assembling; it was the only place they had for meeting together to debate their local affairs, and it was also the place where their young were taught. They also took the opportunity of mentioning that the fertility of their island was not equal to the wants of its population; and that every draft upon them for live-stock, &c., was an oppression. In this there was obvious dissimulation; because they sent away to other countries a good deal of the produce of their land, and a great deal as tribute, while we paid well for whatever we got. The commodore had notified them of his intention of going up to their capital, Sheudi, distant some four miles from the anchorage, to pay his respects to the prince-regent at the palace; they did not covet the honor; they trusted he would not confer it.

Not far from Tumai are a number of the native tombs, beautifully located on green hill-sides. They are large, built in the form of a horse-shoe, with a cemented dome fronted by a little court, into which you descend by a flight of stone steps, and are kept whitened with great assiduity by the surviving relatives. The most attractive and romantic spots are chosen for their location. Their reverence and care for the homes of the dead, may well put to the blush, 119 the wickedness of Christian communities who make streets through graves and graveyards.

In a grove of pines, at Tumai, not far from the landing-place, is a secluded spot, which appears to have been set aside for the interment of foreigners. Our ships buried some of our men and one officer there. As soon as the graves are closed the authorities cause them to be well built over, without charge, in a parallelogram, with coral rock and cement, leaving an inclination toward the feet that the rain may run off. Any inscription that the friends please, may either be imbedded in the masonry or erected at the head, which will be respected and preserved by the natives. On copper plates, tacked on wooden crosses at the end of some of these tombs, I read:—

“Wm. Hares, seaman in his Britannic majesty’s ship, ‘Alceste,’ aged 21 years, lies buried here, October 16th, 1816. This monument was erected by the king and inhabitants of this most hospitable island.”

“Vive Jesus: † vive sa croix: Ci-Git Calland (Pierre Juler), second chirurgien a bord de la corvette de Roi la Victoriense ; mort a bord le 16th Septembre, 1846.”

“Ci-Git Le Corps Du R’d Mathieu Adnet, Pêre Miss’re Apostolique, Fréres du Japon, Decedé le hier J’et, 1848.”

The Loo-Chooan manner of making salt is peculiar. They clear acres of ground in the vicinity of the water, and make it as level as possible. During the 120 extreme heat of the day men continue to throw into the air, that it may descend on this level space, ladles full of salt-water. Partial crystallization is thus produced, which unites with the sand under foot, which, being allowed to dry, is piled up aside, and afterward the saline matter is washed from it, filtered through straw into earthen vessels, and then evaporated by heat. On these level places our marine, and boat-howitzer divisions were usually landed for drilling purposes.

You see no wheeled vehicles on the island, and one in the shape of an ambulance-cart which the commodore had built, and once ashore there, is, no doubt, the first that a Loo-Chooan ever looked on. Small horses, with their untrimmed fetlocks, are the only means of conveyance from the junks to the interior, of whatever little merchandise they now consume. The load is placed on a rude saddle secured by girth and a crupper of rope enveloped in bamboo-rollers like strung necklace; and the bridle, with its head-stall of rope, has two small pieces of wood passing on either side of the nostrils of the horse, with a cord through them, by which he is controlled in place of a bit.

On the 6th of June, the commodore, with a suite of officers, determined on paying an official visit to the prince-regent, at his palace at Sheudi—a visit which the authorities had vainly endeavored to get indefinitely postponed. They did not understand 121 these attentions: stretching wide their hands, they said “America was a great nation; while Loo-Choo was no larger than the points of the fingers scarcely separated—what does America want with Loo-Choo?” The escort, when landed and formed at Tumai, consisted of two companies of marines in full dress—to whom, for some purpose or other, six rounds of ball-cartridges had been issued per man—two brass pieces and fixed ammunition, manned by sailors, and two full bands from the Susquehanna and Mississippi, while in front were three tall fellows carrying the American ensign. The rear was brought up by servants carrying some presents consisting of arms and calicoes sewed up in red cloth, and others with chow-chow baskets. The march was over a well-paved and graded road of coral rock. First we passed over a large terrace overhung by enormous banyan-trees, which fronted a very thick arched wall enclosing a temple and the tomb of some of the royal family. A tablet standing on a large pedestal near the step of this terrace, in native characters, warns the peasantry that when the sedan of any high functionary rests here, that the lower classes must take the road to the right. Sometimes we passed sugar-cane growing on one side of the road, and on the other ingeniously-irrigated paddy-fields were waving in green rice. The road then ascended by a grade of about seven degrees, quite a high ridge, from which the extended prospect of cultivation was very fine indeed. The sun came 122 down hot, though at times we walked under the shade of thick and pretty bamboo-hedges. The sight was a rare one to the peasantry; some, attracted by the music and the novelty of uniform, left their work in the fields and ran to the eminences on the roadside, then others were alarmed and bolted; one fellow I saw jump into a muddy stream, swim for it, and not look back until he stood on the other side.

We reached the street leading to the palace-grounds about twelve o’clock. This was a wide one of nicely-rolled gravel, and on either side were walls of much height and thickness, showing smooth and expensive masonry. In marching along this approach, we passed under three roofed and detached gateways, built at intervals across it. They had three distinct entrances, the widest being in the centre, over which a red sign, with Japanese characters in gilt, had this announcement: “This is a small island, but observes the rules of propriety; distinguished persons will pass through the centre opening, others will go through those at the sides.”

On arriving at the main gate of the palace, a number of the chiefs, in their yellow and red caps, were there to receive us. Leaving the escort outside, the commodore and suite of officers entered, and after passing through successive courts, and up stone steps alternately to the right and left, at a considerable elevation from the street, the party was ushered into the hall of audience. Here were a number of yellow 123 and red-capped chiefs assembled. Chairs and tables for each one of the guests were placed, and pipes, tea, and cakes, with lacquered chop-sticks, served. When the regent—quite an old man, with long, white beard—entered, with his councillors, he advanced and saluted the commodore half way, insisting on rank or equality. The interview was a short one; compliments were interchanged through Dr. Bettelheim and Mr. S. W. Williams of Canton, when the regent was invited aboard of the Susquehanna, when she should return to Napa, after a contemplated absence of twelve days. The presents were then left in the middle of the floor, and the visiting party retired. On reaching the street we were conducted to a large hall in another part of the ground, where a feast had been prepared for us, set out upon black lacquered tables. The first course consisted of soups, of which there were nearly a dozen different kinds furnished in succession, in small cup-bowls, with porcelain spoons. There was nearly every kind from egg-soup to “bird’s-nest.” The solids were pleasant to the taste but rather suspicious in appearance, among which were slices of hard-boiled eggs, so colored as to resemble sections of the uncooked tomato. Finding that we were not able to make any progress with the black lacquered chop-sticks which had been distributed at each one’s place, they furnished us with little sharpened pieces of oak, with the aid of which we did full justice to our hosts.

After strange-looking cakes had been brought, tea removed, and pipes handed, very small porcelain cups were placed, and our honorable red-cap attendants, who according to their custom, wait themselves upon their guests, kept them continually filled with SAKI from silver vessels shaped like tea-pots. This was the first taste we had of this colorless, celebrated Japanese national beverage. It was pleasant to the taste, and yet the after-math was not; it had some of the goût of champagne, and then it was turnipy. Buckingham might be on the seas, and then the seas might be on him; but a man could scarcely be considered “in his cups” though a hundred cups were in him of saki . Nor could he exclaim with Falstaff that the villain had put lime in his “sack,” (did Shakespeare know Japanese?)—because the thimble-sized tankard would not admit of it.

The commodore, through the interpreter, toasted the queen and young prince, and hoped Loo-Chooan man and American man would always be friends. The chiefs of course salaamed considerably to this sentiment, but I am quite dubious whether they did not regard it as an indication of closer proximity with these Americans, who might disturb at a future day the nolli me tangere doctrines of their country.

The feast over, the column of escort was again formed, and making the march down to Tumai, in less time than up to Sheudi, by four o’clock, all were aboard of their respective ships.

No more beautiful place than Sheudi, so far as verdure, elevated situation, and attractive foliage, is concerned. Our officers took many a tramp up there, and always with pleasure. At cool springs well cared for they could slake their thirst; under enormous trees they could pic-nic or siesta if they chose, and afterward bathe in a walled lake all covered over with trees. What would the palace-grounds, the Komooe of Sheudi, be worth in this country?—no more baronial domain in England. Should you have gone unprovided with chow-chow on these excursions, stop at a roadside Kunkwa , usually adjoining some place of worship, and the occupants will promptly give you tea and cakes, and the examination of your strange costume, and sage queries about your ship, is their reward for their entertainment. If it should rain during your walk, request one of your unbidden native officer associates to procure a papyrus parasol.

There are many things to interest an antiquarian taste, and provoke conjecture, about Loo-Choo. At Napa there are stone-statues, eight feet high, quite well executed, of their “far-seeing God”—there are causeways of stone, breakwaters, forts constructed with good engineering, and well designed and located for defence, though now entirely disarmed; and you pass over well-arched bridges, with neatly-cut stone balustrading, and in fine state of preservation. The palace at Sheudi is a perfect fortress in wall and situation, and in determined hands would laugh 126 at a siege of many days. When were these built?—when were these forts disarmed? As Basil Hall told Napoleon at St. Helena, in speaking of this island, there are point de fusils there now. The invocation of the Ethiopic song, “Rise, old Napa , rise!” would be now of no avail.

Although a line of steamers from our Pacific coast to Shanghae, China, on the arc of a great circle, would come nowhere nigh the group known as the Bonin islands to the northeast of Loo-Choo, yet the commodore still deemed it best to make a hasty reconnoissance of the harbor of Port Lloyd, which had been surveyed some years ago by the English, who claim sovereignty over Peel island by right of possession, though it can be proven that it was first permanently settled by an American, or one owing allegiance to our country; but as the whole policy of our government has been opposed to foreign colonial possession, there is scarcely any chance of there being any dispute about it. Mr. English, under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, may make himself comfortable.

On the 9th of June the Susquehanna, with the sloop-of-war Saratoga in tow, took their departure, leaving the Mississippi, and storeship Supply in the harbor. A few days afterward the Plymouth arrived from north China, bringing us papers containing an account of the presidential inauguration.

The Susquehanna and the Saratoga reached Peel 127 island, after a pleasant passage, on the 14th. After a stay there of four days, during which the commodore sent parties of officers to explore the island, put a quantity of live stock ashore in the custody of some American residents at Port Lloyd, and also purchased an eligible lot for the government, should it ever hereafter be required, for a coal depot, the ships returned to Napa, bringing with them fish and turtle. They ascertained that some twenty whalers had stopped at the island during the year for refreshments. A parcel of long-nosed porkers turned loose by ships passing, can only be reached by the aid of the rifle; but some of the officers who took a crack at them, facetiously spoke in their letters to the United States of their hunting the wild boar .

Von Siebold, in his history of the discoveries in the Japan seas, says the Bonin islands were first put down on a map published by the Dutch hydrographer, Ortelius, in 1570, and are reported as having been discovered in 1543, by Bernardo de Torres, who named them Malonbrigo de los Hermanos. They were visited in 1595 by Captain Linschaten, of the Dutch East India Company, and are on the map by Hondries in 1634. A few years after they were visited by Captains Quast and Tasman of the same company, who were in search of the Gen and Ken, or Gold and Silver islands. These navigators determined their position with admirable accuracy. Mention is made of them by Vris and Schaef, of the Dutch 128 East India Company in 1643. In 1650 on the map of Jansomous, and in 1680 by Van Kenlen. By later authorities they are omitted, and reappear on charts in the following century as discovered by the Spanish Admiral Cabrera Bueno, and are called Islas del Arzobispo.

The Japanese history in the book San-kok-tou-ran-to-sito, mentions these islands as discovered between 1592 and 1595. In 1675 a Japan exploring expedition, specially authorized by the emperor, sailed from Simoda, then an imperial and customhouse port, for the Bonin islands. They were named by the Japanese the Munin Sima, and reported as fit to be settled, and the importance of doing so was urged. The Japanese counted more than eighty small rock islands. In 1826 they were visited by an American whaler, Captain Coffin; in 1827, by the Russian admiral, Lutke; and in 1828, by Capt. Beechy of the English navy. The inhabitants at Port Lloyd, on Peel island, are about forty in number; on the Bailey or Coffin group, there are living two families. Nearly all these people are runaway sailors from whale-ships, who have obtained wives from the Kanakas of the Sandwich islands, and so far as their nationality is concerned, the Americans predominate. The oldest settler at Port Lloyd is Nathaniel Savary, who acts as mayor of the place, and carries out their self-made laws and regulations with the assistance of two elders elected by a majority.

As long as the Dutch held their fort Zeelandia, on Formosa, its position and possession gave them great advantages in the eyes of the Japanese, but its capture, after a prolonged siege, by the Chinese pirate chief Coshinga, had a very injurious effect with the Japanese, diminishing their prestige and weakening belief in their naval supremacy. It is quite desirable to know the future prospects of the Bonin islands. The adventitious aid of their possession would prove of great advantage in a trade with Japan, being only a distance of two days’ steaming from Yedo.

On the 2d of July the squadron got under way for the bay of Yedo, Japan, the “Susquehanna” towing the “Saratoga,” and the “Mississippi” towing the “Plymouth.” The storeship “Supply” was left at the anchorage, no doubt greatly to the regret of the natives, who, gazing from the beach on our departure, hoped that they would not see us again.

We rounded the southern end of the island with a heavy swell on, the southwest monsoon prevailing at the time, and were soon heading up the Pacific.

Our patriotic remembrance of the return of our great national anniversary was ahead of the people of our own native land; or is it the “Fourth of July” to an American, until the sun of that day has illumined forest, stream, and home, in his own country? At mid-day then of our “Fourth,” when it was yet but eleven o’clock at night of the third, in the United States the large old steamers, and the sailing-vessels in their 130 tow, going dead to windward, dressed with our national ensigns, in latitude 28° 36′ north, and longitude 130° 42′ east, running nearly abreast, fired seventeen guns each, in honor of the day; and the “main-brace” being ordered to be spliced, “Jack” had the opportunity of remembering it in a tot of grog.

The next day, by signal from flag-ship, anchor-buoys were ordered to be made of empty casks, the men were exercised with small arms at target-firing, and ship’s company exercised at general and fire quarters, previous to arriving at our port of destination.

A believer in omens would have had an opportunity of indulging his credulity, and interpreting, if he could, the meaning of a remarkable meteor which shot athwart the sky on the morning of the 6th of July, and was visible from the decks of the ships, when in two days’ run of the bay of Yedo. It appeared as large in circumference as the crown of a man’s hat. Its body was of the brilliancy and color of molten iron, and glowed as if heated by incandescence, emitting all the while sparks which trailed backward in its passage, like barbs of arrows. Its tail was of a bluish transparency, which extended into an emerald-green hue, terminating in a fiery, smoky bulb, resembling the flame of burning tar. When first noticed, it seemed to shoot upward from a line on a level with our quarter-hammock netting, in the southwest, and 131 so near did it appear to the ship, that for an instant it was imagined to be a rocket from the sloop-of-war Plymouth—at the time in tow of us—and designed to attract our attention. In its passage through the heavens, which occupied the time in which one might count thirty, it described a parabolic curve, illuminating as it went our hurricane-deck and wheel-houses with astonishing clearness, and on reaching a point nearly due north, occupied by a bank of dull roseate cloud, it burst like a rocket and disappeared, leaving those who had the good fortune to see it uttering exclamations of admiration and wonderment, and a rather credulous corporal of marines who happened to be going his rounds at the time, willing to take his “corporal” oath that the brilliant body started within a few yards of our rail. The heat of the day preceding was very great.

Next day, being near the insular empire, target practice was continued; old cartridges drawn, guns loaded and shotted, and preparations made for removing the forward-rail for the clear working of our bow-guns.

CHAPTER VIII.

When day broke on the morning of the 8th July we got our first sight of the “ terra incognita ”—the hermetic land—the land which had been invaded but never conquered—hence called the “virgin empire.” The high, bold shores of Japan were before us—the “kingdom of the origin of the sun.”

Japan has been continually spoken of as the unknown land. It is difficult to see with what correctness this designation should have been given it, unless those countries only are known upon which the physical eye of some numbers may have rested. Taking the extant information at command, it can very properly be said, with Macfarlane, that we “know more of the Japanese than we knew of the Turks a hundred years ago;” and he might have added, than other nations knew of America, though discovered half a century earlier than Japan.

The works on the country are numerous; among them those of the Jesuits, and the German and Swedish medical officers of the Dutch prison factory at Dezima. The printed data of the former, and the 133 archives of the Jesuit headquarters at Rome and at other places, could furnish the earliest and most thorough information. “ Les Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses ,” or the pages of Charlevoix, which tell of the labors of the Jesuit pioneer missionary in Japan, Francis Xavier,—make it anything but an unknown land.

Then there are the books, whose size might well deter the stoutest, but whose pages would well repay the industrious search of the inquirer—the product of the close observation and assiduous notation of Kœmpfer, 1 Thunberg, Siebold; and the Dezima Opperhoofds—Titsinghe, Doeff, Meylan, and Warehouse Master Fischer, in lesser size; the quaint accounts of old William Adams, pilot, and Captain Saris, Englishmen; the work of the Russian Golownin, as far as he could gather information, while undergoing his hard but perhaps justly retributive imprisonment in Matsmai; the works of Sir Stamford Raffles; Reports 134 of the East India Company; the pages of the Asiatic Journal, &c.

With such sources of information as these, it would be a piece of affectation to suppose the majority of the reading community without some knowledge of the early and past history of Japan; but for such as may possibly have not given it any attention, it may be well to give a hurried glance at the early history of the country, as derived from compilations of the before-cited authorities, and also down to the condition of the empire at the time of our visit—which is to be found in a fine synoptical article which appeared some time since in a foreign Quarterly Review—without further acknowledgment.

Well, then, to begin with the mythological. As the Japanese have it, their origin was superhuman, and their primitive history is in this wise: From primeval chaos arose a self-created supreme God, throned in the highest heaven, to whom, with some brevity, is given the name, Ameno-mi-naka-nusimo-kami . What then existed of a universe was governed by seven celestial gods who next arose. The last of these, not admiring the celibacy of his predecessors, with whom the goddesses had dwelt as sisters, took unto himself a wife. The marital state, it appears, had the effect of awakening his latent energy, and one day he said to his spouse: 135 “There should be somewhere a habitable earth; let us seek it under the waters that are boiling beneath us.”

Like Ithuriel, he possessed a spear, and thrusting it into the waters he then withdrew it. The drops which fell from the spear—which, perhaps, was weeping the puncture which he had given the aqueous element—like the tears of Niobe, became solidified, and thus came into existence the present insulated empire.

Others, however, not having the fear of Japanese gods before their eyes, have a perverseness in the belief, that the receding waters of the deluge left bare Japan, or that it may have been since upheaved by volcanic action from the mighty deep.

The Adam of Japan was Ten Sio Dai Dsin . From him sprang the nation; though Syn Mou is represented as the founder of the empire. The physical conformation of the Japanese indicates their Mongolian origin.

The geography of the Japanese kingdom is included in a string of islands on the northeast coast of Asia, not far distant from the main land, commencing with the Kurile islands, a portion of which the empire exercises sovereignty over, and extending to the straits of Van Diemen on the south. The islands and uninhabited rocks are said to comprise three thousand eight hundred and fifty; but Japan of the present day is understood to include Yezo, Niphon, Kew Sew, and Sikok; among which the principal is Niphon, Nipon, Zipon, Zipango, or Cipango, by which names it has been called indifferently. It was for “Cipango” that 136 Columbus sailed from Palos, and from the masthead of the “Pinto” the western world was first descried in 1492. Exactly fifty years afterward, Pinto , a Portuguese first descried “Cipango,”—“the kingdom of the origin of the sun.”

The authentic history of Japan commences in 660, B. C., with the first mortal ruler, surnamed the “Divine Conqueror.” In Niphon he built him a dairi , or temple-palace dedicated to the sun goddess. From him all the mikados , or sovereigns, claim to descend.

These self-styled divine rulers, from ceasing to command their armies, and intrusting military commands to kinsmen and others, came to abdicating so early, that the heirs of their power were still mere infants. These infants fell into the custody of others, who loved them about as well as the Duke of Gloster did those of his brothers he had conveyed to the Tower; and so the partisans of the legitimate descent, and of usurpers, immersed the kingdom in a civil war. In favor of the authority of an infant mikado , then threatened, came forth, a champion named Yoritomo, who saved the throne, by his efforts, for the imperiled juvenile sovereign, and for this service the regent allowed the real power to remain in the hands of Yoritomo, under the title of sio-i-dai-ziogoon , or “generalissimo fighting against the barbarians.” Very soon these ziogoons, from generalissimos fighting against barbarians, became generalissimos fighting against mikados. They became tenants of power 137 by will, not by courtesy; they saved the spiritual head from overthrow, but they retained his temporal kingdom for themselves; their offices of trust became offices of power, and hereditarily so; and from Buddhist nunneries widows were even called to govern for infant ziogoons. The spiritual emperor soon became impotent in the hands of the military emperor, and the dual government gradually dwindled until the accession of the plebeian—the self-made, the Napoleon of Japan—Taico Sama, to the ziogoonship, who died in 1598, at the age of sixty-three, after having subdued Corea , curtailed the power of the princes, abolished the feudal system, and made the mikado , a mikado “about nothing!”

It would, no doubt, be now entirely true to say, that the sceptre wrenched from the mikado by the ziogoon, has in turn been wrested from the ziogoon by a council of state, and the supreme authority of Japan is now exercised by the president of the council, though the emperor is the John Doe in whose name he speaks.

Kublai-khan, when he ascended the Mongol throne, determined upon an invasion of the Japanese empire from his dependency of Kaou-le. The better to pave the way for this proceeding, he sent an embassador with the following letter to Japan:—

“I am the prince of a formerly small state, to which 138 the adjacent lands have united themselves, and my endeavor is to make inviolable truth and friendship reign among us. What is more, my ancestors have, in virtue of their splendid warrant from Heaven, taken possessions of Hia dominions. The number of the distant countries, of the remote cities, that fear our power and love our virtue, passes computation. When I ascended the throne, the harmless people of Kaou-le were suffering under the calamities of war. I immediately ordered a cessation of hostilities, recalling the troops from beyond the frontiers to the encampment of their colors. The prince of Kaou-le and his subjects appeared at my court to give me thanks, and I treated them kindly, as a father treats his children. So I intend that your servants shall be treated. Kaou-le is my eastern frontier; Niphon lies near, and has from the beginning held intercourse with the central empire. But during my reign, not a single envoy has appeared to open a friendly intercourse with me. I apprehend that the state of things is not, as yet, well known in your country, whereupon I send envoys, with a letter, to make you acquainted with my views, and I hope we may understand each other. Already philosophers desire to see the whole world form one family. But how may this one-family principle be carried into effect, if friendly intercourse subsist not between the parties? I am resolved to call this principle into existence, even should I be obliged to do so by force 139 of arms. It is now the business of the wang of Niphon to decide what course is most agreeable to him.”

A contemptuous silence was the only answer that the Japanese returned to this demand. The ziogoon went immediately to work to put their coasts in a state of defence, while the mikado had stated prayers offered up.

The invaders, a hundred thousand strong, came as “the winds come when forests are rended,” and by the winds, as they came, their “navies were stranded.” The necks of those who escaped from shipwreck were severed by the Japanese blades, and three alone were spared to bear back to their country and the summer-state lord of Xanadu, the tale of disaster, and the fate of his armada. This was in October of the year 1280.

Of the advent of the Jesuits in Japan, three hundred years afterward, and the simultaneous commencement of commercial intercourse by the Portuguese; the butchery of the Christians at Simbara, (which, to their eternal infamy be it said, was assisted by the Dutch,) and the expulsion of the Portuguese; of the subsequent and continued intercourse of the Dutch; and the repulse of other Europeans and Americans, at later times, in their attempt to open a trade, down to 1837, there is no room to speak in these pages. In the introduction to the “Voyages of the Morrison and Himmaleh,” by C. W. King, the 140 first of which ships was fired upon and driven from Japan in 1837, the history of foreign intercourse is given in a succinct form; or more elaborately in book i. of Macfarlane.

The population of Japan has been both over and under estimated; absurdly by the Russian captain Golownin, who estimated that of Yedo alone, from what he heard, at eight millions. It can be but intelligent speculation after all; and is no doubt most accurately stated when it is put down as somewhat exceeding that of Great Britain. The best information I could gain, as to the population of the city of Yedo, on the occasion of the Mississippi’s third and last visit to Japan, was that it numbered between fifteen and sixteen hundred thousand.

I can not better close this hurried chapter than by giving short extracts from two prominent English writers, published before our sailing from the United States, and containing their speculations and reflections, which it is well to contrast subsequently, with the result of the American expedition.

“In every case we earnestly hope that the American expedition may be conducted with firmness, but also with prudence and gentleness. Should our very enterprising and energetic brethren begin with a too free use of bowie-knives and Colt’s revolvers, the history of their mission will all be written in characters of blood; slaughters and atrocities will be committed, and an interesting people will be plunged back into complete barbarity. Though unable to contend in the field even with a small disciplined force well provided with artillery, and good artillerymen, the Japanese, if we are correctly informed as to their character, will brave death and die in heaps. We would not make any positive assertion, but we apprehend the Americans will find that little or nothing can be done by negotiation. Should force be resorted to, the best means of proceeding would probably be to take possession of one of the smaller islands, or of some peninsular or promontory that might be easily fortified on the land side. A line of intrenchments sufficiently strong to keep off any native force, might soon be made, and easily strengthened afterward. On this strong basis negotiation might probably be carried on with a better chance of success.”

“Strange and singular as everything we have heard about Japan undoubtedly is, nothing is so strange or so singular as the determination of the inhabitants to resist all intercourse with their fellow-creatures, except it be the fact that they have been able to act upon the resolution with effect during two centuries. It is this consideration which sheds a tinge of romance about the operations of the American squadron. The attack upon Japan is more than an expedition, it is an adventure. In the midst of the all-absorbing prose of the every-day world we 142 suddenly feel as if we were at once transported to the domain of Ariosto and knight-errantry. The founders of the system did ill to enlist against their cause the principle of curiosity, the most constant and powerful impulse of frail humanity. Let the plainest woman in the three kingdoms cover her face with a thick brown veil, and appear to shun observation and she will soon be followed by an inquisitive crowd. The flavor of forbidden fruit has smacked racily on mortal lips from the days of Eve downward. Be the impulse right or wrong it exists, and as it will most surely be acted on, it must not be ignored. The affair, however, is one of far too vital importance to be treated in a light or jesting spirit, for we have every reason to suppose, and to fear, that the resistance of the Japanese to the invaders will be of the most determined character. Great bloodshed and great misery will probably precede the opening up of Japan. However necessary, and however justifiable such a step may be, we are not of those who can contemplate the slaughter of a gallant people, however mistaken their cause, without a pang of regret.”

CHAPTER IX.

Before reaching the bay of Yedo, sounding-spars had been rigged out from the end of the bowsprit of each steamer, from which depended sounding-leads, that were kept constantly going as well as the leadsmen in the “chains.” As previous knowledge of the water was rather defective, the ships proceeded in with caution. The sweep of the bay is a noble one, as you approach, and the morning being a clear and lovely one, every object, from the strange-looking crafts coming continually in sight, to the summits of the high shores, and bold bluffs, were sharply defined. Then too, simultaneously with our first sight of the nolli me tangere , we got our first sight of the mountain of Japan— Foogee Yama .

Perhaps the incidents which transpired during our first short visit to Japan, can be better conveyed by giving them as jotted down at the time.

July 8. —Ship cleared for action; fore and bow-rails and iron stancheons taken down and stowed away; ports let down, guns run out into position and shotted. Flag-ship made signal, 144 “Have no communication with shore; allow none from shore.” Nine o’clock—standing up the outer bay of Yedo; a number of Japanese junks in sight. Smaller boats, in considerable numbers, making for the ships, and crossing their bows; but the sight of the revolving-wheels makes them haul up, and they give us a wide berth as we hold our way past them. To those in the boats who never before saw a steamship, particularly two large war-steamers, towing sloops-of-war through the water at a fast rate, how wonderful must be the sight! As the ships approached the town of Uragawa, or Uraga (about three o’clock), a fort, situated on a high hill, sent up a shell high into the air; and in a little while after we heard the explosion of another. As they did not appear to be aimed at us, but probably intended as signals, or to warn us not to come to anchor in their bay, we kept on. A few moments after stopping our wheels, long sharp-built boats of pine, fastened with copper, and ornamented at the prow with a black tassel, that had not been previously observed under the shadow of a high bluff, swarmed off under oar and sail, and surrounded the ships. They were all fully manned with men in uniform, and an old chap leaned over a rail in the stern. One of the boats that reached us first, contained a mandarin with two swords, who shook a letter at us, and then attempted to board us on the port bow, but the presentation of a loaded musket, by a sentinel, made him think a little while about it. He 145 became much enraged, turned almost white with anger, his crew keeping up the while an awful pow-wow and noise; and, with them, he tries to board again, where our rail was down, but a division of pikes staring them in the face, and a steamer’s wheels kept revolving (rather ugly things for a boat to get under), made them adjourn their determination. Drifting aft to our port-gangway and finding the prospect no better, he put off for shore, pointing to, and motioning that we must not let go our anchor, drawing and sheathing his swords, and holding up a letter. (One of these letters was thrown aboard of the Plymouth, written in French and Dutch, warning us, if we anchored there, we did it at our “peril.”) But our ships went in under their guns and let go their anchors, forming a line broadside to shore, as previously ordered by diagram from Commodore Perry. Boats continued to circle around us, the occupants of some of them appearing to be making drawings of us, but they took care to keep at a respectable distance. In the evening, the lieutenant-governor of the province, Kayama Yesaimon, came off in a boat with streamers, and his rank being announced, he was allowed to come on board the flag-ship. The commodore would not receive him, but turned him over to his flag-lieutenant. In the meantime they commenced the formation of a cordon of boats around the ships. The Japanese functionary was first asked why this was being done. He said it was Japanese “custom.” He 146 was at once told that it was an American “custom” not to allow any such thing; that these boats must be sent away, not only from the flag, but the other ships; and if not away in fifteen minutes, they would be fired into. The boats left for shore. The governor wished to know what these ships had come there for. He was told that our commodore had a letter from our chief magistrate to his emperor. He said that their laws would only allow them to receive the letter at Nangasaki; that he would inform the authorities at Yedo of the arrival of the ships and of the letter; and that it would be four days before any answer could be received. The commodore directed it to be told him that he would wait three days and a half, and if, at the end of that time, there was not some one to receive our president’s letter, that with five hundred men he would land, and deliver the letter himself. The governor then went ashore. In the evening the steam-chimney was ordered to be kept protected; no coal to be taken from the bunkers so as to expose the engines; steam to be kept up, and every suitable person on board ship directed to stand strict guard during the night, armed with cutlass, carbine, &c., and blue and red signal lights agreed upon between the ships, to be hoisted upon the appearance of any burning junks sent down upon us, or other danger during the night.

July 9. —Still at anchor off the harbor and town of Uraga, each ship with springs on her cable. 147 Uraga is the seaport of Yedo, and said to contain twenty thousand inhabitants. Innumerable junks, with white-laced sails, have been continually arriving and departing since we have been here, having to be examined by officers of the customs, both going up and coming down. We can only see a portion of the town, the remainder being shut in by the narrow entrance to its harbor. During my mid-watch, last night, the Japanese ashore were striking, at intervals, a sweet and deep-toned bell, probably as a tocsin; while from the stern of each of the immense number of boats, anchored side by side, in shore, shone bright lights through lanterns of every color, making one long necklace of light, in front of the town of Humai, situated in the midst of forts and water-batteries. At sunrise, through a spy-glass could be discerned a number of fortifications along shore, extending up to a point which marks the entrance to the inner bay. There was also visible a number of long striped-cloth curtains, containing armorial figures of the different princes of the empire, the encampment of whose soldiers they are designed to mark out. The soldiers, like those previously seen in the boats, wear loose sacks of red, green, or blue, unconfined in front, and having in white on their backs the insignia of the prince whom they serve. There was a great deal of marching and countermarching, with gay banners, &c., between the different forts. The calibre of the guns in the embrasures, could not be made out, 148 being kept under cover, or, as the sailors say, in “petticoats.” On a very well-designed fort, circular in plan, intended to protect the entrance to the harbor of Uraga, were a number of the natives at work. About nine o’clock, boats well-armed were sent from each ship, with lead-lines, to ascertain the depth of water between the ships and the shore. These boats pulled as high as the upper fort, where the uppermost one was surrounded by Japanese guard-boats, who ordered them back, but did not attempt anything else, some of our oars being trailed, and the curtains over the muskets raised up for their edification. Our boats paid no further attention to them, but continued to stand in and pull close down the shore, getting soundings as they went, and at the same time making a rather bold reconnoissance of their guns and forts, who did not fire upon them, as many watching from the ships, at one time thought they would do.

July 10 — Sunday .—A number of boats came off and rowed around the ship; troops, apparently, collecting on shore. Japanese at work on a fort just opposite to us. Weather clear. The steep shores, well-wooded, looking fine as they are brightened by the sun-light. Evening—A whale blowed not far from the ship. Foogee Yama obscured by cloud. During the day, the capstan having been dressed as usual, and books distributed, the chaplain gave out the hymn, commencing commencing—

and with the aid of many of the fine voices of the crew, and the assistance of the bass instruments of the band, in sight of heathen temples, and, perhaps, in the hearing of their worshippers, swelled up “Old Hundred” like a deep diapason of old ocean.

July 11. —By order of the commodore, the Mississippi was ordered to get under way, and stood up the straits, following slowly after our boats sent to sound the inner bay, to ascertain the practicability of reaching the capital, our present anchorage being twenty-five miles from the city of Yedo. Passed close in under the chief fort, on the point beyond which no “barbarian” ship had ever been permitted to go. Fort did not fire. On debouching we entered a magnificent bay, of great extent, bounded on its western side by picturesque slopes, bold bluffs, with here and there a village between them, deeply indented coves, and a well-wooded island, crowned with a three-gun battery, which on our survey chart was called “Perry island.” Our boats continued to sound ahead during the day, the Japanese guard-boats enveloping them and attempting to impede their progress by getting across their track, but attempted nothing further. Two little brass howitzers, on each of our forward guards, loaded with grape and cannister, would probably have caused some dancing among them if they had. On the east of us, on a long low sand beach, through a spy-glass could be seen an encampment of Japanese troops, near a breast 150 work, dressed in black figured clothes, and surmounted with banners. This was probably an “army of observation.” We continued to hold our way up the bay until a late hour, as far as a high bluff of clay-stone, which was named “Mississippi bluff,” as a token that it was nearer to the palace of the ziogoon of Japan than any foreign ship had ventured to go before. Our boats were then taken in tow, and we started on our return to the anchorage we had left in the morning. A two-sworded mandarin attempted to make his boat fast to one of our boats astern, that he might get a tow back, and I was surprised to hear him ask in English, “Are you going back?” The sailors in the boats were ordered to cut his line if he made fast to them. He was much angered as our wheels left him in the distance. We regarded his proposition for a tow, as cool as a fellow who would play spy on you all day, and then ask you to take him home in a carriage at night. On our way back we passed through a flotilla of their boats, when our chief engineer opened our steam-whistle. Never were human beings more astounded, when the unearthly noise reached their ears, the fellows at the sculls dropped their oars and stood aghast. To all of the day’s doings the inhabitants of the different towns, and the troops strung along shore, have been constant and watchful observers. They could not understand what our movements meant. Jonathan’s boldness had dumbfounded them.

July 12. —Governor of Uraga came aboard and urged Nangasaki as the proper place at which Japan could receive foreign communications. Commodore Perry replied that his government had sent him to Yedo , and that he would go nowhere else to deliver his letter. The Japanese officials then pretended to hold a conference ashore, and afterward brought off word that they would receive the letter at a point which they would make known. It was afterward arranged that the reception of the letter was to be by a high officer, sent from the capital for the especial purpose; the place, a bay below the town of Uraga, and that it would take two days for them to get up a building for the ceremony. They said they had selected this spot for its privacy, that their rabble population might not be present; and as the whole thing was without precedent with them, and against their laws;—also, probably, because they did not wish us to get a sight of their towns, or a nearer view of their forts. The governor and his two interpreters at this interview remained aboard some time, and were very observant of everything, and evinced more information than could have been expected. The engine-room astonished them, though with Japanese self-possession they concealed much. They laughed, and were untiring in their attention to cherry brandy. On being shown a daguerreotype, they immediately called its name. On a globe they pointed out Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, &c.; gave 152 the boundaries of Mexico, and said our country had a part of Mexico; if our mission was a peaceful one, why did we have four ships-of-war to bring one letter? (Commodore told them that it was a greater compliment to their emperor—probably!) Wished to know why the steam-vessel “Mississippi” went up the inner bay so far? It was replied that the commodore had more ships in these waters, and if they should render it necessary that they would all come with him, the next time he came; he desired an anchorage less exposed than the one we were then lying at.

July 13. —Some little suspicion of treachery ashore; much conference going on among chief mandarins. Boats were sent from the ships to go and sound off the mouth of the appointed place, to see whether any of the ships could get in sufficiently near to cover and protect the landing of the boats; orders issued prescribing who were to compose the landing party; some will have to stay on board the ships; poor fellows! Bad day for Japanese to-morrow, if they attempt with us the treacherous game that they played upon Golownin:—

July 14. —Bright and beautiful day. Much activity and preparation for the landing; boats being lowered away, percussion-caps distributed, and twenty rounds of ball-cartridges delivered to each man; of 153 ficers rigging in undress uniforms, and arming mostly with cutlasses and Colt’s six-shooters. Quartermasters fastening American ensigns on pikes. General orders received early in the morning. The Susquehanna and Mississippi will anchor in the position assigned them. The Plymouth will retain her present position, and the Saratoga to get into her berth if possible, but not to get out of range of the forts and town. The ships will watch the proceedings on shore, having their guns primed and pointed, and their remaining boats alongside, with arms in them, ready in a moment to shove ashore, if the commanding officers think there is need of them. The boats which carry the officers, sailors, and marines on shore, are all to have anchors, and after landing their respective crews, are to haul off about fifty feet from shore and anchor, keeping their men at their arms and watching the proceedings on shore, and if they are called on shore the officers of the boats will land with all but two men, who are to be left as boat-keepers; bread and water in the boats. At daybreak the Susquehanna and Mississippi steam-frigates tripped their anchors, dropped down, and anchored immediately across the entrance of the bay where we were to land, to protect and cover the landing, having springs on their cables, that their broadside of guns might be trained on the shore. The sloop-of-war Plymouth commanded the town of Uraga, and the Saratoga, that of Humai, and the forts surrounding it. At nine o’clock, our boats 154 armed and manned, went alongside of the flag-ship, where were the boats of the Saratoga and Plymouth. After some delay the boats moved ashore. The captain of the Susquehanna and officers, leading; Captain Walker of the Saratoga and officers next, then the Mississippi’s boats, in the first of which I was, under Lieutenant Taylor. Following in line came the remaining boats of all the ships, with sailors, marines, two bands, &c.

The place selected by the Japanese for the delivery of the letter, was a bay of some mile and a quarter in depth, surrounded by an amphitheatre of bold hills, its entrance being narrow, and defended by forts on either side. At the head of this bay, following the line of a crescent beach of black and white sand, ankle-deep, is the town of Gorihama. In the distance, with its veil of blue, and patches of snow, towering up fifteen thousand feet, shone the extinct volcano of Foogee. The boats, as they pulled in, presented a fine sight; the “flower-flag,” as the Chinese call it, waving gracefully from the stern of each boat; the bright muskets shining in the sun, and the epaulettes glistening. The landing was done in fine order, and with great promptitude, under the command of Major Zeilen, of the marine corps. Each man, as the boat touched the beach, jumped ashore, and took his proper place in line, which, when formed, presented a bold front, notwithstanding officers and men all told, it scarcely exceeded four hundred men; and 155 encircling them a few paces in rear, and as far as one could see, on either hand, in horse-shoe form, were Japanese troops, who had been collected there for the occasion, armed with spears and bows, long bayonet brass-mounted muskets, and matchlocks, with ready fuses, coiled on their right arms. In their front, equi-distant, sat their officers on stools, armed with two swords. Near by, not very large, were a number of horses richly caparisoned about the head, and with gaudy housings, belonging to the officers. Extending all around were canvass curtains supported by stakes driven in the ground, with different insignias painted on the front, and festooned with blue cords and tassels; at the termination of each one floated the colored flag of each particular prince, whose men were present. The shining and gilded lacquered broadbrims of the Japanese; the varied costumes, brilliant colors, flapping flags, and curtain enclosures, all overhung by a dense green of trees, as the eye took them in, made one think that he had come to be a spectator of some joust or tourney. The Japanese say they had five thousand men present, but I hardly think there were as many, unless some were hid in the town, whose houses in our direction were concealed behind temporary walls of thatching straw.

A salute of thirteen guns from the flag-ship, which caused some little stir among the Japanese troops, who did not seem exactly to understand it, announced that the commodore and his immediate suite had left, in his 156 barge, for shore. In a little while he landed on a small jutty, made of rice-straw and sand, passing through a street formed of his own officers, to his place in line, when the squadron band struck up “Hail Columbia” in a style, and with a force that made the Japanese open their ears (they may have to listen to it again), and the hills around sent each note of “Hail Columbia” back again. “Hail Columbia” never sounded better. The column of escort with the marines in front, a stalwart sailor with the broad pennant; commodore and staff; suite of officers; boxes containing president’s letter, &c.; two men over six feet high, each, with pikes upon which American ensigns were fastened, with revolving rifles slung across their shoulders; sailors with bronzed muskets; Mississippi’s band, &c.; and marines then marched to the building for the ceremony; shown the way by two Japanese officials. The sailors were in blue trousers and white frocks, prettily bisected with the slings of their cartridge boxes, and wore blue cloth caps, with bands of red, white, and blue, ornamented with thirteen stars in white. The marines were in full uniform. The room of ceremony was reached by passing through a small canopied court; enclosed with primitive landscape screens, the floor of which was covered with matting. The place of audience was a room in a thatched building, limited in space, and entirely open in the direction of the court, ornamented with gauze curtains as drapery. 157 At the back of the room were representations of shrubbery, and of cranes wheeling in flight over it, while on the two remaining sides, were hung large blue flags, having in the centre one large and eight smaller satellite representations. Overhead you looked up to thatching, and each rafter was marked with Japanese characters, as if the building had been originally constructed at some other place, probably at Yedo, and sent down for erection. On the left of the room as you entered by ascending one step, was seated the chief Japanese functionary, appointed by the emperor to receive the president’s letter, the prince of Idzoo; beside him was the prince of the province of Iwami; behind him quite a number of two-sworded mandarins. The chief man was attired in a maroon silk robe, with an over-garment of red, blue cloth socks, with places left for the great toe. On the back of the red over-garment, were figures worked in white, some resembling cornucopias. His suite were attired in the same manner with slight exceptions. On the other side of the room were placed ornamental chairs, with well-designed arm-rests, in which were seated Commodore Perry and suite.

Dr. Williams, of Canton, was present as interpreter of the Japanese language; although his services were not called into requisition. Mr. A. L. C. Portman, the commodore’s clerk, as it was most agreeable to the Japanese, acted as interpreter in the Dutch language. The floor of the chamber was covered with 158 mats, having spread over them in the centre of the room, cloths resembling red felt blankets, indifferently dyed. After the manner of the Japanese, two interpreters were in attendance on the prince, one of them squatted on the floor near our interpreter, partially facing the chief and another (Kayama Yesaimon, governor of Uraga) on his haunches immediately in front of him. Midway, in rear of the room, was placed a brightly-lacquered red chest, resting upon eight feet, with its deep and projecting lid, confined by tasselled cords of blue. The gilt ornamental design in front resembled the rose of the Gothic style. The officers of the ships occupied the court facing the platform.

Everything being announced ready, and obeisance interchanged between the prince and commodore, beautiful rosewood-boxes, hinged, clamped, and clasped with gold, having inscriptions with German-text letters, let in with gold on their tops, which had been carried by side-boys, were then brought in, and displayed upon the chest. Mr. Portman opened them to assure the Japanese of the presence of the letters; and the interpreter was directed to inform the prince, which was done, one interpreter whispering to the other, that in the boxes were also translations of our president’s letter, in Dutch and Chinese. The credentials from the emperor empowering the prince of Idzoo to receive the letter, were then handed over by the prince, and taken charge of by the flag-lieutenant, 159 having been duly examined the day before on shipboard. The letter of the president was as follows:—

MILLARD FILLMORE ,

President of the United States of America ,

To his Imperial Majesty ,

THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN .

Great and Good Friend!

I send you this public letter by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and officer of highest rank in the Navy of the United States, and commander of the squadron now visiting your Imperial Majesty’s dominions.

I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your Imperial Majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings toward your Majesty’s person and government; and that I have no other object in sending him to Japan, but to propose to your Imperial Majesty that the United States and Japan should live in friendship, and have commercial intercourse with each other.

The constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or political concerns of other nations. I have particularly charged Commodore Perry to abstain from every act which could possibly disturb the tranquillity of your Imperial Majesty’s dominions.

The United States of America reach from ocean to ocean, and our territory of Oregon and state of California lie directly opposite to the dominions of your Imperial Majesty. Our steamships can go from California to Japan in eighteen days.

Our great state of California produces about sixty millions of dollars in gold, every year, besides silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and many other valuable articles. Japan is also a rich and fertile country, and produces many very valuable articles. Your Imperial Majesty’s subjects are skilled in many of the arts. I am desirous that our two countries should trade with each other, for the benefit both of Japan and the United States.

We know that the ancient laws of your Imperial Majesty’s government do not allow of foreign trade except with the Dutch. But as 160 the state of the world changes, and new governments are formed, it seems to be wise from time to time to make new laws. There was a time when the ancient laws of your Imperial Majesty’s government were first made.

About the same time, America, which is sometimes called the New World, was first discovered and settled by the Europeans. For a long time there were but a few people, and they were poor. They have now become quite numerous; their commerce is very extensive; and they think that if your Imperial Majesty were so far to change the ancient laws as to allow a free trade between the two countries, it would be extremely beneficial to both.

If your Imperial Majesty is not satisfied that it would be safe, altogether, to abrogate the ancient laws which forbid foreign trade, they might be suspended for five or ten years, so as to try the experiment. If it does not prove as beneficial as was hoped, the ancient laws can be restored. The United States often limit their treaties with foreign states to a few years, and then renew them or not, as they please.

I have directed Commodore Perry to mention another thing to your Imperial Majesty. Many of our ships pass every year from California to China; and great numbers of our people pursue the whale fishery near the shores of Japan. It sometimes happens in stormy weather that one of our ships is wrecked on your Imperial Majesty’s shores. In all such cases we ask and expect, that our unfortunate people should be treated with kindness, and that their property should be protected, till we can send a vessel and bring them away. We are very much in earnest in this.

Commodore Perry is also directed by me to represent to your Imperial Majesty that we understand there is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the empire of Japan. Our steamships, in crossing the great ocean, burn a great deal of coal, and it is not convenient to bring it all the way from America. We wish that our steamships and other vessels should be allowed to stop in Japan and supply themselves with coal, provisions, and water. They will pay for them, in money, or anything else your Imperial Majesty’s subjects may prefer; and we request your Imperial Majesty to appoint a convenient port in the southern part of the empire, where our vessels may stop for this purpose. We are very desirous of this.

161

These are the only objects for which I have sent Commodore Perry with a powerful squadron to pay a visit to your Imperial Majesty’s renowned city of Yedo: friendship, commerce, a supply of coal, and provisions and protection for our shipwrecked people.

We have directed Commodore Perry to beg your Imperial Majesty’s acceptance of a few presents. They are of no great value in themselves, but some of them may serve as specimens of the articles manufactured in the United States, and they are intended as tokens of our sincere and respectful friendship.

May the Almighty have your Imperial Majesty in his great and holy keeping!

In witness whereof I have caused the great seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed, and have subscribed the same with my name, at the city of Washington in America, the seat of my government, on the thirteenth day of the month of November, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

Your Good Friend ,
Millard Fillmore .

By the President.
Edward Everett ,
Secretary of State .

Accompanying this letter was one from Commodore Perry, merely repeating the language embraced in the instructions from the secretary of state:—

To His Imperial Majesty ,

THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN .

The undersigned, Commander-in-chief of all the naval forces of the United States of North America, stationed in the East India, China, and Japan seas, has been sent by his government to this country on a friendly mission, with ample powers to negotiate with the government of Japan, touching certain matters which have been fully set forth in the letter of the President of the United States; copies of which, together with copies of the letter of credence of the undersigned, in the English, Dutch, and Chinese languages, are herewith transmitted.

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The original of the President’s letter, and of the letter of credence, prepared in a manner suited to the exalted station of your Imperial Majesty, will be presented by the undersigned, in person, when it may please your Majesty to appoint a day for his reception.

The undersigned has been commanded to state that the President entertains the most friendly feelings toward Japan, but has been surprised and grieved to learn that when any of the people of the United States go of their own accord, or are thrown by the perils of the sea, within the dominions of your Imperial Majesty, they are treated as if they were your worst enemies. The undersigned refers to the cases of the American ships ‘Morrison,’‘Ladoga,’ and ‘Lawrence.’

With the Americans, as indeed with all Christian people, it is considered a sacred duty to receive with kindness, and to succor and protect all, of whatever nation, who may be cast upon their shores; and such has been the course of the Americans, with respect to all Japanese subjects who have fallen under their protection.

The government of the United States desires to obtain from that of Japan, some positive assurance that persons who may be hereafter shipwrecked on the coast of Japan, or driven by stress of weather into her ports, shall be treated with humanity.

The undersigned is commanded to explain to the Japanese that the United States are connected with no government in Europe, and that their laws do not interfere with the religion of their own citizens, much less with that of other nations.

That they inhabit a great country which lies directly between Japan and Europe, and which was discovered by the nations of Europe about the same time that Japan herself was first visited by Europeans; that the portion of the American continent lying nearest to Europe, was first settled by emigrants from that part of the world; that its population has rapidly spread through the country until it has reached the shores of the Pacific ocean; that we have now large cities, from which, with the aid of steam-vessels, we can reach Japan in eighteen or twenty days; that our commerce with all this region of the globe is rapidly increasing, and the Japanese seas will soon be covered with our vessels.

Therefore as the United States and Japan are becoming every day 163 nearer and nearer to each other, the President desires to live in peace and friendship with your Imperial Majesty; but no friendship can long exist unless Japan ceases to act toward Americans as if they were her enemies.

However wise this policy may originally have been, it is unwise and impracticable, now that the intercourse between the two countries is so much more easy and rapid than it formerly was.

The undersigned holds out all these arguments, in the hope that the Japanese government will see the necessity of averting unfriendly collision between the two nations, by responding favorably to the propositions of amity, which are now made in all sincerity.

Many of the large ships-of-war destined to visit Japan, have not yet arrived in these seas, though they are hourly expected; and the undersigned, as an evidence of his friendly intentions, has brought but four of the smaller ones, designing, should it become necessary, to return to Yedo in the ensuing spring, with a much larger force.

But it is expected that the government of your Imperial Majesty will render such return unnecessary by acceding at once to the very reasonable and pacific overtures contained in the President’s letter, and which will be further explained by the undersigned on the first fitting occasion.

With the most profound respect for your Imperial Majesty, and entertaining a sincere hope that you may long live to enjoy health and happiness, the undersigned subscribes himself,

( Signed ) M. C. Perry ,
Commander-in-chief of the United States Naval Forces
in the East India, China, and Japan seas.

U. S. Steam-Frigate Susquehanna,
Off the coast of Japan, July 7, 1853.

A brief pause followed the delivery of the letters, the Japanese appearing dispirited, and their prince as if the day’s doings might result to him in being compelled to perform the “Happy Despatch” of his country; the commodore directed the interpreter to say, that 164 as it would take some time to deliberate on the letter of the president, he should not wait for an answer, but would return in the spring; that he would leave in a few days for Canton, by way of the great Loo-Choo island, and would be happy to take any commands they might have. Owing to our pronunciation of the word “Loo-Choo,” perhaps, they did not seem to understand the latter part of this. The interpreter was then directed to tell them, that China was now in a state of revolution; that the rebels had taken Nanking, Ningpo, Amoy, and Cheang-foo. The Japanese interpreter, apparently for himself, asked what was the cause of the revolution. The commodore commenced a reply by saying, “Religion,” then correcting himself, said “Dissatisfaction with the government on the part of the people.” The interpreter reflected awhile, and then said he could not say anything to his prince about revolutions, but could only speak about the letter. The governor of Uraga then rose, placed the president’s letter in the lacquered chest, and tied the cords; then, turning, bowed very low, intimating that the audience was concluded; the prince rising and saluting as we retired.

The column of escort then reformed, and returned to the beach where we landed, in the same order in which we had come, passing down the front of the line of Japanese soldiers, many a scowling fellow meanwhile looking daggers at us; and their officers, 165 affecting an indifference to the scene, which they could not have felt, perhaps thinking how agreeable a thing it would be, to hold one of those Americans on the end of one of their blades, as a fork, and hack him with the other as a knife; if they only dared to try. So closed the day that is to mark the opening of Japan to the world. America has said, “Open, sesame!”

I said to Major Zeilen, of the marine corps (a fine old soldier), the day before we landed, “Well, major, they have our cages ashore?” “No, sir; no caging to-morrow,” said he, “it will be fight to the death!” Our men marched past the Japanese troops with the greatest indifference, making such remarks as, “Jack, give us a chaw of tobacco.” “Robinson,” said the officer of the deck to a six-foot quartermaster who was to carry an American ensign, “don’t you let them take that away from you, to-day.” Robinson said, “Well, sir, they may do it, but the man who takes it won’t be able to carry it after he gets it.”

In the afternoon, of the day of the landing, the steamers got underway, passed the point or “Rubicon Fort,” as it was named, and went into anchorage in the inner bay, which had been sounded out by boats under cover of the Mississippi, three days before. In doing so we got the best view of the line of fortifications, which extend from a point on the western side, marking the narrowest part of the outer, or entrance to the inner bay, down to the city of Uraga. The 166 first fort, built very well, was a kind of curtain-wall with four embrasures, fronted by an artificial plateau sloping to the water’s edge, and protected in the rear by a deep triangular excavation in high sandstone, whose sides sloped to the area below, and must have been made after much labor. This contained a barrack building, and the entrance was by a narrow “grotto pausilipo,” cut through a hill behind. Next, in a small indentation in the shore, was a circular fort, not very extensive, containing houses for troops, and having guns in barbette. The third was on a small circular promontory of some size. The space fortified was mostly occupied by a steep wedge-shaped hill, and was pierced for four guns. The fourth, divided from the third by a small town, as the third was divided from the second, was a rampart of earth and masonry, with a parapet, built across a narrow gorge, surmounted by a high hill with a small crown-battery, from which the shells were fired on our arrival. The principal and best fort, of some dimension, not yet completed, was situated on the north side of the entrance to the harbor of Uraga. This battery was placed some eighty feet above the water, the Japanese having no doubt learned, from their Dutch confreres , that during a calm, at this elevation, they might, by a ricochet-shot, reach the ships of an enemy even seven hundred yards distant. They had also cut into perpendicular steps the ground between this fort and the water, that shot may be stopped in 167 ricochet firing, and their effect lessened if not destroyed. There were no crown batteries visible. Their guns were under cover, and their calibre could not be ascertained, but it is doubtful whether they were of the calibre to render harbor defences efficient.

As soon as the tide served, after our anchoring in the inner bay, the Saratoga and Plymouth got underway, stood up and joined us.

The next day the commodore came aboard of the Mississippi, when his broad-pennant was hoisted, the anchor hove up, and with boats ahead to make soundings, we stood up the bay, running nearer to the great capital of the empire than ship of any foreigner had gone before. The Japanese troops on shore kept watch on our movements, and their guard-boats rowed up in company with ours, but did not attempt to impede or molest them. Having gone up and made soundings, and a reconnoissance, until the water began to shoal, we put the ship about and returned to where we had left the Susquehanna. In the evening a Japanese functionary who had been looking with much solicitude upon our movements, went on board of the flag-ship, and said, “He hoped we would not attempt to go up their bay any farther, if we did there would be trouble.” He was told that if it became necessary to bring our whole squadron into their waters, that it was necessary that the ships should have a less exposed anchorage than the one we had occupied off 168 Uraga, and the only way that such an anchorage could be found out, was by surveys and soundings.

On the 16th boats were sent down to survey and ascertain the depth of water in the cove which opens on the left hand just after entering the inner bay in which is situated the Saru-Sima, by some called “Perry island.” The steamers followed during the day down to this anchorage, but the wind proving light and baffling, the sailing ships did not get there until evening, one of them meanwhile having drifted afoul of the other, on having to come suddenly to anchor, and carrying away a flying-jib boom. Here, before dusk, a Japanese official, who spoke Dutch, brought off as presents game-fowls which had beautiful plumage, lacquered-ware, some of their small pipes and mild tobacco, and brocade interwoven with gold thread. These were refused until they consented to receive presents in return. They would not give one of their blades nor receive one of our swords; such an exchange did not indicate friendship according to their ideas, nor was the parting with any Japanese arms allowed by their laws. They expressed great desire to know when we should leave, and manifested much solicitude and anxiety about our remaining. This curiosity was not gratified.

We had now been in their waters about eight days, during which we had only one opportunity of noticing things and people, near by on shore, and then for not a very long time. But what we had been able to 169 observe, assured us that the Japanese were a superior race, though they might belong to the same variety of the human family as their pig-tail neighbors. Their complexions were better, their features more regular, they had not a great obliquity of eye; their manners were more collected and impressive, their bearing more dignified, their costume less sacerdotal; and their crowns, instead of displaying a patch of hair the size of a dinner-plate behind, with a pendent plait, were shaven in an oval on the top, around which the hair was brushed perpendicularly, and pomatumed, terminating in a tie, from which the united ends, adhering together with the pomatum, laid like a cheroot-cigar in form, the end pointing to the brow, in the centre of the place that the razor has denuded. They look like the literary gentlemen whose bald heads cause their foreheads to run back nearly to their coat-collar. Certain it is that they can hardly be deemed descendants of the son of Manoah, of whom it was prophesied—“ and no razor shall come on his head .”

Their boats were sharp, and by the continued action of the sculls—instead of rowing on their sides—were impelled with greater speed than the boats of the celestials; while the nice bows to their junks indicated great superiority, and the single white canvass sail, stretched by a yard from their enormous mast, was far more pleasant to the eye and sensible than the dingy mat-sail of the Chinaman. Their plan 170 of reducing sail is singular: instead of lessening the hoist of the sail as other nations do, as in reefing, they reduce the width of their sail by unlacing a cloth from either side. We did not on this visit get in the vicinity of the large capital but could form some idea of its consumption by the immense number of coasting-junks for ever going up and returning, keeping white the bay, with their singular sails, in centre of which black characters told the district they were from, or it was indicated by strips of black cloth hanging on either end of the yard. It was soon apparent, and the Japanese were no doubt aware that we knew it, that if it should become necessary to resort to offensive measures, that the blockading of the custom-port of Uraga, and the stoppage of the passage of their junks with their supplies to the immense city, would make them very effective. Their forts would not have been able to have raised the blockade; we could have kept out of the reach of their guns, and peppered them with the long range of our own.

On Sunday morning, July 17, at daybreak, we lifted anchor, and the Susquehanna with the Saratoga in tow, and the Mississippi towing the Plymouth, we proceeded down the outer bay, and left for a time the waters of Japan, numbers on shore and the troops on the parapets of the forts of Kami Saki looking at us, and apparently much pleased with the movement. This time we kept down the opposite side of the bay 171 from the one by which we had arrived, and by eleven o’clock we were abreast of Misaki Awa, or the southernmost point of the bay on the east, off which we noticed swimming a number of seals. The natives in the small boats, having gotten more confidence, on our approach, pulled as near to us as the revolving-wheel would permit them. We ran in sight of the large volcanic island, named on the Dutch charts as Vries, but called Oho Sima, or Bird island, by the Japanese. Evening saw us threading our way through a group of islands, whose barren surfaces presented a desolate sight. One of them was Fatisisio, the penal settlement or Botany Bay of Japan.

On the 18th a man fell overboard from the Plymouth, but by cutting away, promptly, a life-buoy which he struck out for and reached, and promptly lowering away a boat, he was saved. I could not but recollect that there was a man overboard from the same ship the day before, but under different circumstances, as was told by the half-raised ensigns at the peaks of the four ships. Poor Jack had died after we had gotten to sea, and the ocean which had been his home during life, before nightfall was to cover him with its waves. The boatswain’s call was not “Heave-to,” as to-day, but piped, which was echoed through the ship by each of his mates, “All hands bury the dead” and as the sun went down, with two of the iron messengers, which he had been proud to have hurled at the enemies of the star-flag, 172 tied to his feet, and wrapped in the hammock in which with stormy lullaby he had often swung, and swinging, dreamed of home and its endearments, poor Jack was launched into the sea, and soon sank “deeper than ever plummet sounded.”

The next day we encountered a heavy swell and a stiff breeze, it then became squally, and there was every indication about the horizon of bad weather approaching. As it was getting quite rough, and there being danger of parting the towing-hawsers, the sloops-of-war were cast off from the steamers, the Saratoga being signaled to make the best of her way to Shanghae, and the Plymouth to proceed to our next place of rendezvous—Loo-Choo. By meridian of the 20th we had a strong gale of wind on us; top-gallant masts were sent down, top-masts housed, and storm-sails bent. At three o’clock the ship pitched away her head-sounding spars, springing the bowsprit in the cap; but the wreck of the spars was gotten on board, so as to give us no trouble by becoming entangled in our wheels. The Susquehanna lost her sounding-spars also, or cut them away.

At night the sea having increased, both steamers having burnt out a considerable portion of their coal, rolled deeply and heavily. We lost, by being filled with the sea, the captain’s gig from our stern-davits,—one of the prettiest and fastest boats in the squadron. The next morning, from the port wheel-house a handsome whale-boat was washed away with oars, sails, 173 mast, and breaker. By mid-day it became apparent, that we were in a cyclone, or revolving-gale, and both ships were “wore” to stand out of it. On the 23d the gale having moderated, though the barometer still continued low, we proceeded on our course. This being the first very ugly weather that we had had since leaving home, landsmen had a fine opportunity of enjoying the comforts of a gale of wind—such as holding on to your basin with one hand, and performing the ablution with the other; waking up in the morning, with your shoes floating about, underneath your cot: at breakfast, the delight of a sticky, salty atmosphere is increased, by your chair sliding with you down to leeward with each roll, or, if attempting to grapple the table with one hand, a cup of tea precipitates itself inside of your vest, while you are attempting to secure your nicely-prepared eggs, that in a moment fresco the deck under foot; the saccharine is largely mixed with the saline, by the mingling contents of the sugar-bowl and saltcellar. This is the pleasurable experience of those, who “go down to the great deep in ships.”

We reached the south end of Loo-Choo, on the evening of the 24th, but the weather being thick and foggy, could not run into the roads, so stood off during the night. This day we recorded the occurrence of the first death—one of the men, who contracted a fever on board of the Chinese junk lost at the mouth 174 of the Yang-tse-kiang. He was buried the next day in the foreigners’ grove at Tumai.

On running into Napa-roads the next day, we had some hopes of finding there the steam-frigate, Powhatan, of whose sailing from the United States we had intelligence, but were disappointed. The Supply lay there alone. From her officers we learned, that the cyclone, that we were in, had been felt with great force at Loo-Choo. They had not only to let go all their anchors, but had also slung some of their carronades to prevent the ship’s dragging on the reefs.

We found that there had been no increase in sociability, and no improvement in the manners of our friends, the Loo-Chooans; and probably with the view to reduce the length of our stay, they had diminished the supply of provisions to the ships—although well paid for them. They plead scarcity, even to sweet potatoes and watermelons, though they might easily be seen growing in their fields. They preferred our loving and leaving them, but the commodore had another interview with his coy-friend, the regent, in which he desired to know, why they wished to cut off supplies; also that their officers must cease to dog our steps on shore, and that they must open their stores. As a mouse in the talons of the eagle, they promised everything, and promised a bazar on a subsequent day, at which the Americans might purchase whatever they had to sell. While this forcible 175 diplomatic wooing was going on, the younger officers, who had the opportunity, were enjoying the delightful walk to the Komooe at Sheudi, or killing wild pigeons and curlew on shore—a delightful gastronomic episode, after a stretch of salt-junk.

At daybreak, on the 1st of August, in a public hall in Napa—the mayor’s office, I believe—the Loo-Chooan bazar (!) was open. The articles exposed for sale, were some Japanese fabrics, brought there by the junks, some domestic cotton-cloth, and specimens of Loo-Choo lacquer-ware, and chow-chow boxes. By nine o’clock, A. M.—having “opened a trade” with Loo-Choo, all were aboard, when the steam-frigates left for China, taking a look at the Amaccarima islands as we passed, during the day.

The next evening, we espied a sail, which proved to be the United States sloop-of-war Vandalia, which saluted the commodore, and then laid to for her captain to repair on board of the flag-ship. We had hoped for some letters and papers from home by her, but she had none.

After running separated for three days, in hopes of falling in with the Powhatan, the steamers came in company again, near the southern extremity of Formosa. At sundown on August 7th, the Mississippi and Susquehanna, after an absence of three months and eleven days, dropped anchor in the harbor of Hong Kong, China.

CHAPTER X.

The numerous publications upon China, from the large folios of the Jesuits, which record their triangulation of the empire over a century ago, down to the later books, which afford every detail of the strange people occupying the “flowery kingdom,” render an account, of what came under observation, during the time the Mississippi, lay in the waters of China, almost superfluous. Yet during our stay, the state of the Celestials was rather anomalous; owing to the efforts of a portion of the immense population under the lead of an insurgent chief, Thaeping, to overthrow the existing or Tartar government. This rebellion has been continued so long now, that it threatens to become chronic .

At the time of these intestine troubles, the great number of ladrones or land-pirates, who infest the vicinity of the densely-populated cities, whose desperate fortunes, make them indifferent to what government they may be under, generally seize upon the opportunity of plundering, and the foreign hongs, or factories of the American and European merchants, 177 are always an object of attack, from the quantity of specie that is known, or believed to be within their vaults. The existence of the rebellion, and the heavy freshets in the Pekiang causing much loss and distress, had also made the ladrones in the vicinity of Canton very threatening; and a few days after our return from Japan, our ship was ordered to proceed to Blenheim Reach, to communicate with the American consul, and to afford with our force, any aid that we could in the protection of American property at Canton, which, notwithstanding the representations made to our government, has been indebted for some time past to the protection of the guns of a little English brig-of-war, which lay off the factories. But if one thinks of the un-American manner, and the cockneyism, which marks nearly all of the United States merchants, who abide and much do congregate near the walls of Canton, perhaps the protection, which an English flag would give, is more to their taste, such at least is my opinion. It occasions no effort to appreciate the hospitality of these people. Should you be a merchant-man, and indebted to their brokerage for the purchase of tea and silk, or the sale of opium, their spacious-chambers are soon put at your disposal; but if unfortunately an officer from some national vessel, your way to the single China-hotel, with its pent-up rooms, infuriate musquitoes, and pleasant fried-rat odors, will not be impeded by them in the slightest degree. During an extended 178 stay, they might patronise you, if having the financiering of the ship to do, with an invitation to a dinner, or one to a “tiffin;” but they will scarcely be heard from again, unless when they anticipate an emeute of the Ladrone population, when a man-of-war would immediately get representations about the necessity for some force to protect their coffers.

Blenheim Reach is about ninety miles from Hong Kong, and fifteen from Canton, whose port, together with Whampoa Reach, separated from it by paddy-field islands, it may be called. It was up this passage that the English ship “Blenheim” went to Canton, and was enabled to turn the enemy’s flank during the late war. Ahead of us laid the huge old East Indiamen, looking like line-of-battle ships, and waiting till they got aboard their twenty thousand chests, and not far from them the Aberdeen clippers , which may take rank as such only when the American clippers are away. At Whampoa, off a collection of most forbidding-looking houses, built over the muddy water, composing the Chinese town, there lay the foreign ships, the mandarin watch-boats, the junks, the chop-hulks from which stores are supplied, the protestant and catholic floating-bethels for the good of souls, and the well-armed opium-schooners whose cargoes destroy bodies.

We laid in Blenheim Reach under the whole, hissing, hot sun of August and September. There being a heavy fresh in the river at the time of our arrival, 179 the banks were overflown, and our ship did not swing at her anchors for some days. Old China street at Canton was a foot under water, and you reached the entrance to the hongs through the foreign garden, in a sedan-chair, or on the backs of wading coolies. During the height of the swollen current, dead Chinamen floated down and hung in our wheels; and when the water subsided, the exhalation of fields of alluvial black mud, and the visits of furious flowery-kingdom mosquitoes, who, like the ghostly breeches of Mickey Free’s father, were ever going between us and sleep, neither contributed to the healthfulness nor comfort of our anchorage. Our comforts were further increased by looking upon scenery which was unrelieved except by a litchee grove here and there. The weather was terribly hot, and if the thermometer had been longer, it would have probably been hotter; with ratan-mat and bamboo-pillow you sought a spot under the awnings of the hurricane or poop deck, that you might half-restless and half-snoozing pass the night, while during the day the windsails were of little use, and drop and drop came down the tar from the rigging. Boils and other cutaneous eruptions affected the crew, with annoyances greater than those of Job, and yet they had not the salubrious climate of a Palestine in which to endure them. The dislocating-jaw beef, and fowls, and fresh food furnished us by the Chinamen, together with watery vegetables, nearly destitute of any nutritious qualities, were 180 only partly compensated for by the half-fresh cherrymoya, custard-apple, banana, or splendid persimmon—persimmons splendid! Sometimes we would have a thunder-storm which would purify the atmosphere for a time, but back would soon come the stagnated, sweltering temperature, which neither white slippers nor grass-cloth could make more comfortable, and which made the staid, starched, stiff collar, soon bow its points, and relax into the opaque, prostrate Byronic. Every one who could, like the personator of Minerva at Mrs. Leo Hunter’s fétê champétre , carried a fan. Such weather we had for two months.

Occasionally, during the month of August, we had requests for aid from merchant-captains arriving, who represented their crews in a state of mutiny. After the confinement of the men, a consular court is usually held on board to adjudicate the difficulty. I attended one of these, and was surprised to see what an entirely ex-parte affair it is; the examination is absurd. The captain’s testimony is mainly if not entirely depended on, and if a bad man, may not only maltreat his crew, without any one to confront him effectively with the fact, but after having contracted with his men, for high wages perhaps, in California, on arriving in China, for some insubordination, prefers a charge of mutiny; the men are put in irons, the consul’s decision forfeits their wages, and thus a speculation is made for the owners. If not this, for the acts of one or two bad men in a ship, the whole 181 crew are put in irons and punished indiscriminately. One fellow brought aboard of the Mississippi in irons, called a “mutineer,” and subsequently regularly shipped, would not have mutinied against a sheep.

We received almost daily rumors of contemplated attacks upon the hongs. The latter part of August, the English brig-of-war “Lily” ( painted? ) passed up the river to Canton, being of light draft. In the event of troubles, the custody of specie and silver-plate on board of these vessels, pays a handsome percentage to the commander. A survey of the Macao passage of the river was made with the hope that our steamer might be gotten up to Canton, but the collection of a bar at a barrier which had been made in the river during the war, by the Chinese, made the water too shoal to attempt it. We sent up a body of marines, and howitzers in the storeship Supply, which vessel lay for a long time off the city. The imperial authorities at the city were much excited; fleets of war-junks passed up and down the river in search of undiscoverable foes; and the governor of the city recommended to his pig-tail community not to celebrate the “Feast of the Lanterns,” as it might give the rebels an opportunity for outbreak, and also notified that in the event of an attack, it must be a sauve qui peut business with them, as he could not extend them protection.

Meanwhile the officers of the ship, in an armed fast-boat, paid frequent visits to the city; at times for 182 visits merely and purchases, and at others, when emergency seemed to require, with armed cutters and howitzers. The objects on the route all became familiar, as if going up and down one of our own rivers—the pagodas, the water-side joss-houses—the rows of the plantain-trees skirting the fields, and the big-sailed craft going lazily along in the mud canals that intersected them. We soon came and went through the huge water-craft moored head and stern in the approach to the city, and through the lanes of the innumerable small boats, with their three hundred thousand water population, or noticed the small ferryboats, in which, at the fourth of a cent each, thirty thousand people cross and re-cross daily, without interest almost. You might stroll the streets beyond the walls, and purchase the curiously-carved ivory and the many elegant and ingeniously-made articles of China, but the shopkeeper was in considerable trepidation and would speculate much on the “too muchee bobbery,” as he called the anticipated fighting.

I was there during the feast of the Lanterns. In going out from the solitary hotel, kept by Acow— compradore of one of our former commissioners to China, from whom, I suppose, he learned the little English he knew—you generally, through the volunteer aid of the Jemmy-Twitcher Mongols, immediately part with your kerchief and gloves, and it is no matter that you saw the celestial who took them, for if 183 he once mixes with the crowd you could no more undertake to individualize him than you would be able to tell a particular spoke in a revolving-wheel. By you, passes a fellow with as much timber locked around his neck, for some offence, as a mortar-board would contain. Of the innumerable gongs beating, one struck at intervals attracts your attention. The fellow who strikes it is walking the street in front of a bare-backed malefactor, whose queue is wrapped around his head, and whose hands are tied behind him. As he walks, at each tap of the gong from the man in front, a following attendant lashes him with split ratan. It would take too long to enumerate the scenes witnessed in a Chinese street. During the day the bonzes marched through the streets attired in their yellow robes, stopping at intervals to chin-chin joss, by beating on gongs. At night tall prosceniums and staging are erected at the entrances of streets, just inside of their gates, and extending up as high as the roofs of the houses. These are most gorgeously and grotesquely decorated, and lit up with large fantastic lanterns and small lamps, looking like hundreds of illuminated lemons; adown either side of the streets are hung other lanterns in front of each store-door. The expense of all this, and the compensation of the performers, who represent the “sing-song” on the stage, and go on with their horrible caterwauling to the great delight of the throng in the narrow street below, is paid by subscription from the 184 occupants of the street. An old Chinaman, of whom we purchased chess-men, advised us not to be away from our hotel too long, as there were many “two facee—no good pigeon-men”—in the crowd, who had no love for foreigners.

At the time of this visit, I saw many of the celebrities about Canton; the remarkable and magnificent gardens of the old China millionaire Howqua , where artificial landscapes, cascades, and plants, trained in the exact image of all kinds of animals, are to be seen in perfection; old Curiosity street, with its costly jade-stone spectacles, &c., and by accident, the spot, where some young Englishmen, captured during the war, were taken to, and beheaded by the Chinese.

The last of September, we were relieved by the arrival of the Susquehanna, when we ran down the river to Cum-sing-moon. As we approached the anchorage, we discovered the storeship Southampton, not long from Valparaiso. When she was about a thousand miles from Luzon, she picked up a boat, containing three men and a boy. When brought aboard, their long, black hair, high cheek-bones, and dusky complexion indicated a Malayan origin. All they could say was “ Sallie Baboo ” and they were most likely driven out to sea, from the group of that name, while passing with vegetables in their frail shallop, between the islands. A building having been rented at Macao, as an hospital for the sick and infirm of our squadron, the Sallie Baboos were kept ashore 185 there for some time. The boy, about twelve years old, evinced some sprightliness, and got hold of some sentences in English, but the confidence to speak a single word in our language, was a plant of the slowest possible growth with the older ones.

We found the Powhatan and Macedonian at anchor in the harbor. They had been laying there for exercise in target-firing and in squadron boat-sailing. Unfortunately one of the officers of the Powhatan—Lieutenant Adams, from exposure to the intense heat of the sun, while engaged in the latter duty—was taken very ill, and a very few days after our arrival, our ship performed the melancholy office of conveying his remains to Macao for interment. On our arrival in the roads at that place, we found there the French surveying-frigate Constantine, who, upon seeing our colors half-mast, in compliment half-masted her own. The day of interment the weather was so rough, that a Portuguese lorcha had to be employed to take the body and its escort to the shore. His remains were followed to the grave by his messmates, the officers of the French ship, those of the Portuguese garrison ashore, and proper escort of marines with ship’s band. He was buried in a beautiful spot in the English cemetry, adjoining the garden “ Ubi Camoens opus egregium compossuisse fertur ,” and by the side of a brother-officer—Lieutenant Campbell, of the United States schooner Enterprise, and the grave of Edmond Roberts, special diplomatic 186 agent of the United States to several Asiatic courts, who died in the East in 1836.

October the 31st, the Mississippi returned to Cumsing-moon , which in the celestial dialect means, “Golden-sun-born-pass,” but the man who could so call it, must be

The most naked, barren, desolate prospect; a partly-cultivated island, between which and the main-land, the muddy river sweeps in a current—and a collection of Chinese hovels, which form nests for the river-pirates, who rob fast and post boats on their way to Canton and levy on the fortunes of the fishermen, compose the attractive picture, which the Golden-sun-born-pass presents.

Here is the principal anchorage of the opium-hulks; and Great Britain, a party to the “holy alliance,” that said that no member of the Bonaparte family should sit on the throne of France, and yet has her legions side by side with those of Louis Napoleon—who keeps a squadron on the coast of Africa for the suppression of the slave-trade, here displays more of her boasted consistency, and covers with her flag, a traffic more iniquitous. It is nothing to England, that opium is an article contraband of the laws of China; from the enticing poison produced in her possessions, she gets a large income in revenue; her ships bring the drug to China, and smuggle it in 187 armed vessels along its coasts; and with her protection, the vile poppy has medicined thousands to a sleep that knows no waking. She cares for syce silver, not for bodies or souls. But it must be said, that the Parsees with their “Benares” opium, and even Jonathan, though he does not fly his flag, have a share in the traffic; that some of the drug is even grown in China, and that a trade thrust upon that country by the throats of English cannon, is now connived at, and embarked in by corrupt mandarins, who share in the profits of its smuggling, while their duties require them to discover such offenders, and bring their heads under the executioner’s sword.

A considerable portion of the opium consumed in China, is produced in its southern departments. Its growth is as much a violation of the imperial law, as its introduction into the Cinque ports by foreigners is violative of treaty stipulation. The bribed mandarin governors derive a large income, by looking another way in their official perambulations when a poppy-seed field is reached; or it may be that the papaver somniferum has such an effect upon them, that they go past in a somnambulic state. There being no edict requiring of mandarins a knowledge of botany, they have no desire to learn the difference between a poppy-flower and any other. Add to this the demoralized condition, or rather the moral-less condition, of a large infanticide-practising population, who once having gotten the habit, become 188 willing victims of the drug, and its introduction and continued consumption, becomes an easy matter;—they first endured, they now embrace.

There are Chinese who contend that opium is good for the health. It may, like intoxicating liquors, be used in moderation, but its use once acquired, its strides upon the appetite of its votary, are far more speedy, and fatal in results.

The story of opium-using—which is synonymous with its excessive use, need hardly be repeated here; how, instead of the brains out, and the man dying, the brain dies and the man may still live on; how the robustness of youth is suddenly changed into the infirmity of old age; the limbs shrivel, the chest sinks, the shoulders stoop, the bones protrude—the sunken cheeks, the ghastly hue of the complexion, the extreme attenuation of the neck, causing the head to sink between the shoulders, and appear disproportionate, and the man to move about a walking skeleton; or how the debauchee once accustomed to the use of the drug, becomes as secure in its grasp as an ox in the coils of the huge serpent of Brazil—the successive stages gone through, when in its power; the victim wrapped in dreamy hallucination is fiendishly mocked with the imaginary enjoyment of a seventh heaven;—the alternation to a supernatural excitement; the eye glaring demoniacally, and all the brutish passions of human nature possessing him, or the look changing to the listless, leaden, dull, inane leer of 189 idiocy, when the curtain falls upon the death-rattles of agony. Two instances of the excessive use of opium came more immediately under my observation; one a jeweller at Macao, who was a hale, hearty-looking man upon the occasion of our first visit, yet on our return from Japan, had undergone frightful emaciation from its effects. The other was a Chinese teacher, who had been employed for the purpose of putting communications into the mandarin dialect. He was buried at sea, on the passage of the Susquehanna from Loo-Choo to Bonin, and those who witnessed his death, represent it as one of terrible contortion and suffering.

The opium stored on the hulks at Cum-sing-moon, comprises the Benares, the Patna, and Malwa. It is put up in balls and packed in chests. On its receipt, the custodian of the hulk proceeds to assort it, and with a view of testing its quality, and preparing its samples for the examination of the purchaser, small quantities of each case are boiled in water, strained through brown paper, and then, by the heat of a fire, reduced to the consistency of thick paste or molasses, which it somewhat resembles, when it is placed in little cups.

The owners generally reside in Canton, where most of the sales are made; and it is a specie business. A case may sometimes sell for six hundred dollars, and there have been times, when it would sell for double that amount. The article, like our most south 190 ern staple, is liable to great fluctuation in price, and large fortunes have been made and lost by it.

The following extracts from some old letters, nearly obliterated, found floating about the harbor, from houses in Canton to their agents on the hulks at “the Moon,” as it is briefly called, will give an idea of the business operandi :—

“To-day I have passed two delivery letters on you, each for three (3) chests of Malwa opium, both in favor of the Chinaman Ehing, wherefore you will take no suspicion about the delivery. Both these letters are drawn by me for six chests of Malwa.

“I will also thank you to pass one of the two chests, Nos. 1 and 2; pass one of them among the six.”

Another ran: “We have before us your note of the 3d, relating to order No. 852, for one chest Malwa, and note that you had retained the order, the holder declining to take the opium.

“Having now, however, agreed to take the drug under the same order, you will please deliver it accordingly, but without reduction, as he must take it, having already paid the money. We leave it to your judgment, however, to allow a small reduction, should he insist upon it.”

These ships are well armed and numerously manned, mostly with Lascars. The living on them is very sumptuous. Some years ago Cum-sing-moon was visited by a terrible typhoon, when these hulks broke from their moorings; some were driven entirely out 191 of the harbor, others came in contact, stove and sunk. The United States sloop-of-war Plymouth was lying there at the time, and got considerable salvage for property saved.

The river-pirates make this place their rendezvous during the night. They would seize and rob boats just off the mouth of the harbor: their boats are fast sailers. The fast-boat of our compradore, when bringing us provisions from Macao, had to run a daily gauntlet of the rascals. But a young Portuguese officer, in command of a small armed lorcha, used to pursue them with much success. One night, about nine o’clock, having got intelligence of their whereabouts, while we lay at Cum-sing-moon, he ran quietly into the harbor, and putting his men in Sampan-boats, he fell into a nest of them and peppered the rascals right and left. Their crafts are then taken to Macao and sold, furnishing a kind of prize-money.

The long and fast-sailing mandarin-boats, that smuggle the opium, usually get here in the evening. The captains of the hulks make them anchor some distance from their ships, because of their carelessness in the use of powder; some of them would quietly sit over an open tank of it and smoke their pipes, believing that if they are blown up it is a fatality which they can not prevent. These boats are armed, and well manned, and when there is no wind to expand their large sails, they pull as many as a hundred 192 sweep-oars moving through the water like great centipedes. After their large crews have had their paddy chow-chow, in the most clamorous and discordant manner, they proceed to chin-chin joss, as the sun goes down, by banging on gongs and tom-toms; but before midnight they have paid down their pile of specie, gotten their chests of the drug aboard, and are moving off up the river to Canton.

We left Cum-sing-moon and its enlivening prospects in the middle of November, and went over to Hong Kong, and thence we triangulated, as it were, to Macao and Whampoa, and so back. At Macao we spent our time, when ashore, by promenades on the Praya, where, at eventide, the dark-eyed daughters of the decayed Portuguese aristocracy cast furtive glances at the stranger, and listened to the music of one of our squadron-bands, which the commodore, who was living at Macao, had ashore with him; or strolled through the barrier-gate and out on the campo ; or witnessed the wonderful nerve displayed by the knife-throwing Chinese jugglers in the street.

While laying in the roads at Macao, a young Russian officer who had, with a squadron from his country, visited the port of Nangasaki, brought the intelligence that the emperor of Japan had died after our visit, and that the Japanese said they would have to mourn him for three years, during which time they could have no transactions or negotiations with 193 foreigners. We thought the demise might be true—perhaps a hari-kari hastened it, but that the latter thing was all “leather and prunella;” the emperor might have died, but another, like poor Pillicoddy, must turn up, when we next visited the country.

About this time the Plymouth, which had been sent, on our departure from Loo-Choo in August, to the Bonin islands, arrived at Macao, bringing the sad intelligence that a boat from that ship containing one of her lieutenants—Lieutenant Mathews, of New York—and fourteen men, out on a fishing excursion, while the ship was lying at Peel island, had been lost in a sudden typhoon on the 5th of October, and that all hands had perished.

Preparations being on foot for the return of the squadron to Japan, as soon as the storeship Lexington should arrive, and the services of the storeship Supply being needed for the transportation from China of coal for the steamers, a small English steamer recently built at Hong Kong, was chartered on behalf of the United States government, to take her place off the factories at Canton. She was armed with four guns, and a lieutenant, passed-midshipman, and one engineer ordered to her, besides being manned from the squadron—the American flag waved over the “Queen!”

On the 19th of December we stood up the river with the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, United States commissioner to China, on board, who was going 194 to take possession of his residence at Canton. We reached Whampoa at three o’clock, and found there the British war-steamer Rattler, that had not long before taken an active part in the capture of Rangoon. Her officers had many a kriss and spear trophy of the enemy, and around her engines were well-cut Buddhist idols in marble, which they had brought away with them.

The next day the commissioner left for Canton, and beside receiving his salute of seventeen guns, was accompanied in barges by a suite of officers, an escort of marines, and a band of music—a “grand function” accompanying the movements of prominent foreign personages, always has a great effect with the impressionable Celestials. The American shipping in the Reach fired a number of guns as Mr. Marshall passed up, and dipped their colors. The party accompanying remained in the city some days; I availed myself of the opportunity of making the circuit of the walls, and in company with the chaplain of the ship and a messmate, we started in the morning, Rev. S. W. Bonney, a resident missionary, most kindly acting as conductor. He has been in China eight years and speaks the language. To take the tramp considerable perseverance is necessary. You have to thread your way through streets so narrow, that at times you can easily touch the houses on either side by extending your hands, down into which the sun never comes, densely packed with human beings, and over 195 granite flagging, for ever kept muddy by the innumerable feet in motion over them from day-dawn to midnight. Then you must keep on the alert and quickly step aside to the sill of some shopdoor, or you may be run into by one of the thousand porters—the sole conveyances of Chinese cities—whose short grunt in your rear, as he toddles beneath the burden suspended from the bamboo-pole on his shoulder, warns you to get out of his way; or perhaps you may get a punch in the rear from the ferruled shalves of some high functionary or rich merchant’s sedan-chair, as they rest on the shoulders of the coolies, who carry him along at a dog-trot. On our route we stopped in a number of shops. In one there was seated an Albino-Chinese, seventy-five years old. A rat-merchant informed us that his stock on hand was rather light now, but would be larger in a day or two; while in a turning-establishment, we were shown the Chinese lathe which only turns half way. The perpendicular red and gilded signs to the shops were read to us; such as “May the customers come from the west, like clouds, and when they have purchased, may those from the east come.” We visited a kind of aceldama—the Quan-tung province execution ground—a filthy triangular square in the lower part of the suburbs, running to the river; the place was repulsive in the extreme. On a cross, suspended so that his feet just cleared the ground, had been strangled a culprit, above his head an inscription telling the offence for which he had 196 suffered; while under a shed, near by, was a pile of heads, their long queus matted in blood. The executions by decapitation, during our stay, were very numerous; fifty-nine were to be executed the next day. The culprits are made to kneel, a man stands behind them and raises both of their arms backward, as you would a pump-handle, which brings the neck comparatively horizontal, when one blow from the cleaver-like sword of the practised executioner, severs the head from the trunk. A woman who had killed her liege lord was to be cut to pieces. The laws of China are very severe in the punishment of female offenders—“Women’s Rights” are below par—and it is a land which would not be adapted for the residence of the “strong-minded” women of our own country, Chinese prophecy having foretold the downfall of their empire by the machinations of women.

We passed through one corner of the city proper, which, though permitted by treaties, is still a risky business. We were quick in our movements and were scarcely observed by the Tartar soldier on the look-out for rebels. This gave us an opportunity of seeing the thickness of the wall. We went in at the gate of the “Rising Sun,” crossed a small hypotenuse, and came out at the gate of the “Tranquil Ocean.”

We next emerged into an open space on the north side of the city, used for drilling their soldiers, and where archery is practised on horseback at full 197 speed, the most successful shot having as his prize, his name recorded in a temple near by. We crossed the place with a number of boys crying after us as we walked, “Fanqui! Fanqui!” (foreign devil), and passed under a recent triumphal arch of granite, erected by subscription and by imperial permission. The inscription would be news to the English: it told in grandiloquent terms, how the outside barbarians during the war, were repulsed by Chinese valor from their walls. Not far from here we stopped at a refreshment-house, and got tea and sweetmeats. Here, as at every other point, if we stopped for a moment, a crowd collected around. One would hold up an infantile “pig-tail” to the window, that he might see the “outside barbarian” inside, eat; while an old fellow created considerable laughter by pointing to my mustache—the wearing of the mustache among the Chinese indicating a grandfather. There not being any house for some distance, we walked close under the walls for some time. They were quite high, built of stone, capped with brick, almost covered with creepers and vines, and had at intervals projecting angles for look-out purposes.

We were now out of the suburbs, having on our left a valley shaded with the bamboo and banyan, and containing granite vat-shaped wells, from which the water was being continually carried within the walls. We ascended a high hill on which a number of goats were browsing, and seated ourselves on the steps of 198 a fort. This place was captured by the English after much difficulty, being compelled to drag their guns a long distance from the river, over rice-fields; and here it was that, after getting possession, they got the mortifying intelligence that the commodore had granted a truce. The inscription on the gateway told how it had been placed there to guard the city, and to watch those who came to plunder. From here you could see over the walls, and look down upon the city within, the houses of which did not appear more numerous than outside; and we could discern the consular-flags at the hongs, that we had left some hours before, in the extreme distance to the east.

It is almost to be regretted that the English should have consented to treat with the enemy, and given up this fort, when they had the whole city at their feet, and could have given these treacherous, malignant, cruel, dictatorial, self-conceited, vain people, a lesson in enlightenment, which would have lasted them a long time, and procured a little more deference for the “rest of mankind.”

Descending from here we had a sight of an old mosque, and also of a dead-house, where the Chinese frequently allow their deceased relatives to remain for six months at a time, until their bonzes shall designate some lucky spot in which, in their trunk-of-tree-looking coffin, they may be buried. In a hill-side cemetery we saw persons worshipping at the tombs of their relatives, and burning joss-paper; also noticed 199 a Chinese funeral, the mourners in white. We returned by the western suburbs, and after stopping a while to take a look at the oil-mongers’ hall—each calling in Canton having a similar building—a kind of ’change, we elbowed our way to the hongs which we reached about three o’clock, having left them at ten in the morning, during the whole of which time, Mr. Bonney, while very polite in his attentions and explanations to us, like one properly imbued with the spirit of his mission, as he is, distributed his “Yesoo” or Christian tracts to those whom he would first ascertain, could read them in Chinese, being nearly the only medium by which it may be hoped to introduce Christianity into that country.

A jaunt around the walls of Canton one is glad to have taken; you are subjected to annoyances and names, if not violence. Some called after us, “Kill them as the brute,” and others made sign of throat-cutting, mostly young people, who were reproved by Mr. Bonney in their language, still it was best to keep on at a brisk pace, and obey fully the injunction given to Lot’s wife. This was discreet. We escaped a shower of the missiles with which those who adventure the tramp are sometimes saluted; two only being thrown at us, one, not very large, taking me back of the neck, and the other falling between one of my companions and myself.

In the evening we crossed the river and paid a visit to the pagan temple of Honan, that large structure, 200 where the disciples of Buddha worship him with his three faces, representing the past, present, and future. The buildings of this temple cover a space of thirty-five acres, and an orange-garden, and place for burying the deceased priests and the wealthy dead, fifteen acres more. The main building, whose approach is under a noble growth of banyan-trees, is over, one hundred feet square, filled with colossal demon images of wood and gilt, who keep off evil spirits, together with twenty-four gods of pity. The number of priests is between one and two hundred, all eating at the same table, though vegetables and rice supply the place of black broth. Then they show their porcine affinity; having there the sacred pigs—so fat that their eyes may not be seen, and who are fattened till they die. The time of our visit was after sundown. We visited the apartments of the abbot of the establishment, who was evidently just recovering from the effects of opium. This old fellow, once almost felt persuaded to become a Christian; that is, he almost made up his mind to come to the Christian country of the United States, but his infirmity and the dislike to leave a certain support for the balance of his days, prevented it. To say that he would have been willing to change his creed, would be almost a negation of terms. What religious creed has a Chinaman? If any, it is a bundle of negatives. He thinks nothing in such a connection: he believes nothing. How can you change him from a position, 201 when you do not know where he stands? how can you change his belief when he has none? You had as well beat the air.

This old abbot desired Mr. Bonney to tell us that there was a Chinese lady who had reached Canton from Peking, who was desirous of uniting her fortunes for the balance of her days to a foreigner: her feet were only some two and a half inches long. We desired him to be informed that it “Was not at all in our way.”

The next day I left Canton for the ship in one of the barges, which came up for the purpose of carrying down specie for the use of the squadron. They were all well armed; though the river-pirates are always, by some fraternal telegraph, posted of the movements of treasure to Whampoa, they will scarcely dare attack a man-of-war’s boats, yet if not watched, they are willing to attempt, the apparently accidental, running down of a boat with treasure, that they may subsequently fish it up, knowing as they do every spot.

The 25th of December—a drizzly, disagreeable Sunday, that was not “Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusion of our childish days, and transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home,”—saw us passing the fortifications of the Bogue, which stupidly neglect crown-batteries with admirable physical formation for them, by which the 202 rigging, tops, and spars of an enemy’s ship might be sorely troubled, bound down through the Cap-sing-moon passage, back of Lantow island, to Hong Kong. The next day the Lexington arrived.

The news of the death of Vice-President King we had seen, but the official intelligence we did not get for some time. On the 29th of December, in honor of the deceased, each American man-of-war in the harbor, fired minute guns at daybreak, mid-day, and sundown. In this they were very courteously joined by the English flag-ship Winchester, commanded by Admiral Sir Fleetwood Pellew, son of Lord Exmouth of naval renown.

The beginning of 1854 found us in the harbor of Hong Kong, preparing for departure for Japan, and awaiting the arrival of the next oriental mail-steamer. The intervening time was occupied in coaling the storeships, and in an occasional dramatic performance on one of the steamers; a thing not at all calculated to improve discipline; whose burnt-cork and dramatic performances make “Rome howl” much oftener than good sailors; besides, the lights employed not contributing to the safety of a man-of-war from fire. At such times the quarter-deck awnings are usually elevated, and draped with the numerous flags; underneath, chandeliers of windsail-hoops and lashed bayonets and suspended overhead, the guns rolled out of the way, the mainmast decked with palm-branches; and when the music arises in the floating ball-room, 203 the guests flit in the mazes of the dance, and nothing interrupts the twinkling feet of the en-bon-point English women save an occasional ring-bolt in the deck. Tables were spread in the different messes. At such times, “H. E., Sir Samuel, K. C. B., governor and commander-in-chief, and vice-admiral,” and the “major-general, K. H., of the forces,” and the officers of the “59th,” and foreign naval officers, were aboard.

CHAPTER XI.

Six months precisely from the day of the first landing of the Americans in Japan, the mail having arrived from Suez, and the other vessels of the squadron having left in advance, we prepared to follow. On the morning of the 14th of January, the black smoke rolling away from their funnels, announced steam being gotten up on three as large war-steamers as were to be seen in any waters—the Powhatan, the Susquehanna, and the old Mississippi steam-frigates. Considering their size, it was a sight that the harbor of Hong Kong had never before witnessed, and will no doubt be many a day before it shall see again. At half-past ten in the morning, everything being ready, agreeably to signal the ships got under way, the Susquehanna leading out, and the Powhatan and Mississippi following, with the Lexington and Southampton in tow. As the flag-ship passed the Winchester, the English admiral manned his rigging, cheered, and fired a parting salute, which was returned promptly.

The first part of the run we had fine steaming 205 weather. We stood up to Breaker Point on the China coast, and then headed across the channel for the south end of the island of Formosa. In three days this land was in sight, and we ran past it on a lovely evening, with the cultivation and fine growth of trees in full view. The setting sun soon lit up gorgeously the whole picture, and nature in its beauty having no barbaric phase, one could scarcely realize that a spot so lovely to the sight, was the home of a lot of throat-cutting, piratical Chinese refugees. Before daylight disappeared, we saw the lonely spike-headed Velo Rete rocks, standing in mid-ocean, a dreaded thing to mariners, and right ahead was visible the conical little island of Botel Tobago .

At night we passed the island of Sammassama, inhabited by a peculiar people. In two days more we had rough, stormy weather, and the ships in tow were cast off to proceed under sail. The navigation among the islands on the northeastern side of Formosa, owing to the currents, becomes very intricate.

On the night of the 19th we could hear the breakers, on the reef surrounding the island of Typinsan, on which the Providence, English twenty-gun ship, was wrecked in 1790. We passed the Amakarimas on the 21st, and in the evening the three steamers anchored in the roads of Napa, Loo-Choo, where we found the razee Macedonian, the sloop-of-war Vandalia, and the storeship Supply. In a few days the two other storeships arrived, and the weather became very 206 rough. The sea broke and tumbled furiously in over the reefs, while the ships rolled at their moorings, and communication by boat between them was almost discontinued.

About this time a young assistant engineer of the Susquehanna died, and the boats that accompanied the body for burial ashore, had to row through the heavy sea. Pity but that he had been left at Macao, from which place he had written to his friends not to write him again as he would soon be home. Poor fellow, it was his long home he soon went to.

The boisterous weather continuing, the carpenters were unable to transfer a deck cabin from the Susquehanna to the Powhatan, to which vessel it was in contemplation to transfer the flag, or to discharge the coal from the Supply and land it.

The Mississippi having been as deep as usual with her coal, on leaving Hong Kong, and rolling heavily in her run from that place, was found, while laying at her anchors, to leak from twenty-two to twenty-four inches of water, in twenty-four hours, which was deemed sufficient by those on board, considering how flat a floor the ship had.

On the 31st of January, the weather having become more favorable, agreeably to order, the Macedonian, Vandalia, Southampton, and Lexington, got under way and stood handsomely out of the harbor, bound on their first visit to Japan. An exploration party by land, left, on the same morning, for the 207 northern part of the island, where it had been said powder was manufactured, and that there was coal. The result of the exploration was the bringing back some of the “coal blossom ,” from which some were sanguine, that there was coal on the island. It will be many a day before any steamer will cross the Pacific in the latitude of Loo-Choo; and Napa will never be the place selected for coaling.

During the night a poor devil of a Loo-Chooan paddled off to the Susquehanna, soliciting safety, from some on shore, whom he motioned, were going to kill him. Not having previously, “declared his intention in the United States,” it was not possible to get up another Koszta affair! His canoe was hoisted on board, and the man put under the sentry’s charge. The converted missionary at Napa—Dr. Bettelheim, expressed the belief, that the poor creature was a spy. This opinion was not at all surprising from the Dr., who never displayed amiability toward the population, and in answer to an inquiry about their history, or their upper classes, his response was “They are all liars—not a word of truth in them.” This feeling appeared to be entirely reciprocated by the Loo-Chooans, to whom his presence appeared most distasteful.

When other mediums than himself were adopted for the procurement of eatables, &c., we generally found, that we succeeded better. The Loo-Chooans are not in a condition to receive gospel-truth, and his 208 efforts at proselyting were all well known in Japan, and any protection, that we might appear to extend to him, or the slightest, even apparent co-operation with him, were not at all calculated to advance the desires of our government with the Japanese. Besides this, it is said, that some, temporarily connected with the squadron, distributed “Yesoo” or religious tracts among the people, during our stay, which was not adventitious for our objects with a people, to whom in his letter, to allay their ever-active suspicions, in the first paragraph, the president had deemed it necessary to say, that the envoy he had sent them was “no missionary of religion.” Certain it is that no attempt at increasing the field of missionary labor, among the jealous, tenacious, and suspicious Niphon race, who chiefly inhabit the northwest islands of the Pacific, can ever go pari passu with efforts to establish treaty relations and commercial intercourse, unless like Mohammed preaching against the idols of the Kaaba, the cimetar gleams in one hand, while the Good Book is upheld by the other.

Dr. Bettelheim having received intelligence from England, of being superseded by another missionary, named Moreton, was with his family tendered a passage in the Supply to China. He left behind more patients than proselytes; poor patients, grateful for the physical assistance, which his Esculapian art had enabled him to extend to them, when afflicted with 209 the noxious diseases of the island. This medicinal aid was, no doubt, often extended under difficulty—the want of faith in the remedy by the afflicted, and the sneers of the bystanding native Hippocrates . I remember on one occasion, being attracted by a group, who gathered around a white-headed old native, who had fallen apparently in a fit. As he lay stretched upon the ground, some held up his head at intervals, and attempted to give him chah or warm tea to drink, while a native Sangrado, was leopardizing him with mochsa burning. Dr. Bettelheim, who was by, thought the man should be bled, but he said, “If I bleed him, and he recovers, they will say, the mochsa cured him; if I bleed him and he dies, they will declare I killed him.”

It was understood that the commodore had purchased or procured from the authorities, the place on shore at Tumai, where our coal had been stored, and over which a shed had been erected. It was left in charge of an acting master’s mate, who had command of a number of invalid seamen, quartered in a building not far off. The American flag floated over the coal shed, for the first time, on the 5th of February.

During this visit the people appeared rather more friendly than usual. We took our walks as formerly to the castellated and beautiful Sheudi. The vernacular had been slightly acquired by the juveniles; a small boy in a school counted twelve for me in English quite plainly, while others desiring to display the 210 activity peculiar to juvenility, when scrambling for coppers, would say as you passed, “American—how do you do?”

On the 3d of February, the commodore with a suite and military escort similar to the one of June 6th preceding, paid another official visit to the palace at Sheudi: a proceeding anything else than devoutly wished for by the prince-regent. The palace-gates were opened and we were ushered into the former hall of audience. On this occasion a number of American gold and silver coin were left with them, for which they were informed, that on the return of the squadron, they were to give an equivalent in similar metals of their currency. They would gladly have avoided this, but they felt themselves the victims of a gently-forcible suasion, that there was no getting around.

A banquet was spread as before, and as each guest left the building, an attendant functionary at the door handed him a red slip of paper written on in the mandarin character, which proved to be kind of hospitality shares, and on their presentation at the city of Napa, entitled the holder to a “cumshaw” of a pipe and pouch, and bundle of paper.

On the 7th of February the three steamers left Loo-Choo for Japan. On getting outside of the harbor a sail hove in sight, which proved to be the sloop-of-war Saratoga from Shanghae. We lay to for an hour and a half, getting from her in boats, bullocks and provisions that she had brought. At five in the 211 evening we were off the northern part of Loo-Choo island—“Mellville,” which had been surveyed by Captain Beechy, R. N., and resurveyed by boats from our squadron.

We got, after leaving Loo-Choo, what the sailors call a good “slant” of wind, and ran free under canvass as well as steam. On the night of the 11th it came on thick and chilly, and found us groping our way among the chain of islands just southward of Ohosima. One steamer was unable to discern the lights of another, and the midnight navigation was not rendered any more pleasurable by the corybantic sea, or the reflection that during the day we had discovered dangerous rocks poking their points above the water, not laid down upon the charts, which would punch a hole in the bottom of a ship with no compunction. But it is remarkable what indifference or philosophy takes possession of those, who are accustomed to plough the great deep, upon such occasions. They may know the peril of the locality in which they are sailing, yet they turn in as usual; sleep and snore, and reck not of what may come.

The next morning was Sunday: we had left Japan on that day, and we were now returning to it. The sun came up bright and clear, but the air had become very cold, and penetrated the ear painfully as we stood upon deck, because of the transition from the more genial temperature of Loo-Choo, which we had left a few days before. On our right hand was Oho 212 sima —the smoke slowly ascending from its volcano like incense from nature’s altar, while right ahead of us were the mountain ranges of the shore of Japan wrapped in snow—yes snow, a thing we had not laid eyes on for many a month before:—

so this even chilling remembrance, brought up a warmth of recollection of our own country.

Having drifted a good deal during the night, daylight found us opposite the wrong bay—that of Kawatsoo, instead of Yedo. But lucky so it was, for on approaching, two ships were descried in under the land. On reaching signal distance we made out the numbers, flying at their mast-heads, to be those of the Macedonian and Vandalia. The latter vessel, being the nearest, soon telegraphed the flag-ship “ashore is the Macedonian,” this vessel the night before, when thick and hazy, having gotten on a reef. When we came up she had thrown over a number of things to lighten her, and had slung and buoyed her guns too, to let them go, if necessary. Signal was made for the three ships to come to anchor. In the afternoon, the sea being smoother, the Mississippi was directed to pull the Macedonian off the reef, which she did finely, parting one hawser in the undertaking. The ships remained at this anchorage for the night. Before sundown, most opportunely, the Lexington hove in sight. The Southampton, more lucky than the 213 other sailing-vessels, had made the bay of Yedo, and her true, old sailor-commander had run up it, as far as the sailing-chart furnished him, laid down. The Japanese on shore, who knew of the grounding of the Macedonian, had gone up to where the Southampton lay, and informed them of an American ship with a white streak around her, being ashore, and with a native chart, they pointed out the spot, where she was. Captain Boyle despatched a launch with an officer to her assistance, though the arrival of the steamers, rendered it unnecessary.

No sight could have exceeded in magnificence the one presented by Foogee Yama at daylight, the next morning. The clouds that had obscured it the evening before had disappeared with the night. The air was clear; the mountain seemed to have moved nearer during darkness; its mantle of snow, divided by rugged ravines, was more plain; and when the moon was setting, and sharply defining one side with its chill, cold rays, the sun, in all his state, came up upon the other, and burnished with brilliant glory the huge cone as it swelled up into the sky.

We entered the bay of Yedo in the morning of the 13th of February, the Susquehanna towing the Vandalia; the Powhatan, the Lexington; and the Mississippi, having more towing-power from greater face of wheel and immersion of paddle, the Macedonian. As before, the batteries were ready, and guns shotted; but instead of proceeding cautiously, as on the occa 214 sion of our former visit, the line of ships ran directly past their forts and into their inner bay, not stopping until reaching what had been called “American anchorage,” on our first reconnoissance, about ten miles above the port of Uraga, off the island of Natse. The storeship Southampton had arrived there some days before. We had scarcely anchored when some Japanese officials came off to the flag-ship to welcome the commodore and officers back to Japan. They verified the intelligence we had received through the Russians before leaving China—that of the death of the emperor Minamoto Jyekosi , and the accession to the throne of his son, with the title Minamoto Yosisaki-sei-tai-seogun . It was very soon discovered from them, to our surprise, that their government was prepared to return an affirmative response to the demands and requests contained in the letter of our president. They informed the commodore that a building had been erected, and preparations made to receive him at Uraga, where they said was a high functionary who would deliver to him the imperial answer to the president’s letter, and begged that he would move his squadron down to that place.

The commodore, through his captain of the fleet, peremptorily refused to accede to this request, on the ground that the anchorage there was too much exposed at that season of the year; and requested them to inform their government that a suitable place for his interviews with those appointed to confer with 215 him, must be selected in the vicinity of the then anchorage of his squadron, otherwise, if he moved at all, it would be to ascend the bay in the direction of Yedo.

Several days were allowed to elapse before the Japanese consented to change the location for the negotiations. The weather proved quite rough, but the boats of the squadron, under that most admirable officer and gentleman, Lieutenant W. L. Maury, continued to make soundings and cross-bearings in the direction of the city. On one day the weather proved so rough, that the surveying-boats and their parties, unable to get back to their own ships, remained with the Southampton all night, which vessel had been moved further out and higher up to triangulate upon.

The Mississippi was heeled with her guns, and her shot and shell temporarily transferred to the Susquehanna, to get at her leak. The broad-pennant was transferred from the latter ship to the Powhatan; state-department cherry cordial was freely set out for visiting Japanese officers aboard of the flag-ship; and the Vandalia, with Fleet-Captain Adams, was sent down to Uraga to have an interview with the governor of the place, and to tender a passage up to the squadron, to the high functionary with the imperial answer at that place. This was declined. They said that thus far they had yielded to us, and it was but right that we should do so in some things to them, 216 especially as they had already erected houses for reception and negotiation at Uraga.

It was well known that “nulla vestigia retrorsum,” should be the motto in dealing with these people; and the Japanese finding that the American “Mahomet would not come to the mountain,” decided that the “mountain should go to Mahomet,” and so consented to the removal of their buildings higher up the bay. It so happened, that just at the time that the Vandalia appeared in sight on her return with the declension of the Japanese, that the remainder of the squadron had gotten underway to move ten or twelve miles higher up to the more land-locked anchorage off Kana Gawa, or river Kana, and the Japanese believing there to be an immediate concert of action, and our surveying-boats having approached to within a very few miles of their great capital, very readily acquiesced in our requests.

On the 22d of February the different ships fired a salute in honor of the day. The atmosphere was the purest, and it was a fit presence in which to honor the memory of George Washington— Foogee-Yama , with its mantle of snow, towered upon the sight, its ermine of the elements typifying the purity of his character; and its great height, the eminence which he attained in the eyes of the world.

The spot selected for the erection of the buildings for the conferences, was on the beach of the village of Yokohama, or compost town, in the small bight of 217 Kawa-saki, and separated from the city of Kanagawa by the little river Kana. This place was quite sheltered by a projecting bluff below. The Japanese, as could be seen through a glass at two and a half miles distant, set to work in the erection of the buildings on shore, with a Babel-like activity; and the ships of the squadron moved in closer and formed a crescent line in their anchorage, agreeably to buoys previously established.

While the buildings were being gotten ready, a number of their fast-sailing, sharp, copperplated and tassel-prowed boats, some quite ornamentally painted, came off and moved round the ships, their inmates not being allowed to come alongside by their government’s cruisers, peering all they could. The sterns of these boats are open, or indented to the distance of a foot or so in their build, they believing, perhaps, that the eddying water at this point serves to propel the craft. The tall, square masts of their boats, when not under sail, rests on a kind of gallows at the stern. At one corner of the stern is an upright bamboo-pole to which, like a tavern-keeper’s sign, is attached by strips, a cotton or provincial flag; if it be a government or customhouse boat, the flag is of white cotton with a horizontal black stripe through the centre of it. On the other corner is a similar arrangement, from which is suspended the universal paper lantern, differing from the Chinese in lifting up, instead of opening out like an umbrella. The rowers of these 218 boats are athletic men, who appear very indifferent to cold, and in the chilliest weather their cotton garments are most epigrammatic in character.

The Japanese officials, or gentlemen, who came off to the ships were politely received and kindly entertained, at which they seemed gratified, and, after the manner of their land, indicated their appreciation by bringing from time to time little presents of lacquered-ware, &c. I don’t remember to have seen anything else but the most quiet and gentle manner in any of these visiters, except in the case of an impertinent little officer of artillery, who it would have been as well to have shown the gangway. This fussy little animal, who rejoiced in a flaming pair of big brocade breeches, being a consumptive, according to the Æsculapian theory of his country, left all “the hair on the top of his head,” which according to our theory is the “place where hair ought to be.” He had, however, the cheroot-cigar-looking tuft of hair laying horizontal, and end pointing forward. This fussy little person pryed into everything about the ship with rude curiosity. He came and went from the cabin without decorum, and examined huffily officers’ state-rooms, without solicitation. The only point of interest in the diminutive animal was, that he appeared to understand quite well, how a howitzer in battery should be worked.

A dinner was given on the Susquehanna, by her commander, to Yezimon, governor of the province of 219 Uraga, and a suite of ten others, among whom was the little peripatetic consumptive of the artillery. The Japanese being accustomed to the use of the chop-sticks at their meals—which are not of ivory as the Chinese, but lacquered black—were a little awkward at first in the use of the Christian assistants of knife and fork, but it did not take them long to acquire the requisite facility, when they made up for lost time. The cherry cordial, of which they are very fond, did not go untasted, and champaigne was by no means neglected by them. Accustomed to the small saki-cup, they admired the contents more than the size of our glasses. When any health was proposed, the Japanese—as if using the staghead-pattern cup dug up at Pompeii—turned their goblets upside down on the table, to show the absence of heel-taps.

The health of their emperor was drank, for which the governor, through his interpreter, returned thanks and gave the health of the president of the United States; and after his own health had been given, he gave the health of the commodore (not present). This was all very well apparently, but I shrewdly suspect that for the hint, they were indebted to Mr. A. L. C. Portman, who was present and interpreted from the Dutch, in which they preferred conversing at all times: he is too conversant with the proper etiquette of such occasions, to let this surmise go unindulged in. They remained at the table some two hours, during which time one of their number present, 220 “by request,” sang a Japanese song—if a kind of a cross between the half wail, half-vocal screech of the Chinese, a boy dragging a stick over the palings after him, and a severe asthma, may be called a song. In return one of the lieutenants of the ship present, sang “Ginger Blue.” “Ginger Blue” sang in the hermetic empire! What impertinence, O Jonathan! to indulge in such refrains before the potentate presence that once required knocking of head from a Russian count! Thy good friend the London Times , will “condemn thee to everlasting redemption for this,” and when it learns it, how many additional articles will appear in its columns headed “ More American Wit .”

Yezimon, on leaving the ship where he had been so handsomely entertained, remarked that he hoped he would have the opportunity of reciprocating the courtesies which had been shown them, when the friendship (treaty) had been made; they would then see more of us, and we more of them and their towns. As customary, they left a number of little presents, consisting of confections in small wooden boxes, and flowers, and little birds on miniature trees, made with shells. Their specimens of spun-glass did not equal in whiteness and fineness what we see at home.

While at dinner, they laid aside their two swords. I had a very good opportunity of examining them in the cabin of the Mississippi. The Damascus may not equal them; but they evinced much surprise when I 221 showed them the temper of this far-famed blade, by an engraving, in which the point of one appeared so bent as to be put through the guard. The Japanese blade is of the most magnificent steel; it has the back shaped like that of a razor, and the edge is equally as sharp, and so highly polished that they look black instead of bright, and the breath disappears from their surface, as from the face of the finest mirror. The hilts were without “basket” of any kind, and about a foot in length, intended to be grasped, when in use, with both hands. They were covered with the skin of the shark, or the corrugated plaice, wrapped in silk cord in diamond shapes, and ornamented with amulets in the shape of small animals, made of gold, boxwood, red coral, or bronze. The guard, which was a circle of bronze, was decussated, and frequently had an image of a fly entangled in a web. The blade has little curve, and is contained in a scabbard of wood finely lacquered, and ornamented with purple cord.

The Japanese interpreter present spoke English tolerably; said he had learned it from an American at Nangasaki, but took good care not to mention that this American was one of the sailors whom the United States ship Preble took from them in 1849, who had been held by them in captivity. They were very desirous of getting dictionaries and grammars in English. They were offered a passage to the United States in one of the steamers; they said “No; they 222 would come when they could build ships”—indicating the three masts with their fingers, and the yards by crossing them. Two of the party ascended as high as the main-top.

The houses on shore progressed, and were being built without any palisade enclosure, as had been agreed on. On the 4th of March we had a slight fall of snow, and the air was cool. The Japanese, with the ships’ casks, brought off in their boats, from some place of their river, water to fill our tanks. They brought two kinds, and desired us to choose between them. Everything in Japan having any connection with strangers, is deemed a matter of such importance, that the water-boats were always accompanied by others with municipal officials. They were entertained with cakes and tea and wine; and were quite curious in examining each portion of the ship. They did not understand why we should have brought so many vessels. They told us that the Russian squadron had been at Nangasaki, and left there on the 12th of February. At that time they declared their intention of making a treaty with the “American States” alone. They would present their fans on which they desired some sentiment to be written, and many of them took away the marginal aphorisms of a pocket-dictionary. Their own cards were presented, written perpendicularly on strips of paper, such as Mr. Olee-ke-chay-suo, or Mr. To-ta-ro-sa-koo-ka. They were very polite in writing names in Jap 223 anese characters in our books. I requested one to write a name on the title-page of a Book of Common Prayer, which happened to have a steel engraving of the cross upon it. He had dipped his camel’s-hair pencil into his portable inkstand, passed the point through his lips, and was about to write when his eye rested upon the cross; he instantly shook his head, threw the book upon the table, nor could he be induced to touch it again.

Some of the officers who visited the shore near the buildings, brought flowered branches of the wild Camellia Japonica, which is native here. Upon being put on the table near a stove, they sent forth a pleasant perfume. The leaf here is of the deepest and most lovely green; but the flower, though as large, had not the same delicacy of petal—perhaps owing to exposure to the cold winds—as the same flower, after hot-house nurture, in the United States.

On the 6th of March a mariner died on the Mississippi of an affection of the brain. The sloop-of-war Saratoga, after a boisterous passage from Shanghae, and being blown off from the mouth of the bay of Yedo, arrived and anchored in the line. This dropping in of the ships and the subsequent arrival of another, the Japanese did not understand, and perhaps thought with Macbeth:—

The 8th of March had been selected for the landing of the commodore to meet the Japanese commis 224 sioners at Yokohama, but there was very little of the excitement or interest felt in this landing, that attached to the first, in July preceding, except on the part of those from the ships, that had not been to Japan on the previous occasion. Then there was some doubt and uncertainty; the Japanese might or might not attempt the Golownin game on us; they say now, they were prepared for us then as enemies, they now receive us as friends: besides this we had now taken exactly the measurement of their foot, and our force was treble as great.

On the first landing of the commodore to meet the Japanese commissioners, he will be escorted by all the marines of the squadron, who can be spared from duty.

Major Zeilin will make the necessary arrangement.

The bands of music from the Powhatan, Susquehanna, and Mississippi, will be in attendance.

Four boats will be sent from each of the steamers and the Macedonian, carrying forty seamen in addition to the boats’ crews, and their proportion of marines and musicians.

Three boats from the Vandalia, to carry thirty men as above.

One boat from each of the storeships to assist in carrying the marines, &c., on shore.

Half of the captains to remain on aboard. Those who land will leave the first lieutenant in charge of the ship. There will be subsequent opportunities for all to land who wish it.

Three officers from each ship can join the escort.

The officers to be in undress-uniform, frock-coats, cap, swords, epaulets, and pistol.

The men armed with musket, sword, and pistol, and dressed in blue jackets and trowsers, and white frocks.

The musicians armed with sword and pistol, and all to be provided with musket or pistol cartridge-boxes.

About 11 o’clock in the morning of the 8th, preparation being complete, twenty-nine boats of the different ships, with officers and crews armed and equipped agreeably to the order, were formed in a line abreast according to rank of commanders, and pulled ashore, presenting a beautiful sight. The number landing, including officers, was about five hundred. The commodore not long after, left the flag-ship in a white barge, under a minister’s salute of seventeen great guns from the Macedonian, he going ashore in the capacity of “Special Ambassador.” On reaching the beach, as before, he was received by his officers, and with American national airs from the bands. The column of escort was then formed, and all marched to the reception-house—a short distance. A large field around the buildings had been screened off with striped cotton cloth, of black and white, while the common people of the village were kept back by ropes, extending from a growth of fine trees to the water’s edge. A Japanese guard of honor with lances, were drawn up on the right in rear of our line of 226 marines and sailors, and a cordon of the sharp government boats lined the beach to the left.

Hayashi Daigaku, no-kami; chief commissioner to form the treaty, and member of council.

The chief Japanese interpreter was Moriyama Yenoske, and Hori Tatsnoske, and Namura Gohachiro, were two other interpreters. “No-kami” means a very learned man; one into whose head no more information can be gotten.

On entering the hall, the commodore was received by the five commissioners. The party being seated, the flag of Japan was run up on board the Powhatan, and saluted with twenty-one guns from the launches, after which another salute of seventeen guns was given to the Japanese high commissioners, which the Japanese say, they took as a great compliment.

The room of reception and audience was in a white pine-building, unpainted. You entered by a flight of three steps. On either side the room was lighted through white oiled paper in the place of glass, placed in frames resembling sash-work. The extreme end of the room was concealed by a large blue flag, having in its centre in white, the Japanese coat-of-arms, composed of three quarter-moons, whose horns unite so as to form a circle, around which at intervals, was entwined a small wreath. The walls of the entrance were covered with paper screens, having on them the Japanese deified or sacred bird, the crane, perched on leafless trees. The floor was covered with mats, or rather straw-cushions, they being some three inches thick, bound on the edges, and very springy, when walked on. Along the entire length of the room, were placed low benches for seats, in front of which nearly as low, were narrow tables covered with red cotton cloth. The temperature of the room was regulated by charcoal in full heat, placed in copper-pans as “braziers,” resting in lacquered stands with gilt and ornamental legs, distributed along the centre of the floor. The company being seated—the Americans on the left and the Japanese functionaries on the right, the Japanese interpreter received a message from his prince, with his nose about two inches from the matting, and then dragging or sliding himself à la Turk by the use of his arms, to where the commodore was seated, told Mr. Portman, his clerk, in 228 Dutch, to say to the commodore, that the prince was glad to see him, and hoped his health was better. This civility was returned in like manner. They then went to business: they desired to know what number of persons the commodore wished to have retire with him in the conference: commodore said, he wished a room for five, and named the captain of the fleet, Mr. S. W. Williams of Canton, author of the “Middle kingdom,” his son—his secretary, and Mr. Portman, who interpreted in Dutch. They retired into another room in the rear, whose entrance was concealed by a purple flag. The interview lasted some three hours, during which time the following answer to the president’s letter was received:—

Last Autumn at the departure of the Dutch ship, the superintendent of the Dutch trade in Japan, was requested to inform your government of this event, and a reply in writing has been received.

At Nangasaki, the Russian Ambassador recently arrived to communicate a wish of his government; he has since left that place, because no answer would be given to any nation that might communicate similar wishes.

However, we admit the urgency, and shall entirely comply with the proposals of your government, concerning, wood, water, provisions, and the saving of ships and their crews in distress. After being informed, which harbor your Excellency has selected, that harbor shall be prepared, and this preparation, it is estimated, will take about five years. Meanwhile a commencement can be made with the coal at Nangasaki by the beginning of the next Japanese year [10th of February, 1855].

Having no precedent with respect to coal, we request your Excellency to furnish us with an estimate, and upon due consideration this will be complied with, if not in opposition to our laws. What do you understand by provisions? and how much coal?

Finally, anything ships may be in want of, that can be furnished from the productions of this Empire shall be supplied; the prices of merchandise and articles of barter to be fixed by Kuro-kawa Kahei, and Moriyama Yenoske. After settling the point before mentioned, the treaty can be concluded, and signed at the next interview.

Seal attached by order of the Imperial Commissioners.

(L. S.) Moriyama Yenoske .

Kayei, 7th year, 1st moon, 26th day.
[February 23d, 1854.]

The commissioners expressed themselves prepared to commence discussions upon the various points contained in the letter from the president, presented last year, and also to receive any further propositions that the commodore might wish to make—that in the determination of the emperor to make some 230 modification in their laws of seclusion, he relied upon the friendly disposition of the Americans toward Japan; and as such negotiations were entirely novel to them, they would trust with confidence to the commodore’s superior experience, to his generosity, and his sense of justice.

Commodore Perry was fully satisfied on all points suggested by him, which were in accordance with Mr. Webster’s letter of instructions to Commodore Aulick, accompanying the first letter to the emperor. A draft treaty, in English, Dutch, Chinese, and Japanese, was put into the hands of the Japanese commissioners, who said that it would receive due consideration; but the old emperor had died since Commodore Perry was there last year, and his successor was a young man, who would require to consult his council before coming to a determination, and the commodore was reminded that the Japanese did not act with the same rapidity as Americans did.

After these preliminaries had been gotten through, the commodore made known to the commissioners, that a man had been dead on the Mississippi for two days, and he desired to know, whether he could not bury him on an island lower down the bay, which we had already surveyed, and called after the great statesman, “Webster Island.” They objected strongly to this, and said, if we would deliver the body to them at Uraga, some twenty-six miles below, that they would have it safely conveyed to Nangasaki on the 231 island of Kiusu, a distance of five hundred miles, and there inter it in the burying-ground, which they have allowed the Dutch. The commodore would not consent to this, when they agreed to permit the burial on shore just abreast of our anchorage. They said, they would have the spot fenced in; most probably because hereafter it would be tabooed ground with them.

When the commissioners and commodore retired, the officers of the escort, who remained, were treated with tea and confections. After these thin-cooked meats, some bearing great favor to fried snakes, cut in slips so thin that the hinges of one’s jaw would become tired, long before his appetite became satisfied, were placed before them on lacquered plates. This repast produced much disappointment with the officers; they had paid two official visits to the prince-regent of Loo-Choo island—a dependency of Japan, and on one occasion were entertained by him with as many as thirteen different soups at one feast, and arguing from “man to master,” they anticipated twenty-six different kinds of soups, when they got their knees under Japanese pine. To those who were sharp-set, the entertainment of Timon of Athens could not have been much less satisfactory.

Equi-distant on the tables, were lacquered trays supported with feet, on which were placed of the same material, heavy ornamental silver “tea-pots,” containing saki, while the tea was served in thin-lacquered cups, resting—to keep the heat from 232 the hand—on circular pieces of bamboo, resembling the dice-box of a backgammon-board. The Japan lacquer—and this being a part of the “service” of royalty, must have been a fair specimen of it, did not strike me as being incomparably superior to that of the Chinese, as I had supposed.

When the repast was concluded some Japanese amateur-artists from Yedo, who had come down from the city in the suite of the commissioners, made crayon sketches of many of the officers, and seemed to labor under the impression, that the only thing necessary to make a good American portrait was to draw a large nose, and sketch the balance of the features around it. Their essays at representing flowers—the Japonica for instance, were much better.

While on shore, I took the opportunity of making a closer inspection of the Japanese troops, who were standing in line in a neighboring field. They did not present as good an appearance as when drawn up at Gorihama, the year before. They did not seem as athletic as the Tartar troops I saw at the fort back of Canton, or at Shanghae; and it appears to me, that even if they were armed with the percussion-musket, or the modern Minie rifle, instead of the antiquated matchlock, old Dutch muskets, &c., as they are, still their unsoldierly costume, would prevent, that freedom and quickness of movement, and celerity in the use of offensive weapons, that now-a-days constitute effective troops.

In my limited reconnoissance, I took occasion to pull some of the family Camellia Japonicas, that were growing wild. One of the two-sworded gentry seeing me standing near the beach, with a bunch in my hand, desired to know the name of the flower in “American.” Upon being told he repeated the word until he got our pronunciation quite accurately, and then wrote it down in a small soft-paper book with a camel’s hair pencil, they always going provided with these, together with a small bronze ink-holder, and a handle to contain the pencil, at a short distance not unlike a small pipe, with the bowl downward. I retorted his question and requested the name of the flower in “Nip-pon,” as they called their country. He said, “T’su-bi-ki.” The “illustrious stranger”—wearied me more than himself with the number of his queries. I had to catalogue nearly every article in my wardrobe in English for him, which he invariably noted down. Upon showing him my watch, he pronounced the word “chronometer” quite plainly; and on espying when the case was opened, my name engraved on the back, he wanted to know what it was. Touching myself I pronounced my name, which he wrote down, but hardly succeeded in repeating. They can not say “l,” but call it “r.” The word “glove,” which they call “grove,” is too much for them.

In the interview, the subject of supplying us with coal was broached, which they gave a favorable response to, and promised to have some specimen, 234 of what coal they had, ready for inspection in a short time. This contrasted strongly with the dissimulation practised by them during the stay of the “Preble” at Nangasaki in 1849. Then, those Japanese who came on board, affected the greatest curiosity in looking at the coal in the armorer’s forge; they were much surprised at the heated rocks, and one of them asked permission to take ashore a piece of the coal, which he carefully wrapped in paper.

The next day Japanese officials were aboard of the Mississippi, and held interviews there with the captain of the fleet, with regard to furnishing fresh provisions to the ships.

During the forenoon, the mayor of Uraga, and the interpreter and other officials came aboard, and accompanied the men sent to dig the grave for the man who had died, to point out the spot on shore. The burial, which took place some hours after, with the consent of the authorities who were standing by, and in the presence of thousands of the population, accompanied with the religious service of Christians, was an event of much significance, when the inscription that was put by the Japanese over the massacred Christians at Simabara is recollected: 235 “So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan; and let all know that the king of Spain himself, or the Christian’s God, or the great God of all, if he violates this command, shall pay for it with his head.” The settled oppugnation to Christianity, of more than two hundred years, was broken through with this burial from an American man-of-war.

Not having been present at the interment, I am indebted, for an account of it, to the chaplain of the Mississippi—a man of great energy of character, and who, in addition to his clerical duties on board ship, occupied himself with literary labor, and with an indomitable perseverance and love for scientific discovery, during the whole cruise, at every hour of the night, addressed himself to the task of observing the various phases of what has been called the zodiacal light; and to his midnight labor and zeal, the astronomical world may yet be indebted for a solution of the vexed question about this light.

“Our preparations were for an interment exactly after our usual method upon the occasion of the burial of a marine. A great many of the officers would have liked to have gone, and some applied for permission; but it was thought best to give the occasion no unusual eclat, while at the same time nothing was to be omitted.

“About three o’clock, after ‘all hands’ had been called to ‘bury the dead,’ and the chaplain had read from the gangway the customary passage of the Scripture, we left the ship in two boats, with the flags at half-mast; the first contained Captain Slack of the marine corps, assistant-surgeon Lynah, and myself, 236 in uniform and gown; and the other boat having the dead body, with a guard of honor, consisting of a corporal and six marines. We landed at a spot designated—a quarter of a mile south of the landing-place of yesterday, and in front of a large village—Yokohama, the whole shore being lined with villagers who had come to gaze. The mayor of Uraga, interpreter, &c., received us there. I had expected that on their seeing me in my official costume, and first knowing that there was a Christian minister on their shore and among them, that there would be a recoil, and that they would shrink from me as from something poisonous. But there was no such thing. On the contrary, they came up successively and gave me their hand for a shake. (They have learned our salutation, and seem to be fond of it). The interpreter, pointing to my prayer-book, asked if it was for ceremonies over the dead, and smiled as before, when I told him that it was. The marines were formed in line and received the body with presented arms, when the procession was formed and moved on: marines with reversed arms; fife and muffled-drum playing the Dead March; the chaplain; coffin borne by four marines; their captain, surgeon, hospital-steward, and six or eight sailors. Our way lay through the village, and the occasion seemed to excite quite a holy-day among them; everybody, men, women, and children, running and gaining good places for seeing, and squatting down on the ground till we had passed, 237 when they would run and gain another place for observation if they could. The street through which we passed was, however, kept clear, and at intervals I noticed new boards stuck up, with inscriptions, probably to warn people from intruding on our way. But the people, even women and children, showed no fear nor any hesitation in coming near us, or in being seen themselves; and some shops that we passed were kept open as usual. I saw myself often pointed out, being doubtless recognised by my gown and book as the clergyman of the party, but it was without any exhibition of displeasure on their countenance; but as they would look at any other curiosity. I saw one woman hold up her little child to see me, and the thought passed through my mind that, if it should live to maturity, it would probably see many wonderful changes in Japan.

“Our way led quite through the village, at the further end of which, on a wooded hill at our left, was a temple with two different flights of steps leading up to it, and ornamented gateways below. Through the further of these gateways, I now saw a Buddhist priest in his officiating costume emerge, and perceived that he took his way toward some fresh earth—the grave, a little beyond.

“They had selected for the interment a very pretty spot about a hundred yards from the village, and closely adjoining an old burying-ground of their own. We found the Buddhist priest seated there, but he 238 attempted no interference with our religious ceremonies, which I commenced (all uncovering), as we approached the grave.

“The scene, at this time, was an exceedingly interesting one; even apart from its being the first breaking through of the Japanese settled opposition to Christianity. The hills here formed a semi-circular sweep, and at one end of the semicircle we were standing. On the opposite side, on the heights above, was the Buddhist temple. The sides of these hills, and the whole sweep of the crest were covered with people, quiet, and attentive spectators of what was going on.

“Close to us stood the Japanese officials, just below the grave. The marines in line on the other side, and near them on a mat sat the old Buddhist priest, with a little table before him, on which were a number of papers, &c., with incense burning in their midst. Everybody was quiet and attentive while we went through our usual service for the solemn burial of the dead. Then the marines fired three volleys over the grave. As the first volley was given there was a half shout on the hills around, as if giving vent to deep observation and pent-up curiosity, the number of which was computed by one of our officers at two thousand.

“While they were filling up the grave, I asked permission to examine their burying-ground, which they readily gave, the interpreter also going with me and 239 explaining the several parts. Against the side of the hill is a range of sculptured stones, which he said were their gods; some had bas-reliefs of figures like human beings on them. Across the space were lines of small head-stones—some of these also with human figures sculptured in bas-relief on their front, others with inscriptions. These were commemorative of individuals buried below; and when I observed to the interpreter that the space for each body was very small, he replied that the dead in Japan were buried in a sitting posture .

“I then went down to the Buddhist priest, a venerable-looking man of about seventy-five years of age, who was very friendly and showed me his rosary, half of the beads in which were glass, and half wood; also his book.

“The interpreter opened the papers and showed us their contents, and stated that the Buddhist had come there ‘as a compliment to Mr. Williams’ (Williams having been the name of the deceased). On the little table, in addition to the incense-box, and some rolls of unknown material and paper, were also a bowl of cooked rice, a covered vessel filled with saki, and a small gong. The priest now commenced his ceremonies, sometimes touching the gong, sometimes stirring the saki; while he thumbed his beads, and then muffling his hands in his robe and bowing his head, he read some prayers in a low, unintelligi 240 ble voice. His outer dress was a pouch of very rich brocade silk covered with fanciful figures.

“After putting head and foot boards with inscription to the grave; and covering it in our usual manner, we left the Buddhist priest still engaged at his ceremonies and set out on our return, the crowds gathering around as before, and all very civil and polite, so with drum and fife playing we returned to our boats.”

Conferences were now held daily, and negotiations progressed slowly, but harmoniously.

It was agreed that everything official, that transpired at these interviews, should be committed to writing that nothing might be misunderstood, nor retracted.

On the days of assembling, an imperial barge with a canopy and gaudy streamers, moving like the stately boat of some Doge, towed by a number of boats, conveyed the high commissioner and suite from Kanagawa to the place of meeting.

Among the presents intended for the emperor was a small railroad-track, with locomotive-tender, car, &c., and a magnetic telegraph, which were erected and put in operation on shore.

These excited a great deal of interest among the Japanese, particularly the latter, when they were made to comprehend its utility in the transmission of intelligence. Communications were made in their presence in the English, Japanese, and Dutch lan 241 guages. They were also delighted with the railroad, when they saw the engine and car flying round the track at the rate of twenty miles an hour, but thought it would be impossible to construct them to advantage in Japan owing to the very uneven surface of the country.

Nearly two centuries ago, the Jesuits in China seeing how necessary the protection of the government was for their propagandism, made a number of things to amuse and excite the curiosity of the emperor Kang-hi . One of their inventions resembled the modern locomotive, though on the Ericsson plan; it was made, like the locomotive presented to the emperor of Japan, at Yokohama, to run in a circle also. In the large old folio history of China, from the French of Du Halde, printed in London one hundred and nineteen years ago (a copy of which is in the possession of John V. L. M’Mahon, Esq., of Baltimore), I find the following:—

“They caused a Waggon to be made of light Wood about two Foot long: in the middle of it they placed a Brazen Vessel full of live coals, and upon that an Æolipile, the wind of which came down through a little Pipe upon a sort of a wheel made like the sails of a Wind mill; this little wheel turned another with an Axle tree, and by that means set the Waggon in Motion for two hours together. But lest room should be wanting to proceed constantly forward it was contrived to move circularly.”

Negotiations having progressed harmoniously, on the 13th of March launches were sent alongside of the storeships, and the presents for the Japanese being put in them, the captain of the Macedonian with a suite of officers, pulled ashore, and delivered them pro forma to the authorities. They were afterward pleasantly entertained by them. The Japanese must have formed a rather exaggerated opinion of the quantity of the presents intended for them by the Americans—judging from the size of the room set apart for their reception. They were given to understand that these were tokens of amity, not a tribute.

A railway with steam-engine; a magnetic telegraph; a surf-boat; a life-boat; a printing-press; a fine lorgnette; a set of Audubon’s American Ornithology, splendidly bound; plates of American Indians; maps of different states of America; agricultural implements, with all the modern improvements; a piece of cloth; a bale of cotton; a stove; rifles, pistols, and swords; champagne, cordials, and American whiskey.

A telescope; a lorgnette in a gilded case; a lady’s toilet-box, gilded; a scarlet velvet dress; a changeable silk dress flowered; a splendid robe; Audubon’s 243 illustrated works; a handsome set of China; a mantelpiece clock; a parlor stove; a box of fine wines; a box of perfumery; a box of fancy soaps.

Among the presents, perhaps the one most valued, was a copy of Webster’s complete dictionary, to the imperial interpreter. To the high officers were given books, rifles, pistols, swords, wines, cloths, maps, stoves, clocks, and cordials, the latter of which they fully appreciated; and as regards clocks, when it was proposed to bring an engineer from shipboard to set them agoing, the Japanese said there was no occasion for that, for they had clockmakers in Yedo who understood them perfectly. They were curious to know, however, if Ericsson’s caloric engine, of which they had heard, had been successful. There were also given them a quantity of Irish potatoes, and an hydraulic-ram.

We had now been lying in their waters a month; the necessity for the reference of many things to Yedo, caused the negotiations to drag their weary length along. Diplomatizing may have been all very well for those engaged in it, and getting a munch of something fresh the while on shore, but the enchantment lent to those confined on board and compelled to watch proceedings with a spy-glass, or take exercise on a hurricane-deck, was very slight indeed. The supply of eatables brought from China had disappeared; ship’s rations were ubiquitous upon the table; and the appetite of an American exceeding, or at 244 his ordinary meals consuming as much as four Japanese, the scanty supply of watery vegetables, a few pounds of fish, sweet potatoes, and chickens which had attained their majority, and upon whose muscular thighs neither the molars nor incisors of the most assiduous masculine chewer could make any impression—which negotiation obtained from shore—when distributed by signal from a storeship among a whole squadron, went but a little way. We were undergoing all the annoyances of a state of siege, without any of its excitements. And “Oh! it is sweet for one’s country to die,”—but not of short commons.

The Japanese said they had no objection to the officers going ashore to walk about the towns of Yokohama and Kanagawa, but trusted they would not for the present go further; the people had not become used to strangers, and their presence might produce unnecessary excitement among them.

The chaplain of the Susquehanna was ashore on the 14th, and took a long stroll, not getting aboard until ten o’clock at night. Had he made the best of his time he might have had a sight of the city of Yedo, but he spent some two or three hours in going to and fro in Kanagawa, and an adjoining place, which enabled the wily Japanese authorities time to communicate his whereabouts to the commodore, and to make complaint of it. He visited the very populous city of Kanagawa, and also Kasacca.

At a wave of the hand of the Japanese officials who accompanied him, the crowds of people opened a clear passage in the centre of the street for him. He entered some of the houses, which he found primitive in their furniture and arrangements, but, compared with other oriental dwellings of the same class, neat, clean, and comfortable. In some of them he observed clocks of Japanese manufacture. He also visited several temples, which though smaller than in China, have more gilding on their walls, and ornaments on their idols, and generally are in better order. The priests as well as the people were distinguished for their courtesy.

The cities thus visited were not only very extensive (estimated to be six miles long), but had wide, well-formed streets. As he was returning, a Japanese officer put into his hands an order from the commodore for all officers to return on board, and shortly afterward a courier, mounted on a splendid black horse, delivered a similar despatch, and finding it was understood and acted on, turned round and galloped back again to report the approach of the American officer, who concluded his journey by torch-light, and found on his arrival that everything that had occurred had been noted, even the number of buttons on his coat being recorded. On his route he met the escort and train of some high functionary, supposed to number some two thousand. They were supposed to be conveying to Yokohama the few presents which they 246 said the emperor could only now send, for want of time to prepare others.

The negotiations, which were interrupted by the equinoctial gale, were resumed on the 17th of March. The commodore wished them to give us three or four ports; his squadron was a powerful one; but if he carried back an unsatisfactory answer to his government it would send another and a larger one for a different purpose. The Japanese were willing to give us one port then, and another in five years; they said they could not grant a port in the island of Yezo—hitherto called Matsmai—without consulting the prince of that department. To this, it was replied, “Give the port in the island of Niphon, and the squadron would go to see the prince of Matsmai.”

On the 19th of March the squadron was increased by the arrival of the storeship Supply, from China. She brought us the intelligence of a naval engagement between the Russians and the Turks; but the disappointment of many in not getting letters was great, and they thought

The Japanese having offered the harbor of Simoda, in the province of Idzoo, as one of the ports for American ships to visit, the Vandalia and Southampton were sent down to that place, to make a reconnoissance, and to report upon its facilities of entrance, and capacity. The weather was raw, rough, squally, 247 and rainy. Agreeably to instructions from the government, received before leaving China—a wise thing, as naval commanders are always very chary, and not at all disposed to render any more facilities to the foreign diplomatic agents of the country, than they can help, on the 25th of the month, the steam-frigate Susquehanna left Japan for Hong Kong, to convey the new American commissioner to such of the Cinque ports as he desired to visit.

On the same day there was a landing, not for purposes of negotiation, but for the reception of the presents from the Japanese, which consisted of lacquered cabinets, desks, some silks, bags of rice, &c., not very numerous or at all comparable in use or value to those given them. On this occasion there was quite a number of officials present, who were compelled to manifest curiosity, when they saw the beautiful little locomotive, with its highly-finished rosewood car, complete in all the customary furniture, driven by a charcoal-fire alone, at a rate of a mile in three minutes, around a circular track of three hundred feet. The Americans were entertained with the contests in the ring of some Japanese athletes. These men were of great stature and much obesity, but their limbs displayed none of the angular muscularity, of a Monsieur Paul, lifting his cannon or resisting the draught of horses, or the pugilistic activity of the American Tom Hyers and Sullivans, who could no doubt whale them with little difficulty. 248 These men are in the pay of princes, and have such designations as “Giant of the North,” &c. Their hair is gathered upon their head, as others of their country, though not shorn, perhaps to prevent their Samsonian qualities being affected. In front of their persons, which is otherwise unclothed, they wear a scarf, with the insignia of the prince they serve upon it. They commence with an exhibition of their strength, such as throwing with each hand over the shoulder, or lying on the ground, and somerseting with large straw-bags containing two hundred pounds of rice each. Then came the trial of the ring, not more than eight feet in diameter, and made of rice straw. Before commencing the combatants squatted and rubbed their knees, as if to assure themselves of their strength, and then rubbed a little dust under each arm, something like an infuriated cow, when she throws it on her back, and then with a grunt they closed, and though the claret was occasionally drawn, and great welts were raised upon the shoulders, yet there did not appear much of that belicosity, descriptions of which have graced some of the columns of the papers of our own country, since the infusion into it of Bill Poole blackguardism. The effort was rather to get one another out of the ring, when the effort ends. After being sufficiently amused at this intellectual display, the commodore and party returned aboard.

Nearly every day, some of the Japanese officials 249 came off to the flag-ship to arrange in the preparation of the treaty, that matters might be facilitated during the formal interviews held ashore. Chief at such times, on their part, was Moriyama Yenoske, the imperial interpreter in the Dutch language; indeed he was the man of the treaty, so far as the Japanese were concerned; to his friendly regard to the Americans, his clear appreciation of propositions, and the accurate conveyance of them to the minds of the commissioners by his translations, we are much indebted.

On the 27th an entertainment was given to the commissioners on board of the flag-ship. It was the first time that the Japanese imperial flag floated from the mast-heads of foreign men-of-war. The guests came off about three o’clock in the afternoon. On passing the Mississippi they received a salute of seventeen great guns. They first went aboard of the Macedonian, when her crew were beat to general quarters, and the broadside-guns of the ship, together with her large “pivots,” exercised before them. From here they went to the flag-ship Powhatan, but some of them, who had changed from their steady-moving boats, by invitation, to our buoyant and lively ones, did not have their appetites for the repast that awaited them, improved by the qualmy motion. On the Powhatan they were shown the exercise and rapid firing of the twelve-pounder howitzers, in which they appeared to take much interest. They then partook of a dinner, 250 which had been spread for them: the commissioners dining with the commodore, and the rest of the company from tables spread under the awnings of the quarter-deck. The Japanese did full justice to the dishes before them, and when partaken to satiety, they aided the disappearance of the food, after the manner of their country, by wrapping up and taking away an occasional pie or sweetmeat of which they are very fond. Music from the band regaled the occasion, and as the hermetics drained their draughts of champagne and cordial down, they became very social, if not confidential, and proposed frequent sentiments of friendship between “Nipong” and America. With such a people, John Barleycorn is very potent: particularly in treaty-making. At night on the forecastle the Japanese witnessed a capital Ethiopic performance, at which they appeared much amused. Indeed their stoic gravity had pretty well left them before this hour, and one of them, during the evening, indulged in a polka under the hurricane-deck with a very intelligent midshipman. They left at an early hour for the shore, and after a salute from the Saratoga, their flag was hauled down. One of the commissioners had a fancy for a large cake, which was given him by the commodore, together with some cordial, to be sent ashore the next day. During the night one of the orderlies at the cabin-door stole and made away with the cake. Not wishing to give the Japanese the bad idea of our men, that the mention 251 of this theft might produce, the diplomacy was resorted to of telling the Japanese, when presenting the wine, that it was an American custom to present cake in the evening; by which time, another one had been made, and was sent ashore.

On the last day of March, the ships having gotten back from Simoda, and made their report as to that harbor, the commodore had his last official interview ashore, with the commissioners, at Yokahama, Kanagawa, when after much difficulty, and talking, and debate as to the wording, the following treaty was signed:—

The United States of America and the Empire of Japan, desiring to establish firm, lasting, and sincere friendship between the two nations have resolved to fix, in a manner clear and positive, by means of a treaty or general convention of peace and amity, the rules which shall in future be mutually observed in the intercourse of their respective countries, for which most desirable object the President of the United States has conferred full powers on his commissioner, Matthew Calbraith Perry, special ambassador of the United States to Japan, and the august sovereign of Japan has given similar full powers to his commissioners, Hayashi, Daigaku-nokami, Ido, prince of Tsus-Sima, Izawa, prince of Mimasaki, and Udono, member of the board of revenue. And the said commissioners, after having exchanged their said full powers, and duly considered the premises, have agreed to the following articles:

ARTICLE I.

There shall be a perfect, permanent, and universal peace and a sincere and cordial amity between the United States of America on the one part, and the empire of Japan on the other part, and between their people respectively, without exceptions of persons or places.

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ARTICLE II.

The port of Simoda, in the principality of Idzu, and the port of Hakodade, in the principality of Matsmai, are granted by the Japanese as ports for the reception of American ships, where they can be supplied with wood, water, provisions, coal, and other articles their necessities may require, as far as the Japanese have them. The time for opening the first-named port is immediately on signing this treaty; the last-named port to be immediately after the same day in the ensuing Japanese year. [ Note. —A tariff of prices shall be given by the Japanese officers of the things which they can furnish, payment for which shall be made in gold and silver coin.]

ARTICLE III.

Whenever ships of the United States are thrown or wrecked on the coast of Japan, the Japanese vessels will assist them, and carry their crews to Simoda, or Hakodade, and hand them over to their countrymen appointed to receive them; whatever articles the shipwrecked men may have preserved shall likewise be restored, and the expenses incurred in the rescue and support of Americans and Japanese who may thus be thrown upon the shores of either nation are not to be refunded.

ARTICLE IV.

Those shipwrecked persons and other citizens of the United States shall be free as in other countries, and not subject to confinement, but shall be amenable to just laws.

ARTICLE V.

Shipwrecked men and other citizens of the United States, temporarily living at Simoda and Hakodade, shall not be subject to such restrictions and confinement as the Dutch and Chinese are at Nagasaki, but shall be free at Simoda to go where they please within the limits of seven Japanese miles (or ri ) from a small island in the harbor of Simoda, marked on the accompanying chart hereto appended; and shall in like manner be free to go where they please at Hakodade, within limits to be defined after the visit of the United States squadron to that place.

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ARTICLE VI.

If there be any other sort of goods wanted, or any business which shall require to be arranged, there shall be careful deliberation between the parties in order to settle such matters.

ARTICLE VII.

It is agreed that ships of the United States resorting to the ports open to them shall be permitted to exchange gold and silver coin and articles of goods for other articles of goods, under such regulations as shall be temporarily established by the Japanese government for that purpose. It is stipulated, however, that the ships of the United States shall not be permitted to carry away whatever articles they are unwilling to exchange.

ARTICLE VIII.

Wood, water, provisions, coal, and goods required, shall only be procured through the agency of Japanese officers appointed for that purpose, and in no other manner.

ARTICLE IX.

It is agreed that if at any future day the government of Japan shall grant to any other nation or nations, privileges and advantages which are not herein granted to the United States and the citizens thereof, these same privileges and advantages shall be granted likewise to the United States and to the citizens thereof, without any consultation or delay.

ARTICLE X.

Ships of the United States shall be permitted to resort to no other ports in Japan but Simoda and Hakodade, unless in distress or forced by stress of weather.

ARTICLE XI.

There shall be appointed by the government of the United States consuls or agents to reside in Simoda, at any time after the expiration of eighteen months from the date of the signing of this treaty; provided that either of the two governments deem such arrangement necessary.

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ARTICLE XII.

The present convention having been concluded and duly signed, shall be obligatory and faithfully observed by the United States of America and Japan, and by the citizens and subjects of each respective power; and it is to be ratified and approved by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by the august sovereign of Japan, and the ratification shall be exchanged within eighteen months from the date of the signature thereof, or sooner if practicable.

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries of the United States of America and the empire of Japan aforesaid, have signed and sealed these presents.

Done at Kanagawa this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and of Kayei, the seventh year, third month, and third day.

M. C. PERRY.

The night before the signing of the treaty, the officials were aboard of the flag-ship until a very late hour, composing with great care the various prepared copies of the treaty, as they had been enrolled. In the Japanese copy they discovered an error in the formation of one character, which they desired to be altered to prevent as they said, any misconstruction hereafter. They did not understand the “ratification” of treaties: with them an obligation once signed, was full and complete, and they did not see any necessity for any supplementary action by the contracting parties.

After the signing of the treaty the commodore intimated his purpose of going up to Yedo and saluting the emperor; if he could not reach the city in his 255 steamers, he could in the ship’s boats. To this they objected. They were told if they had objections, they should have included them in the treaty.

This treaty, it will be seen, is not one of commerce, but of friendship or amity. It is said that the Japanese had some objection to signing their copy with the words “Lord Jesus Christ” in it. It was understood, that Hakodade was not to be visited by the squadron, until fifty days had elapsed from the date of signing.

The Japanese were desirous of knowing from our fleet-captain, whether the English and the French were coming up to Japan, when the American squadron should have left: the answer was, we did not know.

There was something rather mysterious about Yezimon, the little deputy-governor of Uraga. At the time of our first visit, he took quite a conspicuous part in all the intercourse, but on our return, it appears, he had to pale his ineffectual fire before greater luminaries. Very little was seen of him, indeed, if he was seen at all on our return. The great familiarity and sociability that he had displayed when on board of our ships had probably gotten him into trouble. The officials declined saying anything about him; when he was asked for, and one of the officers informed them that he had a Colt’s revolver which he desired to present to Yezimon before leaving, they said they had rather that it should not be done, and added, that they could not speak about him.

On the 4th of April, after an absence from the United States of over four years, the sloop-of-war Saratoga left for home. In her went as passenger Commander H. A. Adams, captain of the fleet—bearing to the United States, by way of the Sandwich Islands and the Californian route, copies of the treaty in English and Japanese, and three copies in Dutch certified to by A. L. C. Portman, Esq., and Moriyama Yenoske, intended to be the first intelligence home of the completion of the treaty. There also went home in her a number of invalid officers who had undergone the enervation and emaciation produced by the heat and diseases of an East India climate. As the Saratoga passed out she fired her parting salute, and was cheered by the remaining ships of the squadron, the bands playing “Home, Sweet Home!” in a manner that caused each heart to heave. Every one who thought of the long while she had been out, wished fair winds to fill her sails, and Heaven speed her!

The interpreter, and others, continued their friendly visits to the ships, wearing when the weather was bad, a singular rain-cloak called meno , made up of a number of tassels of a kind of mountain fern, pendent from the junction of meshes knit from the same material, and having outside a covering of green silk network. They would tell us in answer to the question “Could we now see the emperor?” “No; too young man.” They had told us that it would require some days before they could arrange a bazar at Simoda, 257 where we might be able to procure specimens of their lacquer-ware, porcelain, &c.; and in the meantime our surveying-boats, when the weather would permit, were kept constantly going.

The 10th of April, being the birthday of the commodore, I suppose he wished to signalize it by a nearer approach to the city of Yedo, and accordingly early in the morning a signal was thrown out for the squadron to get under way, which was done, the Mississippi leading up the bay, and the Powhatan and the sailing ships following, with the exception of the Lexington, which got aground just as her anchor was away. This movement being perceived from shore, the Japanese interpreters Moriyama Yenoske, Hernyama, Gohara, and Namura Gohachiro, third interpreter, at once rowed off under much excitement. The latter came aboard of the Mississippi, the others went on board of the flag-ship; where they ascertained the commodore’s intention of going higher up the bay, Yenoske objected most strenuously, urging that the lives of each of the commissioners, and himself, were in danger for not preventing (?) it, or remonstrating against it; or previously advising their government; they said they could not tell but it was not possible to calculate the consequences. In reply, the commodore said that his instructions from the president were to go up to Yedo, and that he would have done so, but for the feelings of friendship that he entertained for the commissioners who preferred 258 Yokohama for holding the conferences. They gave it to be understood that the anchoring of the ships off Yedo, would at once require of them the performance of the “Hari Kari,” or happy despatch—that they would be necessitated to this, according to a custom which it was no use to argue against, to save themselves and those related to them from dishonor; and that such was the case with each of the commissioners.

Hari Kari , meaning “happy despatch,” is the act of disembowelling one’s self with a sword, among the Japanese. The young man, of any family pretensions, is early indoctrinated in the art of self-destruction. He is also instructed as to the occasions and circumstances when this form of suicide is appropriate for a gentleman, either to preserve himself or those connected with him from dishonor. It is given him strictly in charge, to remember that the wearing of the badge of his position—two swords—is also typical of his courage; perhaps as Napoleon said, that he who cares nothing for his own life is master of that of others; and that one of these swords, like the dagger of Brutus, is for himself, when his country shall need his death. He desires that it shall be said of him, what Malcolm says of Cawdor:—

The commodore promised that the two steamers should only go up in sight of Yedo, and without dropping anchor, return. This quieted their apprehensions considerably. About twelve o’clock, when we had gotten a distant view of the great city, the water suddenly shoaled so as to prevent our further progress, when the boats that had been sounding ahead were recalled, the steamers put about, and the whole squadron proceeded directly down the bay to the anchorage off Nati Sima , or as called by us, Webster island, with the exception of the Mississippi that was sent to the assistance of the Lexington, but that ship having kedged off, we towed her to where the remaining ships had anchored.

Poor Namura Gohachiro, the third interpreter, who was aboard of us during the day’s movements, looked the while like a man whose time had come. He evinced no interest in anything that was going on around him, and during the day did not look over the side. He complained of sickness, and Jamaica ginger gave him no relief; he put aside his two swords, and lay on the cabin sofa; his great inquietude lasted until we had dropped anchor off Webster island, when he experienced the greatest relief, going over the side into his boat, which we had towed during the day, 260 looking like one from around whose neck the halter had been taken.

The yearly number of those who now commit the Hari Kari, or “happy despatch,” in Japan, is estimated at four hundred.

The principal cause of the alarm of the Japanese officers, on the approach of the ships to Yedo, was in some anticipated outbreak on the part of its rabble, who must comprise a great number in a city of over fourteen hundred thousand inhabitants. These lazzaroni have more than once threatened the stability of the government; a huge unmanageable mob threatening destruction, and deaf to reason; a horrid hydra easily moved, but controlled only with great power and force. The effect upon such a population of the novel sight of two large steamers off their city, who in addition to other engines of destruction, were believed to have on board steam-guns, can be easily imagined, especially when the mob never expected to see such a sight again. Then, too, they are more eager after novelty because of having been kept in ignorance by the stringent laws against foreigners; and they have been taught that they are beneath laws.

Such is the intense curiosity of the Japanese character, and the great rush to gratify it, that at one time, before the signing of the treaty, there was as many as seventy thousand people from all parts of the country, congregated in Kanagawa and its im 261 mediate vicinity, eager to get a look at our ships, and endeavoring to get aboard. To furnish a pretext for their assemblage near the place of negotiations, many resorted to the ruse of offering their services to the authorities, in the event of the negotiations with the Americans, taking a hostile turn. Many of the princes of the empire, anxious to see the ships and not being able to get permission or authority to do so, resorted to the plan of getting on board by going disguised in the suite of Moriyama Yenoske, the chief interpreter. On one occasion—April 4th—a number of Japanese gentlemen of rank, having obtained permission to visit the ships, it was surmised, and upon very good authority, that the young emperor himself had been aboard. His features would probably not be known to one of his subjects outside of his immediate attendants or council. The boldness and tact with which they manage nayboen matters is remarkable. The interpreters were always very cautious, and never committed themselves by giving information. A great many of the better class Japanese, who came aboard, were able to write, and sometimes speak a little Dutch (Holland), and generally expressed themselves with much correctness.

The next morning, after anchoring off Nati Sima , the Macedonian was despatched to the Bonin islands with some agricultural implements, and to look after some men, with orders to join us at Simoda.

While our surveying boats were running their line 262 of soundings, and triangulating in the vicinity of the anchorage, some of the officers, in other boats, paid visits to Webster island, which afforded a fine opportunity for exercise, besides being a very pretty view. Before returning to the ships, we pulled into a number of little inlets and small bays near by. The hill-sides were well wooded, and the deep green of the thorough cultivation on terraces and steppes was delightful to the eye. In some obscure coves, were built stone piers for landing, and a number of junks had been beached, and their owners were preparing them, or firing their bottoms, that the sea slime might be removed and their speed increased. In others, the fronts of large quarries of sandstone, and what appeared to be fuller’s earth, approach the edge of the water. The latter was cut away in square blocks, leaving the face of the hills like the smooth masonry of a curtain-wall and bastion.

On the morning of the 18th of April, the Vandalia and Lexington having preceded us, the Powhatan and Mississippi steamed slowly out of the bay of Yedo, running a line of soundings from the ships as we went, after passing Sagama cape, the two ships stood over in the direction of Ohosima, that the bearings of that island might be taken, and then headed off southward and westward, leaving the bay of Kawatsu on our right hand. The volcano on Ohorima was not in a state of eruption, as when we passed it three months before. We soon saw Cape 263 Idzoo, and by three o’clock were up with Rock island, that marks the mouth, and ran into the harbor of Simoda. This place from having been visited in May, 1849, by the English man-of-war Mariner, our own sailing ships, which preceded us, were no novelty to the people, but the approach of the Powhatan and Mississippi running in a straight line through the narrow entrance, filled the height on either side with a throng, looking for the first time, and with wonder, on steamships.

CHAPTER XII.

Simoda—in Japanese “Lowerfield”—situated in the principality of Idzoo, which occupies about the same latitudinal, though not isothermal lines—as our state of North Carolina, is a place containing a population of twenty thousand. The streets are narrow, though regularly laid out, and at their intersections have gates, which may be easily closed in the event of any emeute . At their points are also placed stone structures, surmounted by little roofs protecting copies of the laws and municipal regulations so conspicuously posted, that all who run, may read. The houses, which are usually and ornamentally stuccoed in light blue and white diamond shapes, are nearly all of one story with parapets, and without chimneys. Between the parapets wires are stretched to prevent the bird, which “by the hoarseness of its note doth indicate a crow,” from alighting on the roofs. The Japanese certainly can’t regard them as a bird of evil omen, from the great numbers that fill their streets. Perhaps they are kept from injury, for sanitary purposes, like one more ungainly, found in our southern cities. 265 There are a number of temples in and near the place, dedicated to different deities. Behind the town stretches a lovely level valley for some miles, through which flows a little stream—Simoda gawa, and surrounded on either side by towering bluff-hills, that make the resemblance very great to the scenery on the Potomac, at Harper’s Ferry. From this stream, junks and ships are supplied with fresh water, and on its banks are built rice and grain mills, with undershot wheels, to turn which, the water is diverted from its course by artificial excavations. The amphitheatre of high hills that surround the place in other directions, is very thickly wooded, and presents a green and lovely prospect from the water. The town has about fifteen hundred houses, and it is wonderful to see how many people a Japanese town will hold.

The harbor of Simoda, though of rather difficult access at times to sailing vessels, and subject to quite a heavy swell, when the wind blows from a southerly direction, is quite a secure one, after getting in. The entrance is narrow between high bluffs, but on passing inside, the water spreads into a fan-shaped bay, with a bight, on which the principal town of Simoda is situated, on the left hand, which place is not visible until reaching a central island. It is encompassed on every hand by high hills, bleak and uninviting in some patches, and others cultivated in terraced fields of rice and wheat, or clothed in the deep verdure of 266 the pine and other trees. Across the bay of Simoda about half a mile round a sweep of white level-shiny beach, on which the waves sullenly chafe, is a little fishing village, called Kakizaki, which also has its temples. Here was a spring possessed of sulphurous qualities; and on the beach the ship’s seines were hauled with some success.

Having to remain at Simoda some time, a party under Lieutenant Maury was at once set at work to make a survey of the harbor. The officers spent their time ashore in strolls through the town, visits to the temples, rambles into the country, occasionally taking a gun, though there was very little to kill. The people, when we landed, appeared glad to see us, and were always inclined to be sociable, but for the omnipresence of their police. They would gather around and examine the cloth of our clothes with much curiosity—particularly the old women—and the designs on our buttons. The remarkable and unremitting espionage of the Japanese is everywhere shown. Should you give some peasant a button, even while apparently out of sight of any one, it will be most singular, if one of the officers does not return it to you before or after you are on shipboard again. At first our steps were dogged by the police wherever we went. This did not require much effort in the town, but when we struck into the country and climbed hills with thick and sharp undergrowth, these officers not being as well habited as ourselves to withstand brier 267 and thorn, their scratched legs usually paid the penalty. Besides this, their lazy habits had made them very indifferent pedestrians. In a walk of any length they generally broke down; they would rub their legs and beg us to return, but as we were not aware of having solicited the pleasure of their company, we declined compliance with their requests. The commodore complained to the acting chief magistrate, Kimakawa Kahei, of this practice of spying upon the movements of his officers, and said, that if it were not stopped, he should recommend them each to take a stick with them, and stop it. They contended, that it was a precaution for our protection, the people not yet being accustomed to the sight of us. They were answered, that we felt ourselves quite competent for our own protection.

After this, these gentry, if they attempted to follow, were driven back at once, and if they spied upon our movements at all, it was at such a distance, that their presence was not perceived by us. In a short time, the officers moved as freely in the area of country granted by the treaty—a radius of about sixteen English miles, as if they were in the United States. The chief objects of interest ashore to visit, are the Sintoo, Buddhist temples, and some smaller ones, dedicated to the tutelar deities of the soldiers, and the marines. The Japanese display great rural taste always in their locations, selecting the most picturesque, and at times, the most elevated spots for 268 their erection. Attached to these temples are usually kungwas , or places, where the weary traveller may rest for the night, and get some tea and eatables from the attendant priests. A Sintoo temple just at the end of the principal street from the landing at Simoda, was the chief place for the holding of official interviews, and subsequently for bazars. It stood in the midst of a cemetery overhung by large trees, and steep boulders of granite. The spacious and level yard in front, was divided with stone crossings smoothly cut, and in it stood alone, a tower of cyclopean masonry, in which was hung one of their sweet-toned bells. Their manner of striking, which is by a piece of green wood swung horizontally on the outside of the bell, gives a delightful softness to the sound, while the proximity to the earth increases the distance at which it may be heard. The carving and frieze work about the columns at the entrance to this temple are as elaborate and fantastic as can be imagined, while the little hydras and animal images perched upon the eaves and roof, are as numerous as on a Chinese Joss house. The interior is very plain, and the Sintooist worships no idol. Living here was a priest named Dosangee—his head entirely shorn. He was quite polite to us, and in return used to expect us to give him the pronunciation of some words in English, which he was endeavoring to learn by the aid of an English and Dutch dictionary, which he had. He accompanied me through the temple.

In one part of the temple, the commodore, from the initials “M. C. P.” on some boxes there seen, seemed to have had a room set apart. The altar, in the place of worship was very plain, and had incense burning on it. Its only ornaments consisted of bronze castings representing their sacred crane on the back of a tortoise, and a small gilded elephant. There, of course, was the invariable accompaniment of Sintoo worship—a small mirror—an emblem of the soul’s perfect purity; or, according to some, as plainly as the votary sees his own features in that mirror, so plainly do the mediatory spirits to whom he prays, see his spiritual and temporal wants. Such a style of worship would scarcely answer for the belles of our land. As the devotee enters one of these temples he first drops a few “cash” (about the fifteenth of a cent) into a carefully-secured box at the door, then by shaking a lot of sleigh-looking bells hanging from a beam, attracts to his prayers the attention of his mediatory spirits, who only number some three thousand—these are the kami , confreres of the spiritual emperor or mikado, and analogous to the saints of the catholics.

The Sintoo mythology also comprehends a god of war. On entering the grounds where one of these temples were located, we passed through a military barrack, where were a number of small stallions tethered from either cheek, wrong end foremost in their stalls, who grew quite indignant in their cavortings 270 at our presence. On our approach they turned out their guard—three or four stupid-looking soldiers, with tin-basin looking hats, and the calves of their legs swathed in blue cotton cloth, upholding the insignia of rank of their chief, which were cruciform lances in coverings of shark-skin. In the building, we saw on the walls, offerings of swords and bows, from those who had deemed themselves miraculously preserved in battle.

In the Mariners’ temple we saw suspended from boards on the walls small queues of the Japanese seamen, who had undergone the imminent peril of shipwreck, together with details of the particular storm, pictures of foundering junks, and the names of those who escaped. The parting with this little pig-tail of hair, the Japanese sailor thinks is one of the greatest sacrifices that he can make to his patron divinity. The approach to this place was over a fine balustraded bridge, and under a noble well-planted avenue of the yew-pine tree. Another yasiro , on a mountain-side, is reached by a direct and continuous flight of over a hundred steps. Over at Kakisaki , in one of the temples, is an allegorical painting of some size, the subject of which is very nearly an embodiment of “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and the hero is as defiant as Saint George with the Dragon. The plan of the picture is a birds’-eye view. A horrid ogre or devil dwells deep in a cavernous recess or hell, and his daily food is women, many of whom are confined in the gloomy 271 precincts of his prison. A young prince prays for power to rescue them, which is granted, and he is provided with a potent potion. Disguised as a pedlar he crosses dangerous chasms and descends steep cliffs; at last, arriving at the door of the devil’s abode, he gains admittance, and gives the devil the potion, which he drinks and becomes drunk, when the young champion despatches him, and sets at liberty all the unfortunate victims that he has there confined.

At the first-named temple, a party of our officers, who taking a long tramp on a hunt, during the day, did not get back until a late hour of the night, desired to lay on the mats in the kunqwa until morning, and threw themselves down. The Japanese strongly objected to this, and insisted upon their going off to their ships. This, on account of the lateness of the hour, they declined doing. The officials went off and came back with a lot of soldiers and a number of lanterns, and were finally guilty of the rudeness of pulling them by the feet. At this, our officers kicked over their lanterns, and cocked and capped their pieces, when the valiant assailants vanished at once. Tatsnoske, one of the chief officers of the place, at four o’clock in the morning, then went off to the flag-ship, had the commodore woke up, and desired him to order these officers off to the ship. The commodore refused to do any such thing; and the next morn 272 ing sent the same officers and a captain of marines to demand an apology for their conduct from Karakaha Kahai, which was given without delay.

There being no treaty of commerce with the Japanese, preparatory to such a result hereafter, a number of our coins had been delivered to them before leaving the bay of Yedo, that they, might be assayed at the capital, and the relative value, with their own, established. In the meantime, it was no doubt intended, or thought on our side, that as the people in the stores were willing to sell, and our officers were continually offering to purchase little curiosities and other articles of their handicraft that were to be found in their shops, that in this way, things would find their level, and an impromptu trade, as it were, spring up. This notion proved a mistaken one; things were purchased, but they were paid for in silver dollars at the rate of twelve hundred cash each, and not directly to the seller, but through a government officer called gayoshio .

In strolling the streets of Simoda you see old crones, arranging, in the open air, their warp for weaving. The personal pulchritude of the cadaverous-complexioned Japanese women, is not much under the best circumstances, but when it is remembered that on marrying, they shave off their eyebrows, and blacken their teeth with some iron rust and acid, as a badge of the marital state, their appearance becomes most repulsive. The younger women, with their elaborate 273 arrangement of hair, who have not yet undergone this process of disfigurement, though rather ungainly in gait, owing to the use of clogs, and wearing about the hips an awkward compressing scarf, are quite good-looking and with lighter complexions, have also much better-shaped eyes than the Chinese.

The only wheeled vehicle you may see is a rude hand-cart, the wheels without tires. Should you meet a man on the back of an ox bringing to town bundles of wood, the sight of your barbarian garments are very apt to incense him greatly; and the rider, disturbed by his movements dismounts, takes him by the tether, and leads him aside.

The fronts of the shops are closed with sliding screens of paper, oiled to admit the light, and the floors raised about two feet from the ground are covered with mat-cushions, upon which, a-la-Turk , sits the shopkeeper, who has left his straw sandals at the door. You would scarcely be expected to remove your boots at every shopdoor you entered, but if you stepped up on the platform the shopkeeper would intimate that your leather shoon would mar the whiteness of his mats. The plan of purchase was mostly pantomimic. Pointing to the article, you ask, “How mutchee?” The shopkeeper repeating your “how mutchee?” as he makes a mental calculation, proceeds to hold up the fingers of one or both hands before you, each finger being one hundred cash—estimating twelve hundred to the dollar. The purchase com 274 pleted, you do not pay the seller, but the articles with your name, and his mark are sent to the government officer, gayoshio , when the imperial paw is placed upon the specie you pay, and the seller is apt to get the amount in copper coin. By an arbitrary decision they made their itzeboo—a square piece of silver with the government stamp, equal to a Spanish dollar—and as they could take this dollar and coin nearly three itzeboos from it, it became a very good operation for the imperial treasury, at no time suffering from over-filled coffers.

The religion of the Japanese enjoins cleanliness of person upon its votaries, but can scarcely divert the repulsive and indecent manner in which it is obtained. At the bath-houses in Simoda the sexes of all ages bathe indiscriminately together.

The Japanese in their intercourse with us, were always pertinacious in assuring us, that they were not Chinese; indeed they would have been very indignant to be thought of a kindred race. They did not take long to find out, that we were not Dutch. They would mention derisively the fact of the length of intercourse the Chinese had had with other countries, and yet, that they had never built square-rigged vessels like ours; they intimated more enterprise than this for themselves. After the signing of the treaty with us the imperial edict preventing the building of their vessels, without open sterns, was repealed. The larger junks usually laid in the bay of Sirahama , 275 further northward: those who came to Simoda, ran in to make a harbor, when the weather became threatening, or were engaged in bringing copper ore, from some neighboring province, and carrying back charcoal and wood.

The Macedonian, after a little over two weeks absence, returned from the Bonin islands, bringing the intelligence, that the man, that we had previously left at Port Lloyd, had decamped from there on some whaler, after regaling himself on Uncle Sam’s bullocks. We hailed her approach with much gratification, as she brought sixty large sea-turtles—a perfect God-send—an oasis in the desert of salt junk. “Soup! soup!” resounded in the messes, louder than the “Beef! beef!” in the American camp, that invoked the thunders of Henry.

The Lexington was sent to Loo-Choo to look after things till the return of the other ships; carrying out the recommendation contained in the introduction to the work of Golownin: “Provided judicious means shall be used and a foundation laid by a progressive acquaintance through Loo-Choo.” The Macedonian, Vandalia, and Southampton, were despatched to Hakodade, or as it was then spelt on Russian authority, Chackodade, in the island of Yeso. A poor fellow, killed by falling from the topsail yard of the Powhatan, was buried without difficulty or objection in the ground of a temple, back of Kakizaki.

On a fine sunshiny morning, in the latter part of 276 April, I had landed, according to previous appointment, to take a botanical tramp into the country with the author of the “Middle Kingdom,” and with a gentleman from South Carolina, our botanist. I reached the shore before them, and, a number of the villagers around, stood on the glistening white beach between Simoda and the fishing village of Kakizaki, watching the lazy swell as it came in a roll against Centre Sima, or broke with a low splash through its Gothic cavern, when I was approached by two young Japanese, whose dress and address told, that they were gentlemen in their land. They wore the rich brocade breeches; the handles of their short and long swords were decorated with amulets, and the light blue oval on the summit of their fresh shaven polls, shone far smoother than “a stubble land at harvest home.” After the characteristic bended and knee-pressing salutation, accompanied with the aspirated “Eh!” which only a Japanese can do exactly, which I jocularly replied to with “Abeyo!” they came quite close to me. Pointing to our different ships in the harbor, they attempted to pronounce their names, but as they scarcely succeeded, either in their sequence or their articulation, particularly of Mississippi and Powhatan, I did it for them, and at their request wrote all of their names down, with one of their camel’s hair pencils. This done, they affected to examine with some interest the chain attached to my “tokay,” or watch, and at the same time slipped into the bosom 277 of my vest an enveloped letter, which noticing, I immediately attempted to withdraw, when they gently restrained my hand, cast an anxious glance around, and gave a most imploring look for secrecy. A moment’s thought, and I was willing to indulge them in this, believing the document to have some reference to a matter which had been mooted by the younger officers of the squadron, of which I was one. Just after this, a couple of the resident officers came up from the direction of Simoda, whose approach was the signal for the scattering of the villagers, who are not permitted to stand and gaze on a stranger. Between them and my incognito epistolary friends, salutations were formally interchanged, when both parties moved off in opposite directions. The examining look which accompanied these otherwise very ordinary politenesses, on the part of those from Simoda, caused the idea to pass through my mind that the others were from another province.

By this time, my friends from the flag-ship having joined me, we struck into the country to the southward, to take what in the “pigeon” dialect of the Chinaman, is called a “look see” at the botany of Japan, which those who have more of this pleasant information than myself, represent as being of much interest.

Our path led through a very broken yet well-wooded and cultivated country. We entered a small building used as a schoolhouse, and also as a place of 278 worship. In a room was a colossal figure of some female deity in a sitting posture, which, not being a Buddhist representation, must have been intended for a likeness of Ten-sio-dai-zin , the especial deity of Japan. Officers who had seen it before us, looked upon it as a fine specimen of their casting in bronze, but we found it on examination to be of wood, painted in imitation. We had an opportunity of seeing the little dwarfed trees which they are so skilful in preserving; and in front of many of the houses, different trees trained in the form of animals, with sea-shells to represent the eyes. The cultivation, which is very close and clean, was mostly in terraces and between hills. Occasionally we reached a level field, which was being ploughed. This is done with a small plough, with a single hand and beam, the share being like an iron scoop, not of much diameter. It is drawn by an ox in traces, and with wooden saddle, while a small boy leads him with a stick attached to a ring in the nose, and a man holds the handle of the diminutive earth-scratcher. Little pathway streams are turned to use by being made to fall into wooden troughs on the end of balanced wooden levers, which filling and precipitating at intervals, with a weight on the opposite end of the beam, are made to pound rice in mortars. We encountered any number of wayside shrines, mostly made by placing small stone images in little coves: occasionally a short flight of steps led up to one. At these the wayfarer prays.

About two o’clock in the day we came upon a large urban Buddhist temple. The grounds around were quite extensive and well cultivated. You entered them under a number of steep-roofed gateways, guarded by a number of little stone-lieutenants to Buddha, who seemed to be armed with besoms to sweep away evil spirits when they should visit the premises at the pale glimpses of the moon. The building was larger than any I had seen in Simoda. The interior being unsealed overhead, you could look up through rough hewn timbers to the thatching of the roof. The floors, brightly polished, were covered with a white dust, as if the building was neighbor to a flour-mill. The grain of the wood of the large unpolished columns around the altar, was very beautiful. Buddhas in any number were around the room. Black barrel-shaped “tom-toms” were in the middle of the floor, the beating on which, by the shiny-headed priests, is intended to attract the attention of their divinities to their worship, as a daguerreotypist in taking your picture first tells you, “Now it commences.” On one side of the main entrance there was a native inscription: “The laws are ever revolving;” on the other, “The period of Buddha is near: remember it.” To the beams inside were pasted a number of strips of white paper, which when blank are called gohir , and intended as emblems of purity; and when written upon, according to some, are inscribed with moral and religious sentences. Those that I noticed were 280 covered with Japanese characters, which I was told were the names of those buried in an adjoining cemetery, for whom mass had been performed. In the cemetery near by were a great number of tombs—little square stone columns very close together, because their dead were buried in a sitting posture. On all of these you saw a compound character, meaning “Returned to vacuity,” and underneath the inscription told that Leu-tah-churo, or somebody else, had gone to nothingness, in such a year of the reign of Tairi .

Eight lascivious-looking priests resided at the temple, having the receipts from the kunqua attached, as a part of their revenue.

The hour of the day having arrived, when that tocsin of man’s soul, the dinner-bell, would have been heard, if at home, we seated ourselves on the front steps of the temple to partake of a little “chow-chow.” While thus engaged the incidents of the morning came to my recollection, and I handed over my epistle “ extraordinaire ,” which I had gotten from the two Japanese, to my friend our interpreter, to get an inkling of what it was all about, at the same time giving him my surmises as to its contents. It was of much more import; he thought the commodore should see it, promising to return it to me. As there were a number around us, no doubt indulging in the Japanese espionage, I only got at the time, the superscription, which was: 281 “A secret communication, for the American men-of-war ships, to go up higher.”

On leaving this place we clambered to the summit of high, bleak hills, with a very white volcanic formation, at the top, so bright that at a distance it might well have been taken for snow. The ascent was anything but agreeable, as we were impeded by thick bushes, brier and bramble. Two Japanese who attempted to play pilot, fared worst, but upon getting up some distance had the “sava” to see that going ahead were as well as going back. We rested at an abandoned quarry on the summit, and from here had a fine view of the surrounding country. My companions having filled the leaves of an old census-book with little botanical specimens, comprising rare little plants and cosy little wild flowers of every hue, together with what they thought were some new specimens of the fern family, we descended into a pretty little valley waving in wheat, and at sundown were at Simoda.

That night the officer of the mid-watch of the Mississippi heard the words “American! American!” pronounced in a low tone from the top of the gangway-ladder, and immediately two young Japanese descended to the deck. They made signs to him of great fatigue, held up their tender though blistered hands, and desired to cast off their boat from the ship, which they were not permitted to do. An attempt was made to comprehend them by means of a 282 Chinese servant, who was awoke for the purpose, but the domestic celestial insisted that they had “rice for sale.” The commander of the Mississippi directed them to be put on board of the flag-ship. Here it was ascertained they were from Yedo; that they were desirous of coming to our country, and that, unable to effect that object or have communication with us when we lay off Yokohama, they had followed us, at much risk, in an open boat, from the bay of Yedo to our anchorage at Simoda. Their plan was, after getting on board of us, to permit their boat to go adrift, allowing their swords to remain in her, which family relics the Japanese regard as very heir-looms, not to be parted with but in the last extremity, and by this means to produce the belief that their owners had been drowned when the boat should be picked up. Fearing there might be some deception in the matter, perhaps a ruse to see in what faith we were prepared to observe their laws, which we were aware prohibited any of their people from leaving Japan for a foreign country, they were ordered to be put ashore in a ship’s boat at a point where they would not be liable to observation, which was done, the hour being nearly two in the morning. On reaching the beach they soon disappeared in the woods.

A few days afterward, some of our officers in their strolls ashore, ascertained that there were two Japanese confined in a cage at a little barrack back of the town, and on going there they were found to be 283 the persons who had paid the midnight visit to our ships, and they also proved to be my unfortunate friends of the letter. They did not appear greatly down-cast by their situation, and one of them wrote in his native character on a piece of board, and passed through the bars of his cage, to one of our surgeons present, what follows:—

The commodore, it is said, did not hear of their capture and confinement, until the next morning, when he sent some officers ashore to see what might be done in the way of intercession, but on reaching the barrack, it was found that they had that morning been sent to the city of Yedo, and as the attendant at the place made sign, for the purpose of being beheaded.

The following is the translation of the letter, which the unfortunate aspirants, for a sight of the great world, beyond their hermetic empire, placed in the breast of my vest, the neat and sharply-defined characters of whose original, as it lies before me, would assure even one, who did not comprehend their language, that it had been pencilled by men of intelligence and taste.

Two scholars of Yedo, in Japan, named Isagi Kóóda and Kwansuchi Manji, present this letter to the high officers or others who manage affairs. That which we have received is meager and trifling, as are our persons insignificant, so that we are ashamed to come before distinguished personages. We are ignorant of arms and their uses in battle, nor do we know the rules of strategy and discipline. We have in short, uselessly whiled away our months and years, and know nothing. We heard a little of the customs and knowledge of the Europeans and Americans, and have desired to travel about in the five great continents, but the maritime prohibitions of our country are exceeding strict, so that for the foreigners to enter the “inner land” or for natives to go to other countries, are alike among the immutable regulations. Therefore our desire to travel has been checked, and could only go to and fro in our breasts, unable to find utterance, and our feet so hampered that we could not stir.

This had been the case many years, when happily the arrival of so many of your ships anchoring in our waters, now for several days, and our careful and repeated observation of the kind and humane conduct of your officers, and their love for others, has revived the cherished desire of years, which now struggles for its exit. We have decided on a plan, which is, very privately to take us aboard of your ships and carry us to sea, that we may travel over the five continents, even if, by so doing, we disregard our laws. We hope you will not regard our humble request with disdain, but rather enable us to carry it out. Whatever we are able to do to serve, will be considered as an order so soon as we hear it.

285

When a lame man sees another walking, or a pedestrian sees another riding, would he not be glad to be in his place? How much more to us, who, for our whole lives, could not go beyond 30° E. and W., or 25° N. to S., when we behold you come riding on the high wind, and careering over the vast waves, with lightning speed coasting along the five continents, does it appear as if the lame had a way to walk, or the walker an opportunity to ride!

We hope you who manage affairs will condescend to grant and regard our request, for as the restrictions of our country are not yet removed, if this matter becomes known, we shall have no place to flee, and doubtless will suffer the extremest penalty, which result would greatly grieve your kind and benevolent hearts toward your fellow-men.

We trust to have our request granted, and also that you will secrete us until you sail, so as to avoid all risk of endangering life. When we return here at a future day, we are sure that what has passed will not be very closely investigated. Though rude and unpractised in speech, our desires are earnest, and we hope you will regard us in compassion, nor doubt or oppose our request. April 11th.

The Japanese smaller ordnance is quite defective, some of their pieces loading at the breech, by unscrewing. Many of their gentlemen, among their 286 other accomplishments, study the military art. To this number, and their artillery officers, our handsome small pieces,—Lieutenant Dalgren’s twelve-pounder brass howitzers—without a superfluous ounce of metal, and probably as admirable guns as are to be found in use among any nation—were always objects of great interest. The Japanese were presented with one of these howitzers before we left the bay of Yedo, but none of the lock-wafers, or boxes of canister, or other fixed ammunition for them, were given, nor any instruction as to the manner in which they were made.

The following is a translation of a letter from a military man from Yedo, who, for the single object of collecting information, had been following the squadron, in the hope of meeting one of our officers. He was a gentleman of some rank, and had influence with several men in authority at Simoda, who visited him and never prevented his coming aboard. The letter was written in Dutch, and as a specimen of progress of military science in Japan, and search for other information, is not uninteresting.

The law in Japan will not allow us to speak or to write with people of another country. Yesterday, on my return from the ship, I found that out, and it was not pleasant—Now you’ll be on shore to day, with friendship; I can not control (check) my desire to speak in writing, and shall follow up the prompting of my soul.

At an early age I commenced studying the European and Chinese art of war with the aid of my teachers at Yedo; the European is cer 287 tainly superior to the Chinese mode of warfare, I think and know more of it. On the arrival of the American ships off Uraga, Kanagawa, Yokahama, and Simoda, I went to and fro to those places, and on board of the ships at every opportunity, I saw there several instruments and machines, but don’t know enough about it. I could not speak with the Americans for the persons who visit the ships in business, would not allow it.

Where is the island Borin, 2 and who lives there? Tell me, if you please, the names of some great countries.

What are Kanaka Wich , to what country do they belong? 3

What are the implements at the disposal of an officer, who commands ten thousand soldiers in the field?

What are the advantages of the steam-gun?

Give me a recipe to make percussion-caps.

In a Dutch book on military art I found, that for a newly-invented gun or musket the percussion-caps are attached to the cartridge by a thread. Why don’t the Americans have such muskets, haven’t they yet discovered how?

Why do people from other countries live in Loo-Choo?

Simoda on the horizon from the north pole in what degree? And in what degree to the east from London? a few days ago the masters of the Mississippi have been measuring, they must know.

If you will be kind enough to give me the information, what is the most useful and latest invention in America for military men. I shall be obliged to you and be always ready to oblige you in return.

It will worry your mind to read my letter and I find expressions for what my soul suggests.

B. N. M., or (X.)

I hope you will answer my letter, I go on board of the ships in the boats that take the water. I can not go on any other boat, and am always in the hope that the boat will be sent to the ship where you are.

I shall go to Yedo and be back in Simoda on the return of the ships from Hakodade, and hope to see you then in good health.

288

Query. The great Mexico empire, which belongs to the powerful United States, where is that situated?

The authorities have notified me, that I was not allowed to receive Americans at the house and converse with them.

I therefore write this letter and shall be on board your ship to-morrow and speak with you.

The following day he was on board, according to promise, in the suite of some Japanese officers. There was no opportunity to answer his questions that day, and on the return of the ships from Hakodade he did not make his appearance, retained by illness or otherwise at Yedo, that is all. The officers heard from him, but never saw him again after that day, and his questions remained unanswered. “Give me a recipe to make percussion-caps.”

We noticed the number of matchlocks, that the Japanese were armed with, when we landed first in Japan—at Gorihama. The Dutch writers say, that they are aware of the superiority of the musket, but that a deficiency of flints in the geological formation of their country, and their determined aversion to dependence upon foreigners for anything essential to their military equipment, prevents their adoption. Their curiosity about the mode of making percussion-caps, and the “wafers” for the howitzers, was very great at all times.

It was well enough with the Japanese, as long as they remained secluded, but when the visit of the American ships gave their military men an oppor 289 tunity of seeing what great improvements had been made in

the contrast showed them the defectiveness of their defences, and with an enterprise far ahead of their Cathayan neighbors, they at once proceeded to cudgel their brains to see how their security might be made greater. They at first thought of fortifying Simoda, but being told that it could never become a great commercial place, they gave that up. Izabavo, one of their most prominent engineers, was told to make a report as to the fortification of Uraga, because with more sagacity than that displayed by the Americans, they know its importance with reference to their capital. Yedo is the London—the Paris of Japan. When it falls, the empire goes with it. They know that the supplies for this enormous place are gotten coastwise by the junks, who come into the bay, and that the blockading of Uraga in the bay of Yedo, easily reached, would stop the throat of the Japanese empire.

Izabavo reported, that, as no two fortifications could protect Uraga, and that the width and roughness of the bay at times, and the depth of water, would make floating batteries impracticable, a gunboat system, such as was once adopted by our own government, must be their defence. These matters were discussed by the imperial council, as also the reorgani 290 zation of their army on the European plan, that is the having a standing army, that would obey promptly, the behests of the centralized government at Yedo, and quiet any refractory sentiment of their thousands, like the coup d’etat of the 2d of December by Napoleon III., instead of each of the princes of the empire contributing a quota of troops, as now.

We had now lain nearly a month at Simoda, seeing more of Japan than during the two months we lay in the bay of Yedo. We had enjoyed the walks ashore, we had enjoyed baths from a fine spring, and picknicked in the woods of Sarahama. But we had missed Foogee Yama, which at all other points we thought ubiquitous. I had climbed the high hills back of Kakizaki, to get another look at the mountain, but other and higher hills more distant, obstructed the view.

Foogee Yama since our arrival in the waters of Japan, as the Howadjis on the Nile tell of the great pyramid, seemed to follow us wherever we went. When the cold clear morning of February found us running into the bay of Kawatsoo, we saw over our bowsprit Foogee, looming up in austere magnificence. When our colors were hauled down in the evening at Yokohama, every one admired the majestic beauty of Foogee peering like a ponderous pile of marble out of the furnace of sunset. If the rains fell heavily during the night, when the curtain of cloud lifted up in the morning, in patches here and there, Foogee ap 291 peared to wear under its mantle of chilling cold, a garment of genial green; and when the Mississippi lay at Webster island, from her hurricane-deck, above the line of pines that covered the bold bluffs of the shore, sometimes near, sometimes afar off, its summit clothed in fleecy clouds of deferential beauty, grandly shone the towering mound; so now, land-locked and our view shut in by the high hills around Simoda, we missed Foogee Yama.

CHAPTER XIII.

On the 13th of May, the fifty days after the signing of the treaty having nearly expired, the Powhatan and Mississippi started for Hakodadi, leaving the storeship Supply at anchor at Simoda. Instead of keeping in shore, the two steamers stood off and ran between Oho Sima and Ja Sima . The day being clear, Foogee from his aerial height was soon looking at us. We ran quite close to the southwestern side, and had a good view of Oho Sima. The whole island appears to have been upheaved by volcanic action from the sea. From the jaws of a basin-shaped crater, issued white smoke and ashes. The side of the mountain next to us was marked by large fissures, or streaked with streams of lava. The vegetation on many of the slopes presented a pretty picture, when contrasted with the dull-charred mass that encompassed it. There are said to be three towns on the place. We saw two quite plainly, but where their harbor is, or how the steep shores are approached in rough weather, it was difficult to perceive.

After rounding Oho Sima, we stood into the land, and during the day ran in full sight of the shores of Niphon, running northward from the entrance of the bay of Yedo. The fields of barley, just assuming its yellow dress, were spread out as far as the vision extended inland. Both ships stopped at intervals to make soundings. At one time, when we had stopped for this purpose, and got bottom, at twenty-eight fathoms, on what is called an “over-fall,” the opposition of current and wind made a “chow-chow” sea, which swashed over our rail, while the fine buoyant sea-boats of Japanese fishermen around, danced dryly like ducks.

This day, I think it was, marked what may be considered a new item in the history of typography. We had on board one of the little engines, which from the days of Faustus have evolved more power, than the ponderous ones, that revolved our paddles, and by its aid, in a sea-way, an intelligent midshipman, familiar with the art preservative of arts, “wet sheets,” and printer’s ink, caused to be struck off copies of the commodore’s correspondence with the Japanese, and of the surveys of Lieutenant Maury. That little press deserves a place in the patent-office, near the one, from which came “Poor Richard’s Almanack.”

After a run of three days, standing in for the shore during the day, and off during the night, making soundings at intervals, seeing an occasional school 294 of whales, and our daily observations and reckonings showing a strong current in our favor, going to prove—what has been advanced by many—the existence of a continuous current on the coast of Japan, similar in character and direction to the Gulf stream on our coast, we made the entrance to the straits of Sangar. The land on either side was quite notable. That on the northern or island of Yeso side, bold and sharply defined, while a singular conformation on the Niphon or southern side, looked exactly the profile of the Leviathans that frequent the waters in its vicinity—“wery like a whale.” On entering we found a strong eastwardly tide running through and against us. By sundown we had run some distance in, under the high shores of the northern side, when it came on thick, and the heads of both steamers were put outward. We had made during the day a point of longitude further to the east than any, that we had reached since leaving the United States. Soundings were made every fifteen minutes during the night, and daylight found us enveloped in one of the dense fogs, from which the Japanese empire in this section, according to Golownin, is seldom free during the entire year. Both ships had to announce their proximity for some hours, to one another, by the use of their steam-whistles and the striking of their bells. When the fog lifted on the morning of the 17th, we found that the tidal current during the night, had set us in, rather than out, and holding on westwardly for 295 a short time, we discovered over a low peninsula nearly ahead, described by the Russian captain Ricord, in his voyages for the liberation of Golownin, the Macedonian, Vandalia, and Southampton, at anchor inside of the harbor of Hakodadi. We soon rounded a high promontory, and stood into a magnificent bay. The distance we had run from Simoda was six hundred and nine miles. About 11 o’clock we anchored within gun-shot of the town; it may be near the spot, where forty-one years before lay the imperial Russian brig Diana, to procure the release from an imprisonment in stockade cages of three years, of her former commander and his companions, by the Japanese—after three voyages, in which she was successful.

The temperature, on our arrival, we found very materially different from what we had left at Simoda; the difference of latitude is about seven degrees. The snow still lay on the mountains around, and the air made thick boots and an overcoat comfortable.

The bay of Hakodadi is most spacious and majestic in its sweep, and for facility of entrance and security of anchorage, it can scarcely be surpassed by any other in the world. The width at its mouth is so great that no two fortifications could command or protect it, yet the curvature of the high land around is such as to afford the greatest shelter. For all the uses of Americans it is worth fifty Simodas; here our enterprising whalers, after being buffeted about in the 296 rude seas of Ochotsk and Japan in its vicinity, may ere long repair to recruit and refit, and procure supplies of wood and water, instead of being compelled as hitherto, to make the long stretch to the Sandwich Islands. Besides this, a line drawn on the arc of a great circle from California to North China, passes through the straits of Sangar and by Hakodadi; and here, and not at Simoda, which has been mentioned as a depot, would coal have to be placed for the use of steamers between San Francisco and Shanghae.

It was agreed by all the old Mediterranean cruisers aboard, as we dropped anchor, that the view around was the counterpart of Gibraltar and its vicinity. The northern side from where we lay was the main land of Spain; the low sandy peninsula, over which we could easily see the water of Sangar, was the “neutral ground,” encircling Smugglers’ bay; on our left hand lay a small fishing-village, which corresponded to the Spanish town of Algeciras. The southern part of the hill under which the town is, was Point Europa; the hill itself, in its high and rugged isolation, was the frowning rock that enclosed the sulphurous engines, while in the distance, across the straits, on the north end of Niphon, now well discerned, or vaguely seen, as the sun shines out or the mists vary, is the natural prototype of Ape’s hill, in Africa, whose simial inhabitants are said to find their way most mysteriously across the Mediterranean. To my eye, the place bore a great resemblance to Cape 297 Town, Cape of Good Hope, if the mount in the rear were little more flattened on the summit, while an adjoining hill was the “Lion’s Rump.”

The city—containing about four thousand houses, in which there is an average of four persons—is built in a convex form reaching the water’s edge, and at the base of a very high and abrupt circular hill, called Hakodadi Yama . The most prominent objects are the temples, one of which is some two hundred feet square, whose red tile roofs reflect the sun, and suggest the idea of a Portuguese place. The principal streets are wide, running parallel with the water, rolled with gravel, and very cleanly kept. Those that intersect them are narrower, and closed with gateways of wood. From walls at either end of the place, and entrenchments dug on other sides, it must have been the object to fortify it. The houses of wood, and with more stories and larger than those of Simoda, have great projecting eaves. The clap-boards making the covering of the roof are singularly confined in their places by a number of cobble-stones: such a place would be hard to take by street-fighting, for every roof would furnish missiles for the annoyance of assailants. Every precaution seems to be taken against fire—brooms and barrels of water surmounting each house and before every door. At some places they have primitive little fire-engines, which appear to be stationary. The streets are thronged with the police who are very numerous, 298 armed with sword, and organized as military, and any number of miserable-looking curs, called yenos , resembling shouds, or dogs bred between the wolf and the dog; meaner looking than the cayotes of California.

Having no previous knowledge of our intended visit, a perfect panic prevailed among the people of the place on the arrival of our sailing ships in their bay, which was increased by the arrival of the two fire-ships. The municipal authorities, it is said, were the first to leave the place; and the women were sent after them. For several days long lines of horses, packed with movables, could be seen leaving the City and winding away over a long sandy plain, like a string of camels in a desert.

The cause of all this commotion was afterward found to be a belief among the inhabitants, that our visit was to bring them to account for having imprisoned some American seamen who had been shipwrecked on their coast some years ago. A number of the junks in the harbor also left, though there were some two hundred at anchor continually during our stay. It required some time to pacify the people; although six weeks had elapsed since the signing of the treaty, the authorities protested that they had heard nothing of it, and consequently nothing of the intended visit of the squadron. They said they could not take the responsibility of having any communication with us, except to furnish wood and water. 299 They represented their position as embarrassing, and hoped that we would not come ashore until the arrival of higher officers than themselves.

In the meantime a survey of the harbor was proceeded in; some very good wild game was killed on the opposite shore from the town, and our seine being hauled, yielded nice salmon and quantities of shellfish, which were most acceptable.

The second day after our arrival, the commodore—varying from his usual rule of only seeing the highest officer of a place, who would have been, in this instance, Prince Matsmai Idzee-no-kami, residing at the city of Matsmai, not far distant—granted an interview on the Mississippi, to Matsmai Kageyu, deputy of the prince of Matsmai, or freely translated, “Prince’s family’s great officer,” and to Yendo Matazaymon, an officer of Hakodadi. The boats in which they came off were like others, but were the first and only ones that I saw rowed in Japan instead of sculled; and this was done by continually revolving the oar as they pulled. The rowers, who were numerous, were dressed in long, green gowns, and characters on the shoulders told whom they served, like the inscription about the neck of the thrall of Cedric the Saxon.

These officers said, not being able to divine the cause of our visit, they had concluded it to be a predatory one; and that the people possessed of this idea had been leaving the place with their movables, and that the stampede still continued.

On delivering to them a letter from the commissioners, however, and showing them the treaty, their anxiety was at once allayed. When told that we would not be followed by their police when we came ashore for a walk, they said very well, but that they thought that our officers and theirs being seen in friendly intercourse, would have a good effect with the people, and cause those who had left, to return. They said they had nothing at Hakodadi to dispose of but fish-oil, dried fish, and deerskins. The relative value of our currency and theirs, was settled by weighing our dollar, which was a feather lighter than three of their little square coins—the kana-its-evoo. The effect of this rating was to make our dollar equal to 4,800 cash—their its-evoo being estimated at 1,600 cash. This was scarcely just when it was recollected that in China our dollar was only taken for 1,200, or at most, 1,600 cash.

The wind blowing very fresh, these officers remained on board some time, when they were entertained in the cabin, and shown over the ship. When they came off they brought with them a present consisting of dried fish, placed on a lacquered tray, and a quantity of sweet potatoes contained in a straw-bag.

The next day the officers of the squadron visited the shore, landing at a neat flight of stone steps, which had been set apart by the authorities for the purpose; no doubt—as things in Japan undergo slight changes in forty years—the same flight that 301 Golownin descended from his captivity. Many desirous of getting some of the curios that the place possessed, indicated a most pressing propensity for purchase, taking the shopkeepers, of a place generally dull, very much by surprise. On this day there was exposed at the shop-fronts some of their swords, an article forbidden to be sold out of the country by Japanese laws; of the purchase of one or two, by some of our officers, the authorities subsequently made complaint to the commodore, as well as of other things not very creditable to our reputation. In doing so, they said: “In general, when upright, cordial propriety marks intercourse, then peace, good feeling, and harmony, are real between the parties; but if harshness, violence, and grasping, characterize it, then hate and distrust, with collision arise, and love will not be found to bring the hearts of the people together. This is a rule of heaven, concerning which, no one can have any doubt.”

“In general,” the terms of this communication are rather extreme, but that “cordial propriety” marked the conduct of some of our officers—conduct which was not at all calculated to make “our name great among the heathen”—it would be untrue to say.

On landing I visited the large temple behind and above the town, having a background of a dense grove of cypress, and very conspicuous from the water. Its front, as we stepped it off, was eighty 302 seven paces. The interior exceeded in gilding, and elaborateness of unpainted carving, anything I had yet seen in Japan. I would have taken it to be a Sintoo temple, from a female image with an aureola, resembling the images in catholic churches with the golden halo encircling the head, but in another corner there was an image of a shaved-head Buddha in wood, and brilliantly lacquered. Resembling very much some images I saw on the British war-steamer Rattler, taken at the capture of Rangoon, I concluded the image must have been brought to this remote point from India, although religion is a matter upon which all persons visiting Japan for a limited period as we did, are liable to fall into the greatest errors.

There are two accounts of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan; according to Siebold, in 552, Sching-ming-whang, king of Petsi—a Corean state, then a dependant and ally of Japan—sent to the court of the mikado , a bronze image of the Sakya Buddha, with flags, books, &c.; and a letter which said, 303 “This doctrine is the best of any. It reveals what was a riddle and a mystery even to Kung-foo-tse. It promises us happiness and retribution, immeasurable and boundless; and finally makes of us an unsurpassable Buddhi. It is, to use a simile, a treasure containing all that human heart desires; affording all that is for our good. And this treasure possesses a twofold value, because it so completely adapts itself to the nature of our soul. Pray or make vows according to the disposition of your mind, you will want for nothing. The doctrine came to us from farther India. The king of Petsi imparts it to the realm of the mikado , in order that it may be there diffused, and that which is written in the book of Buddha be fulfilled. My doctrine shall spread toward the East.”

This temple may have been one dedicated to Rioboo-Synsu worship—Sintooism blended with Buddhism—and the female image was that of Tensio-dai-zin. Buddhism is regarded as a kind of safeguard against expelled and detested Christianity, and the lower order are all Buddhists.

The Sintoo and Buddhist priests or bonzes, who constitute the clergy of Japan, are held in very little repute by the people, and this remote regard seems to be reciprocated by the clericals. Both classes, so far as I observed, lounge and gossip in their places of worship, attaching little or no sanctity to it, except it may be, when immediately engaged in their devotions. On one occasion I noticed a parcel of devotees in a temple, with a kind of sack surplice about their shoulders, engaged in their religious exercises, and while thus employed, some shaven-poll junior priests were very deliberately sweeping the floor-mats in their faces, as if giving them a practical illustration of throwing dust in their eyes. In passing from the front of one altar to another they invariably dropped 304 the priests’ perquisite of copper cash in the well-locked boxes.

The bonzes of the orders of the blind, who may be seen walking the streets in their gauze gowns and swinging sashes, appear to be in high favor with the populace. The history of these orders is eminently Japaneish. The first is called Bussatz Sato . Centuries are nothing in Japanese chronology, and this was instituted many centuries ago, by one Senmimar, the junior son of a mikado , who was a perfect Japanese Adonis, in commemoration of his having wept himself blind for the loss of his princess, whose good looks were equal to his own. The first order had existed for ages, when the second appeared. Yoritomo, the first ziogoon , of whom I have previously spoken, while leading the mikado’s troops, defeated the rebel prince Feki, who fell, and his general Kakekigo captured. He was a general of great renown, and Yoritomo strove to gain his prisoner’s friendship, by loading him with kindness, and finally offering him his liberty. The captive Kakekigo replied: “I can love none but my slain master. I owe you gratitude; but you caused Prince Feki’s death, and never can I look upon you without wishing to kill you. My best way to avoid such ingratitude, and to reconcile my conflicting duties, is never to see you more; and thus do I insure it.” He tore out his eyes, and presented them to Yoritomo on a salver. The prince, struck with admiration, released him; and in retirement 305 Kakekigo founded the second order of the blind, called after his former master, Feki-sado .

The ascent to the Hakodadi Yama , a hill rising some fifteen hundred feet back of the town, I made through fields of black, rich soil, not yet dry from melting snow, which, a Japanese made sign, had been breast deep. Wild grape-vines all around were budding out. The view from the top of this hill was very commanding: across the straits in Niphon, and on the mountain tops around, you saw “winter lingering,” &c. Below, long trains of pack-horses loaded with charcoal were continually traversing the plain; the fishing villages were busy with their seines; the town showed like a narrow strip of houses, and our ships and the three hundred junks in the harbor, went but a little way to fill up the great water space around. Ours were no doubt the first Anglo-Saxon feet, that ever trod this height. We found a look-out house up there, where the movement of every ship passing through the straits of Sangar into the sea of Japan is noted. It was counting the whalers passing here, and the annual increase of the number bearing the American flag, that tended to give the Japanese an exalted opinion of the greatness of our country, though one of the look-outs did not show it in a very flattering way. He desired the direction of America: I gave it to him. He then very deliberately drew a large O with the point of his sword-case on the ground, and said “Nipong;” and then drawing 306 a small o he said “America;” this was very well when the “Lion played painter,” but not admiring his geographical scale, I permitted his “Nipong” chart to remain, and drew one for “America” many times larger, whereat he took no more interest in the comparison.

On descending from the Yama, I spied an open gate leading into a prison-yard enclosed by walls and stockade. The objections by the attendant and the police to our entrance were strong, as those we had first experienced in Simoda. They drew their finger across their throats and held up their right thumb to show the penalty they might undergo from the chief man, in not hindering our movements. But we had seen enough of them not to be deterred by any such flimsiness. We knew that, if we wished to sneeze in their territory, that they would shake their head, hold up the chief-man finger, and say “Ni! ni!” On one occasion two companions and myself had approached a small building with a sliding door, to see whether it did not contain a cage. The officers attempted to impede our progress, but on our getting close to it, they looked horrified and shuddered; two of the party, who were smoking, supposing that it was a powder-magazine, immediately threw away their cigars. On sliding aside the door, there was visible an old mat in a small vacant room. We made up our mind, in our movements to do only what we 307 ourselves would deem proper in our own country, and so went ahead.

In the town there are fire-proof magazines, built at intervals by the government, for the storage of articles, and for the protection of things during a fire.

There are no forts in the vicinity of Hakodadi, unless a small excavated one with two direct embrasures may be so called. This place was without any garrison; you descended into it by an inclined plane made with fascines. In its rear was a very well-constructed magazine made with gabions, and covered with earth-works. The sides were supported with stockade and fascine. The merlon was sustained by flanking so clumsy that the range of the deep embrasures was quite small. Its object must have been to bring ships to, but the reduced size of the guns as shown by the houses built over them—if there were any guns underneath—each crack being carefully stopped—would do little damage.

Not far from here are some wayside praying machines, and a cemetery in which several of the poor fellows of the “Vandalia” were interred. On the occasion of their burial by their messmates, preceded by drum and fife, the streets were lined on either side by the Japanese police, who kept every avenue clear.

The Japanese had a bazar arranged at the place at which we landed, where a number of purchases were made by the squadron, and the officials saw more silver dollars than during their whole previous lifetime.

There are supposed to be twenty thousand hairy kuriles on the island of Yeso, though we did not see any of them, there being none in Hakodadi during our stay. The officers of the Southampton, which vessel was sent around to Volcano bay to make a reconnoissance, enjoyed the opportunity of taking a look at the Orsons or Esaus.

On the last day of May, after we had entertained the Japanese authorities aboard with the pleasant attitudinizing of “Jim Brown,” and songs Ethiopan, the Macedonian left for Simoda, taking a look at the Japanese penal island of Fatisisio on the way, if the weather would permit, and the Vandalia was sent to Shanghae, China, by the way of the Japan sea, to relieve the Plymouth, that had been looking after American interests during the rebel-fights at that place.

The long-expected functionaries from Yedo did not reach Hakodadi until the 1st of June. The distance they had to come, including the passage across the straits, in a direct line, was about four hundred miles, and yet they had been fifty days in making the journey. The next day after their arrival it was in contemplation to have a military function with sailors, music, marines, and artillery ashore, but continued rain prevented it.

The Russians, who hitherto had no port on the eastern side of their empire contiguous to north China, had been compelled to carry on their tea 309 trade by inland caravans that had been stopped by the insurgent fights, and who could only send supplies to their posts of Sitka and Petropaulofski, near the Ochotsk sea, by Cape Horn, had, under Count Muravieff, boldly seized on the mouth and fine harbor of the river Amoor, in the Tartar territory, and fortified it. As the position was weakened by the river emptying into the channel of Tartary, Muravieff, to make assurance doubly sure, had seized that too.

Intelligence of these doings having reached Yedo, one of the deputies at Hakodadi, Hirayama Kenziro, was on his way to Saghalien to find out whether the Russians were not coming the filibuster Chowstoff on them again.

These functionaries made some of their characteristic communications to the commodore:—

In the paper, sent his Excellency this morning, it was stated, that we had received orders from Yedo to go to Karafto; that on the road we heard, that your ships were at Hakodadi, and as the consultations at Yokohama were not fully known on these distant frontier places, there might some misunderstandings arise, and so we came here especially to see you. If there are any points connected with the treaty, which need deliberation and settlement, we desire that you will let us know them.

With regard to going through the streets and seeing shops and houses shut, with neither women nor children in their ways, let it be here observed, that at Yokohama this very matter was plainly spoken of by Moriyama, the interpreter at that place. The customs of our country are unlike yours, and the people have been unused to see persons from foreign lands; though the authorities did what they 310 could to pacify them, and teach them better, they still were disinclined to believe, and many absconded or hid themselves.

If the commodore will recall to mind, the day, when he took a ramble at Yokohama, in which some of us accompanied him, he will recollect, that in the villages and houses we hardly saw a woman, during the whole walk. If he saw more of them at Simoda as he went about, it was because there the people were gradually accustomed to the Americans, and their fears had been allayed, so that they felt no dread.

On these remote frontiers, many hundred miles from Yedo, the usages of the people are so fixed, that they are not easily influenced and altered; but pray, how can the inhabitants here think of regarding the Americans with inimical feelings? Even when they see their officers, with the sight of whom they are not familiar, they also run aside, and as if for fear, they seek to escape us. It is the custom of our country, that officers should accompany visiters about; a custom not to be so soon changed. Still the disposition of the men here, is ingenuous, brave, upright, and good; and that of the women retiring and modest—not gazing at men as if without bashfulness. Such characteristics and such usages must be considered as estimable, and we think that you also would not dislike them.

There is a spring near the town, the water of which is strongly impregnated with sulphur, and supposed to be highly medicinal; but what of thy various supplies, O Hakodadi! An egg, like Cæsar’s wife, should be above suspicion. The number gotten by our mess, like the swords of the clan of Lochiel, was “a thousand;”—the good ones, were “one.” Hakodadi, in Japanese, is “box-eating house;” in American memory it is questionable eggs.

On the 3d of June, the Powhatan and the Mississippi started on their return to Simoda: we looked upon the departure from Hakodadi as the culmina 311 ting point of the cruise. When we reached the entrance to the harbor, a sudden and dense fog settled on us—

We ran a little distance, whistling for the want of sight, but at the fog signal of one gun from the flag-ship, came to anchor. In an hour the fog lifted like a blanket, and opened like a funnel, when both steamers, with a stiff wind that enabled them also to make sail, ran out of the straits.

CHAPTER XIV.

After a monotonous run of four days, Foogee , like a colossal cenotaph to dead beauty, showed far up before us, and in three hours we were again at anchor in Simoda harbor. We learned, that the commissioners of the treaty were there awaiting the return of the commodore; that Simoda by imperial edict had been declared an imperial city; that Mimasaka-no-kami, prince of Mimasaka, had been appointed first, and Tsusuki Suruga-no-kami, prince of Suruga, had been appointed second governor of the place; also that the last-named, and Takeiro Utsi Seitaro, imperial financier and member of the board of revenue, had been added to the number of commissioners.

Conferences with those functionaries were held in the temple ashore, and the following articles as additional to those of the treaty of the 31st of March were agreed to:—

Additional regulations, agreed to between Commodore Matthew C. Perry, special envoy to Japan from the United States of America, and Hayashi Daigaku-no-kami; Ido, Prince of T’sus-sima; Izawa, Prince of Mimasaki; Tsudzuki, Prince of Suruga; Udono, member of the board of revenue; Take-no-uchi Sheitaro, and Matsusaki Michitaro, commissioners of the Emperor of Japan, on behalf of their respective governments.

Article I. —The imperial governors of Simoda will place watch stations wherever they deem best, to designate the limits of their jurisdiction; but Americans are at liberty to go through them, unrestricted, within the limits of seven Japanese ri, or miles; and those who are found transgressing Japanese laws may be apprehended by the police and taken on board their ships.

Article II. —Three landing places shall be constructed for the boats of merchant-ships and whale-ships resorting to this port; one at Simoda, one at Kakizaki, and the third at the brook lying southeast of Centre Island. The citizens of the United States will, of course, treat the Japanese officers with proper respect.

Article III. —Americans, when on shore, are not allowed access to military establishments or private houses without leave; but they can enter shops and visit temples as they please.

Article IV. —Two temples, the Rioshen at Simoda, and the Yokushen at Kakizaki, are assigned as resting-places for persons in their walks, until public houses and inns are erected for their convenience.

Article V. —Near the Temple Yokushen, at Kakizaki, a burial-ground has been set apart for Americans, where their graves and tombs shall not be molested.

Article VI. —It is stipulated in the treaty of Kanagawa, that coal will be furnished at Hakodadi; but as it is very difficult for the Japanese to supply it at that port, Commodore Perry promises to mention this to his government, in order that the Japanese government may be relieved from the obligation of making that port a coal depot.

Article VII. —It is agreed that henceforth the Chinese language 314 shall not be employed in official communications between the two governments, except when there is no Dutch interpreter.

Article VIII. —A harbor-master and three skilful pilots have been appointed for the port of Simoda.

Article IX. —Whenever goods are selected in the shops, they shall be marked with the name of the purchaser and the price agreed upon, and then be sent to the Goyoshi, or government office, where the money is to be paid to Japanese officers, and the articles delivered by them.

Article X. —The shooting of birds and animals is generally forbidden in Japan, and this law is therefore to be observed by all Americans.

Article XI. —It is hereby agreed that five Japanese ri, or miles, be the limit allowed to Americans at Hakodadi, and the requirements contained in Article I. of these regulations, are hereby made also applicable to that port within that distance.

Article XII. —His Majesty the Emperor of Japan is at liberty to appoint whoever he pleases to receive the ratification of the treaty of Kanagawa, and give an acknowledgment on his part.

It is agreed that nothing herein contained shall in any way affect or modify the stipulations of the treaty of Kanagawa, should that be found to be contrary to these regulations.

In witness whereof, copies of these additional regulations have been signed and sealed in the English and Japanese languages by the respective parties, and a certified translation in the Dutch language, and exchanged by the commissioners of the United States and Japan.

Simoda, Japan , June 17, 1854.

M. C. PERRY,
Commander-in-Chief of the U. S. Naval Forces, East India,
China, and Japan Seas, and Special Envoy to Japan .

The question of port regulations and pilotage was also mooted and a paper prepared and agreed to certifying:—

As the Japanese in all their interviews, and in their last stipulations, had manifested a preference for articles of compact to be in the Dutch language for a mutually clear understanding, rather than in their own, or the Chinese, the above was also prepared in Dutch by the consent of the American opperbevelhebber :—

It may be that the veneration, in which the memory of Iyeyas, is held by the Japanese, had much to do with the making of the treaty. Notwithstanding this Iyeyas, charged with the guardianship of the son of Taico, who was the husband of his granddaughter, usurped his powers and seized the ziogoonship for himself, still, barring his perfidy, he may be considered the great Lycurgus of Japan. His laws and influence endured longer than those of the ruler of Sparta. During his usurpation he took the names of Daifusama and Ongonchio, and with the honors that wait on success, about which it boots nothing to inquire,—at his death he was deified by impotent ziogoonship. Such was the reverence, in which Iyeyas was and still is held, with a people, in whose annals, a century is spoken of as yesterday, that his will was not only law, but any wish, that he was known to 317 have expressed, became sacred. He it was who first granted the privilege of intercourse with the Dutch: and that nation, instead of submitting to acts which would cause any cheeks to tingle, but those of great moral obliquity or meerschaum stupidity—instead of submitting to the durance vile of Dezima, and trampling upon the symbol of a Savior’s sufferings—had it in their power to exact anything, by expressing a wish or determination to leave their fan-shaped prison factory: but they are old fogies, and their course shows, that to stupidity they add stultification.

The contempt for mercantile pursuits, and the revenue derived therefrom, ascribed by the Dutch writers, to the “Japonicadom” of Japan, is all leather and prunella. The exchequer of the princes at times, is exceedingly limited and they are willing at such times to get funds and a wife, by taking the daughter of some wealthy merchant as one of their better halves. The quid pro quo to the father, for the dimes, that the patrician son-in-law may take from his coffers, is the privilege of wearing his coat-of-arms on the sleeve of his garments.

But I have wandered from Iyeyas. This apotheosized usurper, enjoined upon his people to have nothing to do with Europeans, and our country not being known at the time of this injunction, and of course not included in such a designation, the hermetics may have thought, they could make a mere treaty 318 of amity (and not of commerce, as has been stated), without mental reservation, with the United States. Then, too, the Japanese have an intelligent and excessive curiosity upon all subjects of information, and they contend, that inventions and discoveries are made now in such quick succession, that no nation may keep pace with them, that has not access to the world.

While it must remain on record, that as the Americans were the first to deny one cent of tribute, and put an end to Tripolitan piracy, they were also the first to break down the unsocial barrier, which the “kingdom of the virgin of the sun” had hedged itself with, yet the Japanese have now declared their purpose to make treaties, with all nations similar to the one made with the United States, and they have since done so with the English through Sir James Sterling, though his compact is not as good as that of the Americans—the statements of the London press to the contrary, because it contains no clause at once granting to them any privilege, which any other nation may obtain from the Japanese.

The Japanese were much concerned about the siege of Silistria, and knowing the vulnerability of their country, Russia from her proximity to them, is the great bug-bear. They were told by the English at Nangasaki, that the French were also coming up there, and knowing that these two nations, and that of Chowstoff were at war, they were much concerned 319 for fear, these enemies should meet and have a fight in their waters, and for the purpose of preserving and securing the inviolability and neutrality of their country effectually, they make treaties with all the parties, maugre the injunction of the great Iyeyas, and their declarations to us of a few months before.

The Japanese were to have had a bazar opened at Simoda on our return from Hakodadi, when our officers might procure the curios of Japanese lacquer, porcelain, crape, &c., but they were quite dilatory in getting it ready, and urged as the cause, the non-arrival of some junks from Osacca (pronounced like the city of Oaxaca in “Maheco,” or Mexico), the seaport of Meaco. In the meantime, at the temple Leosenthsi, daily conferences were held between some financial officers from Yedo, the first lieutenant-governor, Kewakawa Kahei, and second lieutenant governor, Isa Sintshiro, first and second presidents of the board of revenue, on the part of the Japanese, and Pursers William Speiden of the Mississippi, and J. C. Eldridge of the Powhatan, on the part of the United States, to settle the very important question of the relative value of the coins and currency of the two countries. The result was anything but satisfactory.

The Japanese commenced by stating that the tael was their decimal basis, in their system of weights and measures. As one of our cents was ten mills, so one of their taels is ten mace . Next to the tael comes 320 the canderine , then the cash . But this is as to weights . Their monetary system, while adopting the same nomenclature, is very different. The coin denominated a tael with them is equal to 1,000 cash; a tael weight of silver, is equal to two taels , and five canderines, of currency; or 2.25 tael coin, or 2,250 cash. A tael weight of gold is equal to 19 taels , or 19,000 cash .

They had no means of assaying the American, Mexican, and Spanish dollar, but presuming them all to be of good silver, they proceeded to determine the relative value with their coins by weight ; a silver dollar was found to be, by this standard, 7.12 mace—equivalent to a little over 1,600 cash . Our twenty dollar goldpiece was of 8.8 mace weight, and estimating the mace weight of gold at 1,900 cash , the piece was deemed by them equal in value to 16,720 cash , or $10.45 of our money. This made the gold dollar worth fifty-two cents; and silver to bear the proportion to gold of 1 to 8.44.

But little is known of the metaliferous history of Japan, further than its territory, in many places, is very auriferous, and that the mining of gold is an imperial monopoly. The Japanese founded their valuation by the price of bullion as regulated by their law or imperial decree, being assured that as long as Japan was excluded from all social and commercial intercourse with other nations, and formed a little world of its own, that a system of this kind might be 321 carried on, without prejudice to the rights of any; the Japanese government by putting a fictitious value on their coin, or adopting the system of seignorage, no doubt did so to take away the motive and inducement for the exportation of their specie for purposes of profit. Their great philosopher, Arai Trikayo-no-kami , compared the mineral production of a country to its frame and bones, and the products of the soil to the flesh of the body, which should always be in due proportion. The bones, he said, once removed, could not be replaced. In addition to an adherence to this doctrine, it has been a belief among the Japanese ever since their intercourse with the Portuguese, who showed particular avidity for the procurement of their bullion, that it was the policy of foreigners to drain Japan of this resource, that it might fall an easier prey to conquest when thus impoverished.

The monetary system of Japan will require such almost radical alteration, that it forms their objection, and presents the greatest hinderance to commercial intercourse with others. The non-exportation of bullion, must render trade a very difficult thing, and would have the effect, as at Nangasaki with the Dutch and Chinese, of making the government banker for both parties to a bargain, in buying and selling, and all payments and receipts to pass through the hands of its officers.

The government of Japan is now one of progress; and they admit their willingness to make improve 322 ments in it; but these improvements must not be hurried ones, but with due foresight and proper precaution—slowly and gradually; fearing, to use their simile, that unaccustomed to light, too much of its glare at one time, would dazzle and produce blindness.

After the survey of the harbor of Simoda, buoys were placed upon the rocks discovered, surmounted with poles from which waved little flags that we had made; and on one side of the entrance to the harbor had been placed a large sign to indicate the locality of a dangerous rock that lies in mid-channel of the entrance. The Japanese objected to the presence of these flags, put there by us, on the grounds that it looked as if we had taken possession of the place, and on their promising to keep their places filled with their little customhouse-flag, they were permitted to remove ours.

They furnished a sample of their coal, which was brought aboard in hampers. It was from the interior, and mere surface coal, they not having any knowledge of how it should be mined. They might be able to furnish it at thirty dollars per ton: it could be landed there from the United States or England for twenty-five dollars. When they acquire the knowledge of working their mines, and have the roads to convey it to the seaboard, it may be different.

Here, as at Hakodadi, after paying for them, stones of the requisite size were procured for the 323 Washington monument. Two of their long, sharp, copper-fastened pine-boats, with their peculiar sculls, ordered to be made previously, being completed, were hoisted on board of the storeship Southampton to be sent to the United States. Our band performed in the large temple-yard ashore. The governor of the place allowed the poorer classes to come within the enclosure, and the attention and delight with which they listened, and their asking permission to present the musicians with fruit, showed that they were both fonder and had more appreciation of pleasant strains than the stolid Chinaman, who acknowledges no music save his horrible nasal screech, or stupid tom-tom.

A theatrical performance was given on board which was attended by the commissioners. The body of the marine, Williams, was brought from Yokohama in a Japanese boat in charge of some of his messmates, and re-interred near the poor fellow killed on the Powhatan, in the spot set apart in the Kakizaki temple ground, for an American cemetery.

On the longest day in the year, the 21st of June, the bazar so long looked for, was announced ready. The articles were arranged in the temple Leosenthsi, money changing in a temple being a small thing with the Japanese. The quantity of articles exposed, were not at all proportioned to the number who wished to purchase, and there was much disappointment. The Japanese made the excuse that they had not sufficient 324 time allowed them for the making of articles. The commodore first visited the place, and found the articles ticketed with excessive prices; particularly when seventeen cents per day may be regarded as the average price of Japanese labor. He intimated to the commissioners his displeasure at this, but these functionaries, who had no doubt thus fixed things, very adroitly gave it to be understood that the reduction of the prices of things at the vendue was a matter rather below their position. The method in the madness of these official gentry was no doubt this: there were a number of articles in this bazar similar to those presented by their government to ours at Yokohama, and by affixing these high prices they thought to give increased value to the others, in our eyes.

It was determined to dispose of the articles by lottery, so that all might procure something. They were principally crapes and silks, and specimens of porcelain and lacquered ware. The first-named fabrics, I shrewdly suspect, may not have been of Japanese manufacture, but probably were sent from Chapoo in China, by the junks to Loo-Choo, and thence in their own to Japan. The amount of silks and crapes of the finest texture made in their own country is not very great, and no doubt entirely consumed by the higher castes. Siebold says, that their most beautiful silks are woven by high-born criminals, who are confined upon a small, rocky, unproductive island, deprived of their 325 property, and obliged to pay for the provisions with which they are supplied by sea, with the produce of their manual labor; and that the exportation of these silks is prohibited.

The Japanese porcelain is of the purest, and surpasses in delicacy and transparency any that France and England can offer. The finest, with little raised images upon it, it is said, is made of a peculiar clay, found in the vicinity of Meaco, and which is now nearly exhausted. Out of little cups made of this ware, the saki is drunk.

The specimens of lacquered ware, consisting of cabinets, bowls, cups, trays, and despatch boxes, of different hues, were of great beauty, and put many of us out of conceit with our purchases of similar things of the Chinese. A most delicate-hued red appeared to be most prized by the Japanese, but the American taste was for the black and a rich maroon color.

The process of lacquering is represented as being a slow and tedious one. The workmen engaged over the lacquer in a boiling state, have their nostrils protected from its fumes. The varnish is the resinous product of a shrub called verosino-ki , or varnish-plant, and requires a tedious preparation to fit it for use. The coloring matter is mixed with it, by a long-continued rubbing on a copper plate; and the operation of lacquering is as tedious as the preliminaries. Five different coats, and sometimes more, are put 326 on the article, suffered to dry, and then finely pummiced, until the lacquer acquires the requisite softness and brilliancy. Mother-of-pearl shells are inlaid and subjected to the same polishing process. The lacquering once thoroughly dry, it is impervious to the action of liquid heat, and although not a very pleasant idea to us, who are accustomed to the use of china-ware, the Japanese partake of hot soups and other dishes from vessels thus made. Boiling water may be poured upon the Japanese lacquer with impunity.

The tea of Japan has been represented by some writers as being superior to that of China, but what we saw at the entertainment, was not at all comparable to that of Cathay. Before the warm water is poured on them, the leaves have a very coarse appearance, and from the tea when made there arises not that delightful aroma that salutes the nostrils when you drink the fine beverage at Acow’s in Canton; indeed, they are no doubt indebted to China for the finest teas they drink, and perhaps the finest silks they wear.

One does not observe, in going about in Japan, the propensity for street-gambling which marks the towns of China—from the juvenile pig-tail playing with the vendor for the fifth of an orange, upward. The Japanese appear more elevated than this. When you notice playing it is generally in the house, and not gaming, but with a board and pieces resembling our chess. It 327 was difficult to acquire much knowledge of the contest by overlooking; indeed, the contestants generally desisted very perversely during our presence. Our fleet-surgeon, Dr. Daniel S. Green, however, with his taste for chess, and an obstinacy of study which marks his investigation of every subject which he undertakes, deciphered the game of the Japanese, and this is the doctor’s account of it, from the best information he could obtain:—

“The Japanese game of Sho-ho-ye corresponds to our game of chess. This game is played by two persons, with forty pieces (twenty on either side), and upon a chequer-board of eighty-one squares-nine on each side. The board is of one uniform color, though the square might be colored, as with us, for the sake of convenience. The pieces are also of one uniform color, as they are used (at pleasure) by either party, as his own, after being captured from the adversary. They are of various sizes, are long and wedge-shaped, being at the same time sharpened from side to side, in front, and the name of each piece is inscribed upon it—both the original and the one assumed upon being reversed—(as below). Each player distinguishes his men, or pieces by always having the pointed and thin end forward. But they would be more readily known if the back parts of all were painted with some decided and striking color, as that part of his own men is seen by each player only, and if the fronts of all the men were painted of some other 328 color, as that part of the adversary’s piece is seen by either player only. They are laid flat upon the board (front forward), and thus their names are plainly visible. They capture, as in chess, by occupying the places of the captured pieces. The king, Oho-shio, being the chief piece, can not remain in check—and when check-mated the game is lost.

“Kin-shio (gold), or chief counseller—upon first row, and on either side of Oho-shio.

“Gin-shio (silver, or sub-counseller)—upon first row, and one on each square next outside Kin-shio.

“Kiema (flying-horse)—upon first row, and one on each square next outside Gin-shio.

“Hishia (flying chariot)—on second square, second row, right side of the board.

“The moves and powers of the pieces are as below, only noting that in capturing there is no deviation from them, as with us in the case of pawns.

“ Kin-shio as the Oho-shio, except that he can not move diagonally backward.

“Neither of the above are ever reversed or acquire different powers; but all the pieces below may be reversed (at the option of the player) when they move to and from any square in any of the adversary’s first three rows, and they do thereby acquire different powers, as well as different names.

“ Gin-shio moves and takes as the Oho-shio , except that he can not move directly to either side, or directly backward. When he is reversed, or turned over, he becomes a Gin-Nari-Kin , and acquires all the powers (and those alone) of the Kin-shio .

“ Kiema has the move of our knight, except that he is strictly confined to two squares forward and one laterally, and can in no case make more than four moves. When he is reversed he becomes a Kiema-Nari-Kin , with all the powers (and those alone) of the Kin-shio .

“ Kioshia moves directly forward only , but that may be any number of steps. He may be reversed up on either of the first three rows of the adversary, and then becomes a Kioshia-Nari-Kin , with all the powers (and those alone) of the Kin-shio .

“ Hishia has the entire power of our castle, and when he is reversed he assumes the name of Rioho (the dragon), and acquires, in addition to his former moves, all those of the Oho-shio .

“ Kakuko has the entire powers of our bishop, and 330 when reversed, assumes the-name of Riome (the dragoness), and acquires, in addition to his former moves, all those of the Oho-shio .

“ Ho moves forward one step only at a time, and may be reversed upon either of the first three rows of the adversary; when so reversed, he becomes a Ho-Nari-Kin , and acquires all the powers of the Kin-shio .

“Besides the preceding moves and powers, any piece which has been captured may be replaced upon the board, at the discretion of the player—as follows, viz.: when it is his move, instead of moving one of his men he can replace any one of the captured pieces upon any unoccupied square whatever, observing to keep that side up which it was entitled to originally; but it may be reversed at any move thereafter if to or from any square in the before-mentioned first three rows of the adversary—and observing, further, that he can not replace a Ho (or pawn) on any column upon which there is already one of his own, i.e., he can not double a Ho (or pawn).

“It may be further stated, that no piece can pass over the head of any other piece in its move, except the Kiema .”

Preparations were made for taking what was then thought to be our final departure from the Japanese empire. The commodore had transferred his flag from the Powhatan to the Mississippi, like Byron, not precisely because he ever could write an address 331 to the ocean, upon whose bosom his stereotyped speeches say he has wasted the dearest action of “some forty years of my life,” but because Byron had a weakness at Pisa for some mastiffs, cats, pea-fowls, &c.; and when the American opperbevelhebber again had his broad pennant floating over the Mississippi, her decks were ornamented with Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart, in the shape of Japanese dogs, presented him, with pug-nosed, billiard-balled heads, and eyes so projecting and divided, that some unfortunate estrangement seemed to have taken place between them. The poop-deck was ornamented with no-tailed Japanese cats, or their spinal columns extending to the point which would have pleased Lord Monboddo, while under the break of the poop, in cages, swung beautiful pheasants, mandarin ducks, and some graceful singing-birds.

Agreeably to instructions from the government to make inquiries as to some of our unfortunate countrymen who were supposed either to have been lost at sea, or to be held in captivity on the island of Formosa, it was ordered that the Macedonian should be sent to the harbor of Keelong for that purpose, accompanied by the Supply; also to ascertain the probability of the procurement of coal in that vicinity, and its proximity to the seashore. This done, the Macedonian was to proceed to Manilla, to leave there the three “Sally Baboo” men picked up by the “Southampton” at sea, with the American consul, that they 332 might be sent back to their native land, which, by the chart, was not very far distant from Luzon.

On the 23d of June the Mississippi was gotten under way, and ran out to anchor in what might be waggishly termed the “outer harbor” of Simoda, a miserable roadstead off which a low rock island can not keep the sea, where all next day we rolled and wallowed.

On Sunday (we left Japan each time on Sunday) the 25th of June, signal was made for the ships to weigh anchor. The Powhatan took the Southampton in tow, and ran out of the port of Simoda. The Macedonian and Supply endeavored to do the same, but the wind proving baffling, they did not succeed. A long string of Japanese boats made fast to the former and tried to tow her out, but were as successful as a June-bug tied by a thread would be in trying to move the boy who held the other end, so the noble razee had to let go her anchor to avoid going on the rocks that encase the narrow entrance of the port of Simoda. The Supply did the same. The Mississippi, after some delay, and a number of gyrations, took her departure accompanied by the Powhatan with the storeship.

During the day, we were running down the westward side of the chain of naked islands that extend to Loo-Choo. At four o’clock, Foogee Yama, from his cloudy eyry, was seen like an angel’s wing, and then withdrawn. Well, good-by, Foogee; admiration 333 continued, is the most tiresome of things, and one can tire of the brilliancy of Burke, with his—“Around whose base things may moulder, but upon whose summit eternity must play.”

On the fourth day of the run, after those charming incidents of sea-life—sky overhead and water all around—we were abreast of the island of Oo, which the severe gale encountered in July, 1853, on our return from our first visit to Japan, prevented an examination of, that the correctness of a harbor laid down on a French chart, might be ascertained. The ships laid off for three hours, during which time Lieutenants Maury and Webb went ashore, taking with them bags of pork and bread. The people on shore at first appeared quite alarmed at their approach. Their dress was the same as those of the Loo-Chooans. Some fowls and potatoes were obtained from them by giving them some pork and bread in exchange; they refused money. It is supposed that we are the first Christian people that ever had communication with these people; rather an absurd supposition, considering the charts and surveys that have been made in those seas by other nations, before we had either the opportunity or desire to know anything about them.

The next day, off the Great Loo-Choo island, the Southampton was cast off, and proceeded to Hong Kong. That afternoon we saw quite a large ship ahead. She was coming down before the wind with studding-sails set. It was thought desirable to speak 334 her, having had no mail intelligence since March, in the bay of Yedo. Our colors were hoisted, and the commodore directed a forward-gun to be fired, to attract attention. The stranger, however, without appearing to notice it, changed his course and then changed it again, declining to raise his ensign, and keeping his nation to himself. Another gun was fired, still no colors did he show. By this time the two steamers having come up with him he lay to, and hoisted English colors. Upon sending a boat to know what he meant by such conduct, it appeared that he feared meeting the Russian squadron in that vicinity, and took us for Russian steamers, and even after seeing the American ensign, thought it might be designed to entrap him. The captain expressed regret for the detention he had occasioned, and by newspapers from him we had the first intelligence of England and France having united in hostilities for the sultan. The ship was the Great Britain, from Shanghae, with a valuable cargo of teas and silks, for London. She would have proved a precious prize for Pontiatine.

The next day we anchored in the roadstead of Napa, Loo-Choo. The first intelligence from Captain Glasson, of the Lexington, was that a seaman from his ship had been found in the waters of Junk harbor dead, and expressed the belief that the man had come to his death by violence. An investigation of the matter showed that the man had not only been 335 killed by the natives, but that he deserved to have been killed. The poor Loo-Chooans being very much frightened about the occurrence, and the local officers of Napa regarding the offence of the man as a mortifying disgrace to their country, did not make a true report of the circumstances to the prince-regent, and that high functionary, upon a demand being made upon him by the commodore, himself misled, reported that the man had fallen into the water when drunk and been drowned. The commodore demanded a full investigation according to their laws, though satisfied at the time that the man Board had been guilty of a most heinous offence. From this it appeared that the man had been first stoned by the crowd and badly wounded, and then fell into the water and was drowned; after the commission of an offence—to use the prince-regent’s language—that “All men detest and are angry at, and would, without thinking, strike and wound the one guilty of it.” The sentences adjudged by the Loo-Chooan tribunal, were to deprive the mayor of Napa of his rank, and the deputy-magistrates of their offices, for having made erroneous reports to the regent; Tokisi, the leader of the mob who stoned, was banished to Pachung Sang for life, while five others were banished to Taiping San for eight years.

The severity of this punishment was very great, and it is to be regretted that during the session of the tribunal that decreed it, the commodore resorted to 336 the menace of sending marine-officers ashore to examine their forts, and then took possession, with some marines—the United States bullying Loo-Choo! as Wise said to Bynum, “bullying a fly!” The poor prince-regent was frightened nearly out of his senses; he came off himself to the Mississippi with the poor devil Tokisi, with a halter about his neck, offering to give him up to American custody, prostrating himself before the commodore in his cabin—a pitiable spectacle. He is next addressed by the American “Opperbevelhebber,” in a communication commencing “Your Highness.”

We ascertained from the master’s-mate who had been left in charge of the invalids and coal-shed ashore in February, that a few days after our departure for Japan, the Russian admiral Pontiatine, with the frigate Diana (since lost by an earthquake at Simoda), a corvette, and the steamer Vostock, visited Napa roads, staying some days, during which time he drilled his men ashore, and grazed his cattle. He had not then certain intelligence of England and France having gone to war with his country, but notwithstanding his assurance of the proximity of such a thing, as also of superior English and French naval forces, he generously assisted the English ship Robena (which had been there to bring the successor of Dr. Bettelheim) to get off the reef, taking the while, her cargo of coolies aboard of his own ship.

On Sunday, the Rev. E. H. Moreton, the successor 337 of Dr. Bettelheim, a pleasant-voiced little preacher, with mild face and cockney aspiration of the letter h , read the English church-service, and delivered a discourse on board of the Mississippi. He had come with his wife and child from England to dwell in Napa, as spiritual teacher to a people who are about as well prepared to receive Christianity, as they were when his predecessor, six years before, went among them. The men and officers of the squadron raised an amount of money for him before leaving.

The next Sunday on board, a sermon, blasphemous in character, was preached by a missionary, in which the American commodore was likened to another Jesus Christ, and a parallel deliberately instituted between our Savior’s mission on earth and Commodore Perry’s mission to Japan. That functionary sat on the quarter-deck, meanwhile listening to all this without evincing, so far as any one could perceive, the slightest displeasure.

The steamers were coaled from shore by Loo-Chooan junks, during our stay; the gunner of the Mississippi was sent to an island, called Reef island, in a boat, to see whether it was used as a female penal settlement as had been stated; and we saw the Japanese junks departing, bearing away the rice of the island, some to Japan, some to Chapoo in China, where the sons of the wealthy in Loo-Choo are educated without cost.

The American opperbevelhebber seems to have had 338 a “would be a nun, and a wouldn’t be a nun” idea of the status of Loo-Choo: In a letter to the secretary of the navy, as found in Senate-Document, No. 34 of the XXXIIId Congress, he first says: “I am constantly obtaining information confirmatory of the opinion that Loo-Choo , Meyaco-Sima, and the Oho-Sima islands, are all dependencies of Japan.”

On the 18th of June, 1854, he writes: “The opinions expressed in my despatch, No. 41, have been confirmed by subsequent observations, and Loo-Choo, it appears, is in a measure an independent sovereignty, holding only slight allegiance either to Japan or China, but preferring rather its relationship to the latter empire; that the islands stretching from Formosa to Kiusiu are all under its sovereignty, and are in such intercourse with the parent island, Great Loo-Choo, as the imperfect character of their means of navigation will allow.”

In this despatch “No. 41,” he says—like Cowper’s bird perched upon the church-steeple, “What says he?” “—— and are moreover told that Loo-Choo is a royal fief of the empire of Japan, though it is asserted by some writers, that it owes fealty only to the prince of Satsuma.”

How does this “confirm” the statements contained in the despatch of 18th of June, 1854?

In the Pickwickian Gazette, published in the English colony of Hong Kong, y’clept “The China Mail,” of the 27th of July, 1854, the demi-official announce 339 ment—of course in accordance with Secretary Kennedy’s order—says:—

“Having been assured by the commissioners at Yokohama, that Japan exercised no jurisdiction whatever over Loo-Choo, the commodore proposed making a treaty with the regent and drew up a sketch of what he thought it desirable should be established by official sanction: with some unimportant modifications, this was accepted.”

According to Meylan, who was the Dutch opperhoofd, the president of the factory at Desima, in his semi-annual audiences with the governor of Nangasaki, among other things also takes upon himself an obligation to respect all vessels “belonging to the Loo-Choo islands, they being subject to Japan.”

The American opperbevelhebber, however, after undergoing this pleasing state of uncertainty, thought he would “make assurance doubly sure, and take a bond” of the Loo-Chooans; so the following compact was agreed to, very much on the part of the effeminate islanders, like the compact of the poor chicken with the horse in the stable: that if he didn’t tread on his toes, he wouldn’t tread on his toes:—

Compact between the United States and the Kingdom of Loo-Choo. Signed at Napa, Great Loo-Choo, the 11th day of July, 1854.

Hereafter, whenever citizens of the United States come to Loo-Choo, they shall be treated with great courtesy and friendship. Whatever articles these persons ask for, whether from the officers or 340 people, which the country can furnish, shall be sold to them; nor shall the authorities interpose any prohibitory regulations to the people selling; and whatever either party may wish to buy, shall be exchanged at reasonable prices.

Whenever ships of the United States shall come into any harbor in Loo-Choo, they shall be supplied with wood and water at reasonable prices; but if they wish to get other articles, they shall be purchasable only at Napa.

If ships of the United States are wrecked on Great Loo-Choo, or on islands under the jurisdiction of the royal government of Loo-Choo, the local authorities shall despatch persons to assist in saving life and property, and preserve what can be brought ashore till the ships of that nation shall come to take away all that may have been saved; and the expenses incurred in rescuing these unfortunate persons, shall be refunded by the nation they belong to.

Whenever persons from ships of the United States come ashore in Loo-Choo, they shall be at liberty to ramble where they please, without hinderance, or having officials sent to follow them, or to spy what they do; but if they violently go into houses, or trifle with women, or force people to sell them things, or do other such like illegal acts, they shall be arrested by the local officers, but not maltreated, and shall be reported to the captain of the ship to which they belong, for punishment by him.

At Tumai is a burial-ground for the citizens of the United States, where their graves and tombs shall not be molested.

The government of Loo-Choo shall appoint skilful pilots, who shall be on the lookout for ships appearing off the island, and if one is seen coming toward Napa, they shall go out in good boats beyond the reefs to conduct her into a secure anchorage, for which service the captain shall pay the pilot, five dollars; and the same for going out of the harbor beyond the reefs.

Whenever ships anchor at Napa, the local authorities shall furnish them with wood at the rate of three thousand six hundred copper cash per thousand catties; and with water at the rate of six hundred copper cash (forty-three cents) for one thousand catties, or six barrels full, each containing thirty American gallons.

341

Signed in the English and Chinese languages by Commodore Matthew C. Perry , Commander-in-chief of the United States Naval Forces in the East India, China, and Japan seas, and special envoy to Japan, for the United States; and by Sho Fu-fing , Superintendent of affairs, (Tsu-li-kwan) in Loo-Choo; and Ba Rio-si , Treasurer of Loo-Choo at Shui, for the government of Loo-Choo, and copies exchanged this 11th day of July, 1854, or the reign Hien-fung , 4th year, 6th moon, 17th day, at the Town-Hall of Napa.

On landing to sign this rather singular document, the customary quantity of “boom-a-laddying” was indulged in, as per following order:—

Our government should pay a little attention to the fantastic tricks, which its commodorial gentry cut up in such countries, as Loo-Choo: 342 “fixed ammunition,” “cutlasses,” and “ball-cartridges,” taken ashore among a people whose forts are disarmed; among whom not one offensive weapon was noticed after months of intercourse; and whose nation, in its present condition, reversing the remark of Chatham, might be driven with a crutch.

And then too, two orderlies with muskets escorting “ the broad pennant”—a kind of an ark of the covenant carried before, and the American “ensign” playing second fiddle behind!—just imagine such a procession? It is equal to the swallow-tailed yellow flag, that I saw one day carried behind a high functionary, as I passed his procession coming down from Sheudi.

If a broad pennant means anything, it means this: a piece of bunting to designate an admiral’s ship or boat in squadron sailing, or in harbor: a cynosure for all the other vessels, because from the ship that wears it, orders are signaled and dispositions directed; but when it is taken from a main-truck, or from the commander-in-chief’s boat, to be boom-a-laddyed on shore in a procession, it becomes meaningless, if not ridiculous; a land officer in the field had better fly a distinct flag over his marquee; and an American commodore, who leaves his ship to land in an enemy’s or friend’s country, had better be provided by the navy department with a kind of “white plume,” like that of “Harry of Navarre,” or “ the broad pennant” had better be declared an oriflamme ; but all true 343 Americans have a weakness, which runs in this wise: that the stars and stripes, are oriflamme enough.

But it may be, that the commodore may be allowed to explain—to give some reason for boom-a-laddying ashore with his broad pennant, and having a sword-bearer to walk behind with his trusty blade in the streets of Simoda. In his notes to the secretary of the navy, of his second visit to Japan he says:—

“I have adopted the two extremes—by an exhibition of great pomp, when it could be properly displayed, and by avoiding it, when such pomp would be inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions.”

This pompatic paragraph appears rather a non sequitur ; unless it can be shown when an exhibition of great pomp is consistent with the spirit of our institutions.

The entente cordiale being established with the “kingdom of Loo-Choo,” presents of agricultural implements and a hand cotton-gin, were made to the authorities, who returned air-plants and birds. A stone from the island was also procured for the Washington monument.

The commodore having entertained the regent and the authorities on board the flag-ship Mississippi with a supper and Ethiopian performance, the Lexington sailed for Hong Kong on the 15th, and two days after—the anniversary of our first departure from Japan—we bid good-by to the Loo-Chooans, as much, no doubt, to their delight as our own.

In getting off the Amakarimas, the Powhatan parted company with us, bound for Amoy and Ningpo, and in four days we had a Chinese pilot on board, and the next dropped anchor in the harbor of Hong Kong, China, from whose mail facilities we had been absent over half a year.

CHAPTER XV.

Letters: considering the rapid occurrence of events of moment now-a-days, and the lightning transmission of intelligence, it was with joy we got letters on our arrival at Hong Kong, having been for over half a year, so far as news was concerned, inhumed in a remote country. The official news was, that we were ordered home by way of California and South America, at which all were overjoyed; and the commodore was granted permission to return to the United States via Europe, at government expense. Many a poor fellow got letters that had been waiting for him in Hong Kong a long time, and at the same time letters from others of later date, that told that the writers of the former ones could never write again.

We found in the harbor the ships of the surveying squadron under Commodore Ringgold, among which was the since ill-fated Porpoise.

There had been no improvement in the intestine troubles. An American captain had been murdered by the Chinese; and the dearly-beloved occupants of the hongs of Canton, feeling insecure in the posses 346 sion of their “filthy lucre”—for if the “chop dollar” of China is not filthy lucre, I know not what it is—the Mississippi proceeded to her old anchorage at Whampoa, and sent men and howitzers, as before, up to the city. The captain of the American ship Amity, having been murdered by two of his foreign crew, the next morning after our arrival through the intervention of “Judge Lynch,” their bodies were seen suspended from either yard-arm of their vessel.

The state of affairs in Canton being deemed imminent, the little jolly-boat English steamer, called the Queen, which the commodore had hired and left off the hongs, previous to our leaving for Japan in January, ran down and took up another force to the city. A body of rebels had captured the wealthy and populous city Fuhshan, about twenty miles from Canton, and the mandarins were doing nothing to arrest their progress. One morning, for this purpose, a detachment of a thousand men under a brigadier, were quietly taking up their ground, when they were surprised by a party of rebels, and before they could seize their arms, some hundreds of them and their camp-followers were killed, and the rest escaped pell-mell into the city. The tents, matchlocks, and ammunition, were all carried off, and the brigadier was among the missing.

I had an opportunity during this visit of seeing the largest fleet of the emperor, which had an immense number of streamers flying: and also at an early hour 347 of making a visit to the tea-packing establishments at Honan, whose inmates appeared ready to decamp at short notice.

Vessels going down the Pekiang were crowded with Chinese flying from the place, and the river steamers were chartered at enormous rates; so that the total emigration to Macao and Hong Kong was not much under five thousand, including several men of distinction, such as the brothers of Heu Chang-kwang, the provincial treasurer, and their families, and of Puntingqua and his family, to Macao; and Howqua and Eesing with their families to Hong Kong.

On the 29th of July we were at Hong Kong, and the 11th of August saw us again at Whampoa, together with that noble steam-frigate the Susquehanna, that had not long been back from a very interesting trip to Nanking.

On the 15th of August, when taking our final departure from Whampoa, we saw a Dutch ship fired upon from a rebel battery; also one of the mandarin boats, running up powder, but the fleetness of their sailing, and the bad gunnery of the Chinese, enabled them to go by unharmed.

Having to wait the return of the Macedonian with Captain Abbott, to whom the command of the three remaining ships was to be transferred, the commodore fixed September 11th for the day of his departure by the oriental steamer. In the meantime the 348 Susquehanna, which with the Mississippi, was to make the long stretch across the Pacific, departed for Simoda, Japan—on her first and only visit to that place—towing the Southampton, laden with coal, intended for the use of the two steamers in their run from Japan of over three thousand miles to Honolulu. The storeships Supply and Lexington were also despatched homeward by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. It is scarcely necessary to give the state of affairs in China at the time of the departure of these ships. The fighting of the Chinese—if fighting it might be called—continued, and we had reports one day how the city of Sling-Gin had been captured by the insurgents, and another day, that the imperialists still held the city of Gin-Sling .

The Chinese government insists upon its officers, saying, when required to perform anything for it, what the Frenchman told the lady: “Madam, if possible , it is done already; if impossible , it shall be done”—though placing no means at their disposal for accomplishing the desired result.

The following being so very Chinese, I insert it. T’sing-ling nor Tae-yung could not prevent the capture of Woo-chang . On reading the report of its downfall, the emperor said: 349 “It is impossible to repress my grief and indignation. That Tae-yung, though charged with two provinces, seems not to have had a single plan for their defence. Formerly we deprived him of official rank, with the hope that he would exert himself and make amends for previous errors; but lo! he follows his old habits, and has thus brought disaster on a large portion of the empire; this is most detestable and abominable. Let Tae-yung be instantly deprived of office, and handed over to the direction of Yang-pae. We also order Yang-pae to hasten to his new appointment, and place himself at the head of all the troops in those provinces, in order immediately to exterminate these rebels, and recover the provincial capital out of their hands; afterward let him sweep away this pestilence, in order to fulfil the object for which we have intrusted him with this great command. Let him also endeavor to ascertain what has become of all the officers both civil and military who were formerly stationed at Woo-chang, and report. Respect this.”

But the Macedonian having gotten back from Manilla, the time had arrived when Opperbevelhebber Perry was to leave in the mail-steamer. This interesting event took place on the 11th of September, one day after the date of the great naval-battle of his Hyperion brother on Lake Erie, and one before the battle of North Point, and three before the allied armies landed in the Crimea. Previous to this important epoch, the American ( ! ) merchants at Canton addressed him an epistle as characteristic as the speech of the

His Excellency Commodore Matthew C. Perry ,
Commander-in-Chief of the Naval Forces U. S., in the East India, China,
and Japan Seas, and late Envoy to Japan, &c., &c., &c.

They first acknowledged the promptitude with which he extended protection to their interests, so much needed, during his command in those seas.

“Protection.” Commodore Perry arrived in the waters in the vicinity of Canton, on the 7th of April, 1853, and on the 27th of the same month he ran up to Shanghae, and after a short stay there, he bundled off with all the ships he could to the island of Loo-Choo, where he lay inert from the 26th of May to the 2d day of July; and did not return to China until August. The gentlemen who much do congregate on the rialto of Canton, address “His Excellency,” concerning the magnitude of the interests, which requires protection, and the storeship Supply, like the other ships, not being required until the next visit to Japan, she is sent up to lay off the hongs. This tub to the mercantile whale, satisfied for a time, but when the period arrived for the return to Japan, luckily for “His Excellency,” the merchants suggested the charter of a miserable little English steamer, and he not regarding it his duty to inform the opium gentry, that the carronades of the Supply would afford more protection than the penny-whistle battery of the jolly-boat steamer, gladly withdrew the needed 351 storeship, and chartered the Queen. The puny craft when started in Hong Kong harbor, was amusing. A Chinaman on one wheel-house with a bamboo-pole, prized the wheel over the “centre,” and four or five men being required at her “starting-bar,” when they got her going they did not like to stop her, and she spun about the harbor like a chicken, minus his head. The arms of her wheels being wood, before getting over to Macao she broke off several. Her pop-guns, only two of which were aside, had perhaps never been “scaled,”

As Hon. Humphrey Marshall said, in speaking of the protection afforded by the American opperbevelhebber:—

“What are the means? A British steamer of one hundred and fifty tons, manned by twenty sailors and ten Chinese, and carrying an armament of four guns of four-pound calibre each. In the event of a disturbance, the Queen may suffice to transport the women and children of American citizens from the city, provided they reach her decks without molestation; but to defend the lives or property of American citizens here in the presence of an invading mob or a band of robbers, the provision made is not equal to any exigency whatever.”

After some vernacular of the shop—he went to Japan with their “best wishes freighted ,”—they in 352 dulge in wonderful erudition about Columbus, De Gama, Cook, La Perouse, and Magellan, and they wind up with the pleasant tangible, of requesting his acceptance of a durable memorial of his visit to China, as a testimony of the estimation in which they held his public services and private character.

The “durable memorial” was understood to be a service of silver, since made in the United States, and perhaps none the less brilliant because opium syce may have paid for it; and, as a change must have come over the commodore’s dream, for on the 9th of October, 1853, he writes to the secretary of the navy: 353 “The most profitable branch of trade carried on by many of the Americans, English, and other foreigners, is of a clandestine character, in violation of the laws of China and the stipulations of the Cushing treaty; and it is difficult for a naval commander, in extending the protection of his ship, to distinguish between the property engaged in the legal or illegal trade.” And in concluding the same despatch, he says: “In my business with Japan, where as yet there are no American merchants, or diplomatic agents, I have the assurance of not being interfered with, and shall be able to act with energy and promptitude, and without embarrassment, and whether successful or otherwise, the responsibility will all rest upon myself.”

Then comes an epistle from four little Malwa and Patna “tuft-hunters” of Hong Kong, who also like to make Judy Fitzsimmons of themselves. After giving “His Excellency” much that is fulsome and adulatory, they speak of his having opened the “ commerce ” of Japan, “not only to us, but to the world.” What nonsense.

We have no commercial treaty with Japan, but only one “of peace and amity,” and strange that the newspapers will persist in saying so. Mischief may come of it in inducing some Yankee trader to go there with an assorted cargo, who will be very apt to have his labor for his pains.

But for the seriousness of speech that marked the presentation to “His Excellency,” by the governor 354 of Rhode Island, on behalf of its general assembly, of a splendid salver, having on it “in testimony of their appreciation of his services to his country in negotiating a treaty of amity and commerce with Japan,” together with the commodore’s teaching the heathen the observance of the Sabbath , that worthy functionary would be deemed waggish.

On the morning of the 11th of September, being the ninth day, of the ninth moon, of the fourth year of the reign of Hien-fung, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry left in the English mail-steamer Ganges for home; the Mississippi and the Macedonian firing the parting salute, and the men in the rigging giving three cheers.

We were to have taken our final leave of the grand, celestial, central, middle, flowery kingdom, on the same day, but it stormed, and we did not leave until the next morning, and few, if any, saw the naked hills of Hong Kong fade in the distance with regret. A few hours before us, the poor Porpoise got under way and left the port—that port to which her sail

This was the last that was seen of her, and she no doubt foundered in the typhoon of the 7th of October, encountered by the Mississippi, which noble old ship struggled and maintained her existence for mortal hours under the force of a hurricane, and received the terrific blows of the infuriated sea more bravely 355 than did the black knight under the pounding of the stalwart friar—if “aught inanimate” can have bravery, all honor to thee, old ship! and with more fervency than blesses the bridge that carries us over, honor to thee, old ship, again!

We stood up the Formosa channel, and in nine days were entering again the harbor of Simoda. We found here the Susquehanna and the Southampton. The former vessel left for the Sandwich Islands on the 24th of September. The stormy season having commenced in that latitude, it was too rough for us to commence coaling for several days, from the storeship. We ascertained that the Susquehanna had buried Surgeon Hamilton at Simoda, making the third interment in the contracted American burial-place. The shafts over the tombs were well proportioned, the letters of the inscriptions, with the imitative art of the Mongolian race, cut with exactness, and gilded, and the cap-stones, an original ornament, seeming to blend an urn and an acorn.

Captain Lee, of the Mississippi, with a suite of officers, made an official call on the lieutenant-governor of the now imperial city of Simoda, and was received with marked courtesy, and entertained in the Japanese style. The little strips resembling fried eel were as attractive as fried snake, but the crystallized grapes, with indifferent sugar, were rather palatable. There was handed around a small berry, not unpleasant to the taste, resembling the haw cultivated. The 356 old Rip Van Winkle— Yemanese Koso —plied his guests with the little thimbles of imperial saki, that he might unite with them.

Captain Lee returned these civilities with a collation on board of his ship, and treated the Japanese to the music of the Mississippi’s fine band, of which they are unaffectedly fond. He had a correspondence with the authorities relative to the absence of the spar-buoys which had been placed to mark dangerous rocks in the harbor. They replied that they had been washed away by the severe gales preceding our arrival, but that they would replace them, which they did.

During this visit the Japanese displayed much willingness to trade with us—that is, if trading means to sell everything you can for Spanish dollars and takes nothing else in return. There was one instance only to the contrary. An intelligent engineer of the ship had a revolver; a Japanese officer wished it very much. He was told that he could have it for so many its-evoos , which the penalty for permitting to pass out of the country was very great. He offered a large amount in silver dollars. No; at last his cupidity for the pistol overcame his fear for the consequences, and he paid for it in the its-evoos , and disappeared over the side. These were about the only Japanese coins that were procured during our stay in the country. Were you to offer one of the barbers of the country, “whose name is legion,” a piece of silver for one of 357 their cash—the twelfth of a cent—he would be glad to have it, but the inexorable law is ever before his eyes.

At Simoda we found a junk bound to Yedo with a large mortar aboard, purchased from the Dutch; also the model of an English boat.

We ascertained, that Kyama Yezimon, under the permission of the emperor, had built a three-masted ship on the model of the Southampton, they alleging, that she was our fastest sailing ship, or made the shortest trips. Her trial-trip had given them much satisfaction, up the bay from Uraga. They painted her red, with black stripes, and called her the Ho-o-maro , meaning “sea-ship.”

Captain Lee distributed among the imperial officers of the place, and suite, a number of cotton-cloths of various kinds from New England. They took them, because it was the part of politeness to take them, rather than because they had any use for them. The upper class would not use them, the scanty wardrobe of the poorer class does not need them, unless they could be educated to breeches, nor could they purchase them. There are times when they can not get enough to eat; indeed it is said, that there was a famine in the land at the time of the visit of the Morrison, in 1836. The fact is the Japanese are a people of few wants, and no luxuries, and the great trade prophesied with that country, should we ever get a commercial treaty, is a mere myth and exists in the brain of visionaries alone. I deliberately be 358 lieve, that any clipper-ship, that would go there with the hopes of a profitable venture, would rot at her anchors, before she disposed of her cargo, or got anything profitable in return.

The Mississippi took her final departure from Japan on the 1st of October, towing the Southampton as far as Volcanic Oho Sima, where the ships parted company. Foogee was hid.

In February last, Commander H. A. Adams, visited Simoda in the Powhatan and exchanged the ratification of our treaty with the Japanese, but not without some delay and difficulty. The Japanese affected to be much surprised at his early return, and contended, that the treaty said, that the exchange of ratifications was to be in eighteen months. Captain Adams contended, that our copy said within eighteen months, and that we had a right to send it back as soon as we liked. After some delay in getting the originals from Yedo and examining them, this matter was settled.

When they were asked for the signature of the emperor to accompany that of the president, they said that was impossible: that he never put his name to any document whatever. The captain then resorted to a little bullying—the thing which had been so successfully practised upon them by the opperbevelhebber —and told them, he would not like to carry back such an answer to his country—that if 359 we could have imagined such a thing, our secretary of state only would have signed the ratification, and not the president. They came down and gave the signature of the emperor—that is a lot of snakes’ tails, flies’ legs, and triangles, which for all we know, were but there by Tatsnoski, or any other functionary.

The appearance of Simoda after the frightful earthquake there in December, was sad in the extreme. The town was piled in ruins, and junks had been carried a distance of two miles into neighboring fields.

The Russian admiral Pontiatine was at Simoda, during the terrible convulsion, and seeing nothing desirable about the port, had been insisting upon Oassacca, the seaport of the city of Meaco, as one of the places to be granted his country, but the wrecking of his ship, the Diana, by the earthquake, left him in no condition to insist upon his point with force, so he was compelled to consent to Simoda.

The implicit obedience to their laws, under whatever circumstances, by the Japanese, was shown at the wrecking and sinking of a junk, that drifted afoul of the Diana and was stove. Two of her crew only clung to the Diana, the rest stolidly sunk with the junk. Those saved were asked the cause of this strange conduct on the part of their late comrades. They said it was, that their laws forbid them going on board of a foreign vessel; nor did they know what would be done with themselves for it.

If it be the best government, which governs least, that is not the government of Japan; like the law of gravitation it is always in action: its Briarian arms are everywhere, and its subjects are a community of Arguses. When storm is on the deep and its mariners are clinging to their long tillers and shuddering at the yawning sea, each lightning flash of heaven shows them an etiolating hand, that will crush them, if they dare leave their craft, until half engulfed.

The English and French squadrons visited Nangasaki, and negotiated their treaty there; though their freedom of movement was greatly restricted. Their masters were only allowed to land on a small barren island to rate their chronometers; during the conferences some of their officers were taken to task by the Japanese for spitting on their matting.

The cruise of the United States steam-frigate Mississippi under the command of a fine officer and estimable gentleman—Sydney Smith Lee, during the years 1852, ’53, ’54, and ’55, was one full of interest. She is the third war-steamer, that ever circumnavigated the globe, and during her cruise sailed a distance more than twice its circumference. She visited places, too, unusual.

The writer wishes that the time had been afforded him to give an outline of the terrible typhoon, which she encountered in the North Pacific ocean on the 7th of October, 1854—how we saw two Mondays, or two 361 16ths of October, come together in the same week—Honolulu—California—Taboga—stay at Valparaiso—the brilliant dash of the old ship, with a chasing gale, into the straits of Magellan: of her subsequent run through them “amid snow and glacier”—the firing of the “22d of February” salute, which was heard by the Patagonian—Rio Janeiro, &c., but this would make our narrative of undue length.

APPENDIX.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR NAPA, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO.
By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

This is the principal seaport of the island, and perhaps the only one possessing the privileges of a port of entry.

Its inner, or Junk harbor, has a depth of water of from two to three fathoms, and though small, is sufficiently large to accommodate with ease, the fifteen or twenty moderate-sized junks which are usually found moored in it. These are mostly Japanese, with a few Chinese and some small coasting craft, which seem to carry on a sluggish trade with the neighboring islands.

The outer harbor is protected to the eastward and southward by the main land, while in other directions it is surrounded by merely a chain of coral reefs, which answer as a tolerable breakwater against a swell from the northward or westward, but affords of course, no shelter from the wind. The holding ground is so good, however, that a well-found ship could ride out here almost any gale in safety.

The clearest approach to Napa from the westward, is by passing to the northward of the Amakarima islands and sighting Agenhu island, whence steer a S. E. course for the harbor, passing on either side of Reef islands, being careful, however, not to approach them too near on the western and southern sides, as the reefs below water in these directions, are said to be more extensive than is shown by the charts.

After clearing Reef islands, bring Wood Hill to bear S. S. E., when 364 stand down for it, until getting upon the line of bearing for South channel . This will carry you well clear of Blossom reef, yet not so far off but that the White Tomb and clump of trees or bushes to the southward of Tumai Head can be easily distinguished. An E. N. E. ½  E., or E. N. E. course will now take you in clear of all dangers, and give a good anchorage on or near the seven-fathom bank, about half a mile to the northward and westward of False Capstan Head. This channel being perfectly straight, is more desirable for a stranger entering the harbor, than Oar channel , which, though wider, has the disadvantage of its being necessary for a vessel to alter her course some four or five points, just when she is in the midst of reefs, which are nearly all below the surface of the water.

Bring the centre of the island in Junk harbor (known by the deep verdure of its vegetation), to fill the gap between the forts at the entrance of Junk harbor and steer a S. E. ½  E. course, until Capstan Head bears east, when haul up to E. N. E. and anchor as before directed.

Is very much contracted by a range of detached rocks making out from the reef on the west side, and should not under ordinary circumstances be attempted by a stranger; as at high water the reefs are almost entirely covered, and it is difficult to judge of your exact position, unless familiar with the various localities and landmarks. To enter by this (North) channel, bring a remarkable notch in the southern range of hills, in line with a small hillock just to the eastward of False Capstan Head and stand in on this range S. by E. ½  E. until Tumai Head bears E. ½  N., when open a little to the southward, so as to give the reef to the eastward a berth, and select your anchorage.

There is a black spar-buoy anchored on Blossom reef half way between its eastern and western extremities , a red spar-buoy on the point of reef to the W. N. W’d of Abbey point, and a white spar-buoy on the southeast extremity of Oar reef. Flags of corresponding colors are attached to all these buoys, and they afford good guides for the South and Oar channels. There are two large stakes on the reefs to the eastward and westward of North channel, planted there by the natives, this being the channel mostly used by junks trading to the northward.

An abundance of water can always be obtained at the fountains in 365 Junk river, where there is excellent landing for boats. There is a good spring near the tombs in Tumai bluff, but unless the water is perfectly smooth the landing is impracticable, and under any circumstances it is inconvenient from the want of sufficient depth, except at high tide.

It is directed by the commander-in-chief that the vessels of the squadron under his command, shall heave to, on approaching Napa, and make signal for a pilot, when an officer familiar with the localities and landmarks will be sent off from the vessel in port to pilot her in, or point to her commander the position of the dangers to be avoided.

Should there, however, be no vessel in port, then boats are to be sent ahead, and anchored upon the extremities of the reefs, between which the vessel intends to pass.

Note. —The spar-buoys, above described, were securely moored at the time they were placed in their respective positions, by order of Commodore Perry, but may be displaced, or entirely removed by the heave of the sea, or by the natives, and should therefore not be entirely relied upon.

OONTING, OR PORT MELLVILLE, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO.
By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

Oonting harbor is on the N. W. side of Loo-Choo, and distant about thirty-five miles from Napa.

Sugar Loaf island, an excellent landmark, lies about twelve miles to the W. N. W’d of the entrance. The island is low and flat, with the exception of a sharp conical peak near its eastern extremity, which rises to a height of several hundred feet.

Passing to the northward of Sugar Loaf island, an E. S. easterly course will bring you to the mouth of the harbor, and to the northward and westward of Kooi island. It is advisable to heave to here, or anchor in twenty or twenty-five fathoms water, until boats or buoys can be placed along the edges of the reefs bordering the channel, for without some such guides, it is difficult for a vessel of large draft to find her way in between the reefs, which contract, in places, to within a cable’s length of each other, and are at all times covered with water.

The ranges and courses for the channel, are first: Hele rock in range with double-topped mountain bearing south thirty-seven degrees east. Steer this course, keeping the range on until Chimney rock bears S. ½  E.; then for Chimney rock, until Point Conde bears south forty-nine degrees east; then for Point Conde, until entering the basin of Oonting, when anchor; giving your ship room to swing clear of the reef making out to the northward of Point Conde, and you will be as snug as if lying in dock; with good holding ground, completely land-locked, and sheltered almost entirely from every wind.

SAILING DIRECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS, UPON LLOYD HARBOR, BONIN ISLANDS.
From Reports of Acting Masters Madigan and Bennett, of the U. S. Ships Saratoga and Susquehanna.

The entrance to the harbor of Port Lloyd, on the western side of Peel island, one of the Bonin group, is well defined; so that it can scarcely be mistaken.

A ship bound in, would do well to place a boat on the shoal, that makes off south from the eastern point of Square Rock, as it is called on Beechy’s harbor chart. This shoal can be easily seen from aloft, however, even when there is no swell on. It extends full two cables length from Square Rock to the southward, and is steep. The centre of the shoal is awash with a smooth sea. The tide rises about three feet, and there is a coral rock about one cable’s length north from the northern point of Southern Head, on which I found eight feet water . But a ship entering the harbor would not be likely to approach Southern Head so near as to be upon it. This island, as well as those surrounding it, is chiefly visited by whale-ships, and its products, therefore, are such as to suit their wants.

Potatoes, yams, and other vegetables, fruits of various kinds, together with wild hogs and goats can be procured from the few whites and Sandwich-islanders—thirty five in all—settled there. Wood is good and plentiful, and water can be had, though in limited quantities, and slightly tainted by the coral rocks from which it springs.

The anchorage is fair, though open to the south and west. The reconnoissance made by order of the commander-in-chief, proved the accuracy of Captain Beechy’s chart.

Mr. Bennet, acting master of the Susquehanna, says in his report: “Assuming the position of Napa in Great Loo-Choo island, as established by Beechy, to be correct, I find by the mean of my chronometers, that he has placed Ten-Fathom Hole, in Port Lloyd, five miles too far to the westward, and consequently the whole group is placed that much to the westward of its true position.”

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HARBOR OF SIMODA.
By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. Navy.

Vessels bound to the harbor of Simoda, to the southward and westward, should make Cape Idzu, from which Rock island bears E. S. E. ¼  E., distant about five miles; and if the weather is at all clear, the chain of islands at the entrance of the gulf of Yedo will at the same time be plainly visible.

Between Rock island and the main land, there are a number of rocks awash and above water, among which the Japanese junks freely pass, but a ship should not attempt a passage inside of Rock island, unless in case of urgent necessity, particularly as the northeasterly current, which sweeps along this coast, seems to be, at this point, capricious, both in direction and velocity.

Giving Rock island a berth of a mile, the harbor of Simoda will be in full view, bearing N. ¼  W., distant five miles.

Vandalia Bluff, on the east side of the entrance, may be recognised by a grove of pine-trees on the summit of the bluff, and the village of Susaki, which lies about one third of the way between it and Cape Diamond. Cape Diamond is a sharp point making out to the eastward of the entrance of the harbor.

Standing in from Rock island, you will probably pass through a number of tide rips, but not get soundings with the hand lead, until near the entrance of the harbor, when you will be in from fourteen to twenty-seven fathoms.

Should the wind be from the northward and fresh, a vessel should anchor at the mouth of the harbor until it lulls or shifts, or until she can conveniently warp in, as it is usually flawy and always baffling.

Approaching from the northward and eastward, a vessel can pass on either side of Oho Sima, from the centre, of which Cape Diamond bears W. S. W. ¾   W., distant about twenty miles.

Between Oho Sima and Simoda no dangers are known to exist; but the northeasterly current must be borne constantly in mind—particularly at night and in thick weather. Its general strength is from two to three miles per hour; but as this, as well as its direction, is much influenced by the local wind, headlands, islands, &c., neither can be relied upon.

Should Oho Sima be obscured by thick weather, before reaching Cape Diamond, endeavor to sight Rock island, for there are no very conspicuous objects on the main land, by which a stranger can recognise the harbor at a distance, and the shore appears as one unbroken line.

To the westward of the harbor there are several sand beaches, and three or four sand banks, These can be plainly discerned when within six or eight miles, and are good landmarks.

A vessel from the southward and eastward should pass to the westward of the island of Kozu Sima, 4 which may be known by a remarkable snow-white cliff on its western side. There is also a white patch on its summit, to the northward of the cliff. From this island the harbor bears N. by W. ½  W., distant about twenty-eight miles.

There are but two hidden dangers in the harbor; the first is the Southampton rock, which lies in mid-channel, bearing N. ½  W. from Vandalia bluff, about three fourths of the way between it and Centre island. This rock is about twenty-five feet in diameter, and has two fathoms water upon it. It is marked by a white spar-buoy.

The second is the Supply rock. Bearing S. by W., a short distance from Buisako islet, and is a sharp rock, with eleven feet water upon it. Its position is designated by a red spar-buoy.

Both of these buoys are securely moored, and the authorities of Simoda have promised to replace them, should they by any cause be removed.

Centre island, which receives its name from being the point from which the treaty limits are measured, is high, conical, and covered with trees. A cave passes entirely through it.

In the outer roads, or mouth of the harbor, a disagreeable swell is sometimes experienced; but inside of the Southampton rock and Centre island, vessels are well sheltered, and the water comparatively smooth. Moor with an open hawse to the southward and westward.

There are good landings for boats in Simoda creek, and at the village of Kakizaki.

A harbor-master and three pilots have been appointed; wood, water, fish, fowls, and eggs, also sweet potatoes and other vegetables may be procured from the authorities. It is necessary to supply them with casks to bring the water off.

Latitude Centre island	34° 39′ 49″ N.
Longitude Centre island	138° 57′ 50″ E.
Variation	52′ westerly.
High Water, F. and C	5 hours.
Extreme rise of tide	5 ft. 7 in.
Mean rise of tide	3 ft.

To make the foregoing directions more easily comprehended, they have been rendered as concise as possible, but to furnish further information to navigators bound to, or passing the port, the following additional remarks are appended:—

The harbor of Simoda is near the southeastern extremity of the peninsula of Idzu, which terminates at the cape of that name. To the northward of the harbor, a high ridge intersects the peninsula, and south of this, all the way to the cape, it is broken by innumerable peaks of less elevation.

The harbor bears S. W. by W. from Cape Sagami, at the entrance of Yedo bay, distant about 45 miles.

Rock island is about 120 feet high, and a third of a mile in length, with precipitous shores and uneven outlines. It has a thick matting of grass, weeds, moss, &c., on the top.

From the summit of this island overfalls were seen, bearing N. ½ W., distant a mile, or mile and a half. These may have been caused by a rock or reef. An attempt was made to find it, but the strong current and fresh wind prevented a satisfactory examination. The Japanese fishermen, however, deny the existence of any such danger.

N. by W. from Rock island, distant 2 miles, are the Ukona rocks. These are two rocks, though they generally appear as one. The largest is about 70 feet high. Between these and Rock island, the current was found setting east-northeasterly, fully four miles an hour.

Centre island bears from Rock island N. ½  E., distant 5½ miles, and from Ukona rocks N. by E. ½  E., distant 3½ miles.

Buisako islet lies N. N. E. from Centre island. It is about 40 feet high, and covered with trees and shrubs.

Should the buoy on Southampton rock be removed, the east end of Centre island on with the west end of Buisako, will clear the rock to the westward.

Off the village of Susaki, and distant one third of a mile from the shore, is a ledge of rocks, upon which the surf is always breaking; give them a berth of two cables in passing.

Approaching from the eastward, the harbor will not open until you get well inside of Cape Diamond.

To the northward of Cape Diamond is the bay of Sirahama, which is quite deep, and as it has also several sand-beaches, it may be mistaken for Simoda; but as you approach this bay, Cape Diamond will shut in the Ukona rocks, and Rock island to the southward; while in the Simoda roads they are visible from all points.

Cape Idzu,	latitude	34° 36′ 03″ N.
”	longitude	138° 52′ 32″ E.
Rock Island,	latitude	34° 34′ 20″ N.
”	longitude	138° 57′ 10″ E.

S. W. ½  W. from Kozu-Sima, distant about 20 miles, and south, a little westerly, from Cape Idzu, distant about 40 miles, there are two patches of dangerous rocks, 15 or 20 feet high, which have been named Redfield rocks. They are in—Latitude 33° 56′ 13″ N., Longitude 138° 48′ 31″ E.; and Latitude 33° 57′ 31″ N., Longitude 138° 49′ 13″ E.

These positions may not be strictly correct, but it is believed they are not much out of the way.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR YEDO.
By Lieut. Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

Vessels from the southward, bound to this bay, should pass up to the westward of the chain of islands lying off the gulf of Yedo, and are cautioned against mistaking the deep bight of Kawatsu bay for the entrance of Uraga channel, for on the northeast side of this bay there is a ledge of rocks several miles from the shore, bearing from Cape Sagami about W. N. W., distant ten miles, upon which one of the vessels of our squadron grounded. A stranger without a correct chart would naturally make this mistake, as the opening of the channel is not seen at a distance from this quarter, the shore appearing as an unbroken line.

The entrance to the channel bears from the centre of Oho-Sima N. E. by N., distant about twenty miles. Stand in upon this line, and the Saddle hill to the northward of Cape Sagami will be readily recognised, as well as the round black knob on the eastern side of the 371 channel. On approaching Uraga, the Plymouth rocks will be plainly seen; give these a berth of half a mile to clear the Ingersoll Patch, a sunken rock with but one fathom on it, and which is the only known danger in the channel.

Between Plymouth rocks and Cape Kami-Saki, the ground is clear and the anchorage good, if care be taken to get pretty well in, so as to avoid the strong tides which sweep round the latter with great rapidity. A spit makes out a short distance to the southward of Kami-Saki; but to the northward of the cape, the shore is bold, and the water very deep.

On rounding Cape Kami-Saki, if bound for the city of Yedo, steer N. W. by N., until Perry island bears S. by W. ¾  W., so as to clear Saratoga spit, which extends well out from the eastern shore; then haul up, keeping Perry island upon this bearing until the beacon on the low point to the southward of Yedo bears W. N. W. This clears the shoal off the point, and here there is good anchorage in about ten fathoms water, in full view of the city of Yedo.

At this point our survey terminated; the boats, however, found a clear channel, with plenty of water for the largest vessels, several miles farther to the northward, and within a few miles of the city.

If bound to the American anchorage, from Cape Kami-Saki, steer N. W., and anchor in eight or ten fathoms water, with Perry island bearing S. S. E., and Webster island S. W. by S.

To the southward of Webster island there is also good anchorage in six and seven fathoms. Near this anchorage, there are two snug coves, very accessible, in which vessels may conveniently repair and refit.

Susquehanna bay, three miles W. N. W. from Cape Kami-Saki, is well sheltered, but it contains a number of reefs and rocks, and is therefore not recommended as an anchorage.

Mississippi bay is four miles north of the American anchorage; it is well sheltered from the prevailing winds. Upon anchoring it is necessary to give the shore a wide berth, to avoid a shoal which extends out from half to three quarters of a mile. The conspicuous headland, or long yellow bluff, on the north side of this bay, is called Treaty point; a shoal surrounds the point from two thirds of a mile to a mile distant.

Between the American anchorage and Treaty point, the soundings are irregular, shoaling suddenly from twelve to five fathoms on a bank of hard sand.

To the northward of Treaty point, and N. N. W. from Cape Kami-Saki, distant fourteen miles, is Yokuhama bay. To reach this anchorage, bring the wooded bluff which terminates the high land on 372 the north side of the bay to bear N. by W. ½  W., and steer for it until Treaty point bears S. W. by S.—(this clears the spit off the point); then haul up about N. W. by N. for the bluff over the town of Kanagawa, and anchor in five and a half or six fathoms, with the Haycock just open to the eastward of Mandarin bluff. Mandarin is the steep bluff a mile to the northward of Treaty point.

A flat extends out from the northern shore of this bay, between Kanagawa and Beacon point from one to two miles; off Mandarin bluff there is also a shoal extending a mile to the northward.

The bay of Yedo is about twelve miles wide, and thirty deep, with excellent holding-ground, and capable of sheltering the fleets of the world.

Our survey embraced the western shore only, from Cape Kami-Saki to Beacon point. We had no opportunity of examining the eastern side. The soundings from Treaty point across in an E. S. E. direction are regular, and three fathoms were found about a mile and a half from the opposite shore.

During our stay in the bay, from the 17th February to the 18th April, the weather was generally fine, being occasionally interrupted by strong winds and heavy rain. The gales came up suddenly from the southward and westward with a low barometer, and continued for a short time, when the wind hauled round to the northward and westward, and moderated. We had no easterly blows; in fact, the wind was rarely from this quarter, except when hauling round from the northward (as it invariably did) by east to the southward and westward.

The tide is quite strong out in the bay; and off the tail of Saratoga spit, Perry island, and Cape Kami-Saki, its velocity is much increased. But at the anchorage in the bay of Yokuhama it was scarcely felt. At Yokuhama the Japanese, authorities supplied us with wood and water, and a few vegetables, fowls, eggs, oysters, and clams.

Latitude,	Cape Sagami	35° 06′ 30″
Longitude,	”	139° 40′
Latitude,	Webster Island	35° 18′ 30″
Longitude,	”	139° 40′ 34″
Latitude	of Treaty building, north end of Yokuhama	35° 26′ 44″
Longitude,	”	139° 40′ 23″
Variation		25′ westerly.
High Water, F. and C		6 hours.
Rise and fall at Yokuhama		6 feet.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE PORT OF HAKODADI.
By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

This splendid and beautiful bay, which for accessibility and safety is one of the finest in the world, lies on the north side of the straits of Sangar, which separate the Japanese islands of Nippon and Yeso, and about midway between Cape SirijaSaki 5 (the N. E. point of Nippon), and the city of Matsmai. It bears from the cape N. W. ½  W., distant about 45 miles, and is about 4 miles wide at the entrance, and 5 miles deep.

The harbor is the southeastern arm of the bay, and is completely sheltered, with regular soundings and excellent holding ground. It is formed by a bold-peaked promontory, standing well out from the high land of the main, with which it is connected by a low sandy isthmus, and which, appearing at a distance as an island, may be easily recognised.

The town is situated on the northeast slope of the promontory, facing the harbor, and contains about 6,000 inhabitants.

Approaching from the eastward, after passing Cape Suwu Kubo, named on our chart Cape Blunt, which is a conspicuous headland 12 miles E. by S. from the town, the junks at anchor in the harbor will be visible over the low isthmus.

Rounding the promontory of Hakodadi, and giving it a berth of a mile, to avoid the calms under the high land, steer for the sharp peak of Komaga daki, bearing about N., until the east peak of the Saddle, bearing about N. E. by N., opens to the westward of the round knob on the side of the mountain, then haul up to the northward and eastward, keeping them open until the centre of the sandhills on the isthmus bears S. E. by E. ¾  E.; these may be recognised by the dark knolls upon them. This will clear a spit which makes out from the northwestern point of the town in a north-northwesterly direction two thirds of a mile; then bring the sandhills a point on the port bow, and stand in until the northwestern point of the town bears S. W. ½  W., when you will have the best berth, with 5½ or 6 fathoms water. If it 374 is desirable to get nearer in, haul up a little to the eastward of S., for the low rocky peak which will be just visible over the sloping ridge to the southward and eastward of the town. A vessel of moderate draught may approach within a quarter of a mile of Tsuki point, where there is a building-yard for junks. This portion of the harbor, however, is generally crowded with vessels of this description; and, unless the want of repairs, or some other cause, renders a close berth necessary, it is better to remain outside.

If the Peak or Saddle is obscured by clouds or fog, after doubling the promontory, steer N. by E. ½  E., until the sandhills are brought upon the bearing above given, when proceed as there directed.

A short distance from the tail of the spit is a detached sandbank, with 3½ fathoms on it. The outer edge of this is marked by a white spar-buoy. Between this and the spit there is a narrow channel with 5 or 6 fathoms water. Vessels may pass on either side of the buoy, but it is most prudent to go to the northward of it.

Should the wind fail before reaching the harbor, there is good anchorage in the outer roads, in from 25 to 10 fathoms.

Excellent wood and water may be procured from the authorities of the town; or, if preferred, water can be easily obtained from Kamida creek, which enters the harbor to the northward and eastward of the town.

The season, at the time of our visit, was unfavorable for procuring supplies; a few sweet and Irish potatoes, eggs, and fowls, however, were obtained, and these articles, at a more favorable period of the year, will no doubt be furnished in sufficient quantities to supply any vessels that may in future visit the port.

Our seine supplied us with fine salmon and a quantity of other fish, and the shores of the bay abound with excellent shellfish.

During our stay in this harbor, from the 17th May to 3d June, the weather was generally pleasant until the 1st June, when the fog set in. It was usually calm in the morning, but toward the middle of the day a brisk breeze from S. W. sprung up.

Latitude, mouth of Kamida creek		41° 49′ 22″ N.
Longitude,	”	140° 47′ 45″ E.
Variation		4° 30′ W.
High Water, F. and C		5 hours.
Extreme rise and fall of tide		3 feet.

Our chronometers were rated at Napa Kiang, Loo-Choo, from the position of that place as given by Captain Beechy, 375 R. N.

THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

[In the text is given an account of the negotiations relative to the comparative value of the American and Japanese coin. It is thought as well to give the report of the pursers appointed to arrange the question, which will be found below.]

Sir : The committee appointed by you, in your letter of the 12th instant, to confer with a committee from the Japanese commissioners in reference to the rate of exchange and currency between the two nations in the trade at the ports opened, and to settle the price of coal to be delivered at this port, beg leave to report:—

The Japanese committee, it was soon seen, came to the conference with their minds made up to adhere to the valuation they had already set upon our coins, even if the alternative was the immediate cessation of trade. The basis upon which they made their calculation was the nominal rate at which the government sells bullion when it is purchased from the mint, and which seems also to be that by which the metal is received from the mines. The Japanese have a decimal system of weight, like the Chinese, of catty, tael, mace, candareen, and cash, by which articles in general are weighed; but gold and silver are not reckoned above taels. In China a tael of silver in weight and one in currency are the same, for the Chinese have no silver coin; but in Japan, as in European countries, the standard of value-weight and that of currency-weight differ. We were told that a tael weight of silver has now come to be reckoned, when it is bullion, as equal to 225 candareens, or 2 taels, 2 mace, 5 candareens; but when coined, the same amount in weight is held to be worth 6 taels, 4 mace. It is at the bullion value that the government has decided to receive our dollar, the same at which they take the silver from the mines; asserting that, as its present die and assay give it no additional value, it is worth no more to them. In proportion to a tael, a dollar weighs 7 mace, 1 1-5 candareen, which, at the rates of bullion value, makes it worth 1 tael, 6 mace, or 1,600 cash. Thus the Japanese government will make a profit of 66-2/3 per cent. on every dollar paid them of full weight, with the trifling deduction of the expense of recoining it. The injustice of this arrangement was shown, and the propriety of paying to the seller himself the coin we gave at this depreciated rate urged, but in vain.

For gold the rate is more, as the disparity between the value of bullion and that of coin, among the Japanese, is not so great. A tael weight of gold is valued at 19 taels in currency, and a mace at 1 tael, 9 mace. The gold dollar weighs almost 5 candareens, but the Japanese have reckoned it as the twentieth part of a $20 piece, which they give as 8 mace, 8 candareens; and, consequently, the dollar is only 4 candareens, 4 cash. This weight brings the gold dollar, when compared with the tael of bullion gold worth 19 taels, to be worth 836 cash, and the $20 piece to be worth 16,720 cash, or 16 taels, 7 mace, 2 candareens. This, when converted into a silver value, makes a gold dollar worth 52¼ cents, and a $20 piece worth $10 45, at which the Japanese propose to take them. But this valuation of the gold dollar at 52¼ cents, when reckoned at 836 cash, its assessed value by the Japanese government, suffers the same depreciation as our silver; and its real value, when compared with the inflated currency in use among the people, is only about 17¼ cents. Consequently, by this estimate, gold becomes 50 per cent. worse for us to pay in than silver. The currency value of a gold dollar, taking the its-evoo as of equal purity, and comparing them weight for weight, is only 1,045 cash, or nearly 22 cents in silver; so that the actual depreciation on the part of the Japanese is not so great as silver—being for the two metals, when weighed with each other, for silver as 100 to 33-1/3, and for gold as 22 to 17. The elements of this comparison are not quite certain, and therefore its results are somewhat doubtful; but the extraordinary discrepancy of both metals, compared with our coins and with their own copper coins, shows how the government has inflated the whole monetary system in order to benefit itself.

The parties could come to no agreement, as we declined to consent to the proposals of the Japanese, who were decided to adhere to their valuation of a silver dollar at 1 tael, 6 mace, or 1,600 cash; neither would they consent to do justly by us in relation to the moneys paid them at this place before our departure for Hakodadi, at the rate of only 1 tael, 2 mace, or 1,200 cash, to the dollar, by which they had made a profit of 76 per cent. on each dollar, stating that the money paid them at this rate had passed out of their hands; and, moreover, that the prices placed upon the articles furnished had been charged at reduced prices with reference to the low value placed upon the dollar.

For the amount due and unsettled, for supplies received at Yokuhama, and on account of which Purser Eldredge paid Moriyama Yenoske, imperial interpreter, $350 in gold and silver, that they might be assayed and tested at Yedo, they consent to receive the dollar at the 377 valuation now placed on them—that is, at the rate of 1,600 cash for the silver dollar.

We carefully investigated the price of the coal to be delivered to vessels in this port. We learn that 10,000 catties or 100 piculs have arrived; and this, at the rate of 1,680 catties to a ton of 2,240 pounds, or 16 4-5 piculs, costs 262 taels, 6 mace, 5 candareens, 3 cash, or $164 16; making the rate to be $27 91 per ton. The Japanese state that the price of coal would be considerably reduced as the demand for it increased, and their facilities for mining became more perfect.

In conclusion, we take pleasure in expressing our thanks to Messrs. Williams and Portman, whose services as interpreters were indispensable, and from whom we received important aid in our investigations.

William Speiden ,
Purser U. S. Navy .
J. C. Eldredge ,
Purser U. S. Navy .

Commodore M. C. Perry ,
Commander-in-Chief U. S. Naval Forces
in the East India and China Seas .

TABLE OF JAPANESE DISTANCES.

POETRY AND THE DRAMA.

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FOOTNOTES

1 The work of Kœmpfer, to which reference, as to Japanese history, is frequently made, singular to say, was never written by him. It was written by one Camphay, governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, and at one time the superintendent of the trade in Japan. The manuscript was only given to Kœmpfer to bring home, and to place it in the archives of the Dutch East India Company at Amsterdam; but instead of complying with the trust, he took the pages with him to Germany, and kept them until he died. After his death, more than a century ago, a friend of his named Scheuchzer, residing in London, went immediately to Germany, procured the manuscript, and it was first published in Great Britain in English, and subsequently translated into other languages.

2 Probably Bonin island, known to the Japanese as Moninsoma.

3 Probably Kanaka, Sandwich island, he alludes to.

4 This is the most southwestern island of the chain of islands lying off the Gulf of Yedo.

5 Saki, in the Japanese language, means Cape, consequently it should more properly be called Cape Sirija; but to prevent mistakes it has been thought advisable to adopt the Japanese names.

6 The fans used by the officials of Japan, are of a uniform size, and regulated by custom.

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For vessels drawing over eighteen American feet	$15 00
For vessels drawing over thirteen and less than eighteen feet	$10 00
For vessels drawing under thirteen feet	$5 00

Voor schepen over 18 Amerikaansche voeten diep in het water	$15 00
Voor schepen over 13 en minder dan 18 voeten diep	$10 00
Voor schepen under 13 Am: voeten diep	$5 00

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Japan expedition. Japan and around the world

Transcriber’s Notes

JAPAN
AND
AROUND THE WORLD

PREFACE.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

APPENDIX.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR NAPA, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO.
By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

OONTING, OR PORT MELLVILLE, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO.
By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

SAILING DIRECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS, UPON LLOYD HARBOR, BONIN ISLANDS.
From Reports of Acting Masters Madigan and Bennett, of the U. S. Ships Saratoga and Susquehanna.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HARBOR OF SIMODA.
By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. Navy.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR YEDO.
By Lieut. Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE PORT OF HAKODADI.
By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

TABLE OF JAPANESE DISTANCES.

POETRY AND THE DRAMA.

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

FOOTNOTES

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Japan expedition. Japan and around the world

Transcriber’s Notes

JAPAN AND AROUND THE WORLD

PREFACE.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

APPENDIX.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR NAPA, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO. By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

OONTING, OR PORT MELLVILLE, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO. By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

SAILING DIRECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS, UPON LLOYD HARBOR, BONIN ISLANDS. From Reports of Acting Masters Madigan and Bennett, of the U. S. Ships Saratoga and Susquehanna.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HARBOR OF SIMODA. By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. Navy.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR YEDO. By Lieut. Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE PORT OF HAKODADI. By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

THE CURRENCY QUESTION.

TABLE OF JAPANESE DISTANCES.

POETRY AND THE DRAMA.

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY.

FOOTNOTES

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

JAPAN
AND
AROUND THE WORLD

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR NAPA, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO.
By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

OONTING, OR PORT MELLVILLE, ISLAND GREAT LOO-CHOO.
By Lieutenant S. Bent, U. S. Navy.

SAILING DIRECTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS, UPON LLOYD HARBOR, BONIN ISLANDS.
From Reports of Acting Masters Madigan and Bennett, of the U. S. Ships Saratoga and Susquehanna.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HARBOR OF SIMODA.
By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. Navy.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR YEDO.
By Lieut. Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.

SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE PORT OF HAKODADI.
By Lieutenant Wm. L. Maury, U. S. N.