We have seen in the last chapter how the whale fishery, on the one hand, and the opening of China to foreign trade, on the other, had more and more drawn attention to Japan; in the conduct of whose functionaries, however, no indication appeared of any disposition to abandon their ancient exclusive policy. It has even been asserted[112] that a new Shōgun [Iyeyoshi], who had succeeded in 1837 (after a fifty years’ reign on the part of his predecessor), had imposed new restrictions on foreign products, and, by special encouragement to home productions of similar kinds, had endeavored to supersede the necessity of receiving anything from abroad. It is certain that the Dutch trade rather diminished than increased. The amount of that trade, from 1825 to 1833, inclusive, is stated by Jancigny, from official returns, or those reputed to be such, at 289,150 florins ($115,620) for importations, and 702,675 florins ($281,078) for exportations. In 1846, the importations reached only 231,117 fr. ($92,446), and the exportations 552,319 fr. ($220,927); and those of the preceding year had been about the same. The private trade, and the attempts at smuggling connected with it, were very narrowly watched. Within the preceding ten years, one interpreter had been executed, and another had been driven to cut himself open, in consequence of complicity in smuggling. The private trade had been farmed out, for the benefit of those interested in it, at 30,000 fl. ($12,000) annually,—the amount at which Kämpfer had reckoned the profits from that source of the director alone. Among the Dutch imports upon government account, woollens, silks, velvets, cotton goods, gold, silver, tin, lead, mercury, and a few other articles are mentioned. Sugar, formerly a leading article, no longer appears on the list. The returns continued to be exclusively in camphor and copper, the latter furnished by the Japanese government at the old rates, much below the current price, by which advantage alone was the Dutch trade sustained. Among the private importations were spices, chemicals, and a great variety of Paris trinkets, for which various Japanese manufactures and products were taken in exchange.

The Chinese trade had declined not less than that of the Dutch. The ten junks a year, to which it was now restricted, all came from Sha-po (not far from Chusan), half of them in January and the other half in August—their cargoes, which include a great variety of articles, being partly furnished by private merchants who come over in them, but chiefly by a commercial company at Sha-po, for whom the captains of the junks act as supercargoes. Except as to some trifling articles, this trade seems, like that of the Dutch, to be pretty much in the hands of the government, who, or some privileged company under them, purchase the imports and furnish a return cargo to each junk, two fifths in copper and the remainder in other articles. The Chinese, however, still continued to be allowed much more liberty than the Dutch of personal intercourse with the inhabitants of Nagasaki.

The settlement of California, the new trade opened thence with China, and the idea of steam communication across the Pacific, for which the coal of Japan might be needed, combined with the extension of the whale fishery in the Northern Japanese seas to increase the desire in America for access to the ports of Japan. Shortly after the visit of the “Preble,” the American government resolved to send an envoy thither, backed by such a naval force as would ensure him a respectful hearing—the cases of Biddle and Glyn seeming to prove that the humoring policy could not be relied upon and that the only way to deal successfully with the Japanese was to show a resolution not to take no for an answer.

Accordingly, Mr. Webster, as Secretary of State, prepared a letter from the President to the Emperor of Japan; also a letter of instructions to the American naval commander in the China seas, to whom it was resolved to entrust the duty of envoy, and whose force was to be strengthened by additional ships. The sailing, however, of these ships was delayed till after Mr. Webster’s death; and in the mean time Commodore Matthew C. Perry was selected as the head of the expedition. A new letter,[113] dated November 5, 1852, addressed from the State Department to the Secretary of the Navy, thus defined its objects:

“1. To effect some permanent arrangement for the protection of American seamen and property wrecked on these islands, or driven into their ports by stress of weather.

“2. The permission to American vessels to enter one or more of their ports, in order to obtain supplies of provisions, water, fuel, &c.; or, in case of disasters, to refit so as to enable them to prosecute their voyage. It is very desirable to have permission to establish a dépôt for coal, if not on one of the principal islands, at least on some small, uninhabited one, of which it is said there are several in their vicinity.

“3. The permission to our vessels to enter one or more of their ports for the purpose of disposing of their cargoes by sale or barter.”

The mission was to be of a pacific character, as the President had no power to declare war; yet the show of force was evidently relied upon as more likely than anything else to weigh with the Japanese. The Dutch government, it was stated, had instructed their agents at Deshima to do all they could to promote the success of the expedition. Indeed, if we may believe Jancigny,[114] who speaks from information obtained during a residence at Batavia in 1844-45, the King of Holland had, as long ago as that time, addressed a letter to the Emperor of Japan, urging him to abandon the policy of exclusion. The letter of instructions disavowed any wish to obtain exclusive privileges; but, as a matter of policy, nothing was to be said about other nations.

A new letter to the Emperor of Japan was also prepared in the following terms:

Furnished with these orders, and this letter splendidly engrossed and enclosed in a gold box of the value of a thousand dollars, and provided also with a variety of presents, Commodore Perry, towards the end of 1852, sailed from the United States in the steam-frigate “Mississippi,” and, after touching at Madeira and the Cape of Good Hope, arrived at Hong Kong in April, 1853, whence he proceeded to Shanghai. The dispersion of the vessels of the squadron, delay in the arrival of others from the United States, difficulty in obtaining coal, and the claim of the American merchants in China, in consideration of existing civil commotions, to the protecting presence of a naval force, caused some delays. But, at length, after touching at Lew Chew [Riūkiū], and making a visit to the Bonin Islands,[116] Perry, with the steam-frigate “Susquehanna,” now the flag-ship, the “Mississippi,” and the sloops-of-war “Plymouth” and “Saratoga,” made Cape Izu about daybreak on the 8th of July. Many rumors had been current on the coast of China of extensive warlike preparations by the Japanese, aided by the Dutch, and the squadron was fully prepared for a hostile reception. Perry had made up his mind, instead of attempting to conciliate by yielding, to stand upon his dignity to the utmost, to allow no petty annoyances, and to demand as a right, instead of soliciting as a favor, the courtesies due from one civilized nation to another.

The promontory constituting the province of Izu appeared, as the vessels ran along it, to be a group of high mountains, their summits scarred with slides, and their sides mostly wooded, though here and there a cultivated spot could be seen. By noon the ships reached Cape Sagami, which separates the inner from the outer bay of Yedo. The shores of this point rose in abrupt bluffs two hundred feet high, with green dells running down to the waterside. Further off were groves and cultivated fields, and mountains in the distance.

Leaving behind some twelve or fifteen Japanese boats, which put off from Cape Sagami to intercept them, the vessels stood up through the narrowest part of the bay, not more than five to eight miles wide, but expanding afterwards to fifteen miles, having now also in sight the eastern shore, forming a part of the province of Awa.[117]

Within half an hour after passing Cape Sagami, they made another bold promontory from the west, forming a second entrance to the upper bay. In the bight formed by it lay the town of Uraga, visible from the ships, which, sounding their way, anchored within a mile and a half of the promontory,—a mile or more in advance of the anchorage ground of the “Columbus” and “Vincennes.”

As the ships dropped their anchors two or three guns or mortars were fired from the second promontory, and four or five boats put off. They were of unpainted wood, very sharp, their greatest breadth well towards the stern, and propelled with great rapidity by tall, athletic rowers, naked, save a cloth about the loins, who shouted lustily as they pulled. In the stem of each boat was a small flag, with three horizontal stripes, the middle one black, the others white, and about it were four or five well-dressed men with two swords in their girdles.

Some parley took place before anybody was admitted on board, that favor being refused except to the person highest in authority in the town. The conversation was carried on in Dutch, which the Japanese interpreter spoke very well; and, from what he said, it was evident that the vessels had been expected. After a long parley, in which the high rank of the commodore, and the necessity of his being met by persons of corresponding rank, were very much insisted upon, an officer, representing himself as second in command at the town in sight, was admitted on board. The commodore, however, declined to see him in person, and turned him over to Mr. Contee, the flag lieutenant, who, assisted by the two interpreters—one for Dutch, the other for Chinese[118]—had a long interview with him and his interpreter in the cabin. He was told that the object of the expedition was to deliver a letter from the President of the United States to the Emperor, and that some high officer must be sent on board to receive it; also, that the squadron would not submit to be watched and guarded, after the Japanese fashion, but that all the guard-boats must withdraw. The officer, as usual, was very inquisitive. He wanted to know whether the vessels came from Boston, New York, or Washington, how many men they had, etc., etc.; but these questions he was given to understand were regarded as impertinent.

Seeing the determination evinced, the Japanese officer, by name Nakashima Saburosuke, Yoriki of the governor of Uraga, returned on shore, taking back his official notifications in French, Dutch, and English, addressed to ships arriving on the coast (like those given p. 267), which the lieutenant refused to receive. He was followed by the boats, which, after that, kept at a respectful distance. He came back in about an hour to excuse his superior from receiving the letter addressed to the emperor. He spoke of Nagasaki as the proper place for foreign ships to touch at, and doubted if the letter would be answered; but all this was cut short by the assurance that if his superior did not send for the letter, the ships would proceed still higher up the bay to deliver it themselves; upon which information, much agitated, he stipulated for permission to return in the morning. As he departed, looking at the long gun in the cabin, he exclaimed, with an interrogative look, “Paixhan?” showing that the Japanese were not ignorant of the modern improvements in gunnery any more than of American geography.

It was noticed that, towards night, the boatmen put on their Japanese gowns, most of them blue, with white stripes on the sleeves, meeting angular-wise on the shoulders, and with a symbol or badge on the back. Others wore gowns of red and white stripes, with a black lozenge upon the back. A few had broad bamboo hats, like a shallow basin inverted; but most of them were bareheaded. The officers wore light and beautifully lackered hats, with a gilded symbol in front.

During the night watch-fires blazed along the coast, and bells were heard sounding the hours. The next morning (Saturday), Koyama Yezaimon, first in command at the town, came on board, and made another attempt to beg off from receiving the letter to the emperor. Finally, he proposed to send to Yedo for permission, and was allowed three days to do it in.

Meanwhile surveying parties from the ships ran up the bay a distance of four miles, finding everywhere from thirty to forty fathoms of water. They sounded round the bight within which the ships lay, keeping about a cable’s length from the shore, and finding five fathoms. Yezaimon represented that this survey was against the Japanese laws, but was told that, if forbidden by the laws of Japan it was commanded by the laws of America. On approaching the forts, of which there were five, two apparently of recent construction, the soldiers, armed with matchlocks, came out; but, as the boats drew near, they retired again. These forts were very feeble, mounting only fourteen guns in the whole, none larger than nine-pounders. Of soldiers, about four hundred were seen, many of them armed with spears. There was also, as usual, a great show of canvas screens; but, on the whole, the warlike means of the Japanese seemed contemptible. From the town to the end of the promontory, a distance of a mile and a half, was an unbroken line of villages. At least a hundred small craft lay in the harbor. The hills behind, some five hundred feet high, were dotted with pines and other trees. In the morning and evening, when the air was clear, Mount Fuji might be seen in the west, sixty miles distant. The presence of the American ships did not seem to disturb the coasting trade. Sixty or seventy large junks, besides hundreds of boats and fishing-smacks, daily passed up and down the bay, to and from Yedo.

On Monday, the 11th, the same surveying party proceeded up the bay some ten miles, followed by the “Mississippi.” They were constantly met by government boats, the officers on board which urged them by signs to return, but of which they took no notice. Deep soundings were everywhere obtained, with a bottom of soft mud. A deep bay was found on the western shore, with good and safe anchoring ground.

In the evening Yezaimon returned on board, well pleased, apparently, to be able to give information of the probability of good news from Yedo, but rather troubled at the explorations by the boats. The flag lieutenant, with whom he had his interviews, describes him as “a gentleman, clever, polished, well-informed, a fine, large man, about thirty-four, of most excellent countenance, taking his wine freely, and a boon companion.”

The next day (the 12th) he brought information that the emperor would send down a high officer to receive the letter. No answer would be given immediately, but one would be forwarded through the Dutch or Chinese. This latter proposition the commodore treated as an insult. As, however, if he waited for an answer, excuses might easily be found for protracting his stay in an inconvenient manner, and at last wearying him out, he agreed to allow time for its preparation, and to return to receive it. The following Thursday (the 14th) was appointed for the interview with the commissioners appointed to receive the letter, which was to take place two miles south of the town, at a picturesque spot, on the left side of a narrow valley, extending inland from the head of the bight. Its retired situation, and the facility it afforded for the display of a military force, were probably the motives of its selection.

At the hour appointed for the meeting, as the two steamers approached the spot, long lines of canvas walls were seen stretching, crescent-wise, quite round the head of the bight, and in front files of soldiers with a multitude of brilliant banners. Near the centre of the crescent were nine tall standards, with broad scarlet pennons, in the rear of which could be seen the roof of the house prepared for the interview. On the right, a line of fifty or sixty boats was drawn up, parallel to the beach, each with a red flag at its stern.

The foremost files of the Japanese soldiers stood about a hundred yards from the beach, in somewhat loose and straggling order. The greater part were behind the canvas screens. There were a number of horses to be seen, and in the background a body of cavalry. The Japanese stated the number of troops at five thousand. On the slope of the hill, near the village, was collected a crowd of spectators, of whom many were women.

As soon as the steamers dropped their anchors, they were approached by two boats, containing their former visitors, the first and second officers of the town, with the interpreters, very richly dressed in silk brocade, bordered with velvet, and having on their garments of ceremony. The steamers lay with their broadsides to the shore, ready for action in case of treachery. Fifteen launches and cutters were got ready, from which three hundred and twenty persons, officers, seamen, marines, and musicians, were landed on an extemporaneous jetty which the Japanese had formed of bags of sand. Last of all the commodore landed with due formality, when the whole body, preceded by the Japanese officers and interpreters, marched to the house of reception, carrying with them the president’s letter, the box which held it wrapped in scarlet cloth, as was also that containing the letter of credence. In front of the houses prepared for the interview were two old brass four-pounders, apparently Spanish, and on each side a company of soldiers, those on one side armed with matchlocks, those on the other with old Tower muskets, with flint locks and bayonets. The reception building was a temporary structure, evidently put up for the occasion. The first apartment, about forty feet square, was of canvas. The floor was covered with white cotton cloth, with a pathway of red felt leading across to a raised inner apartment, wholly carpeted with the same red felt. This apartment, of which the front was entirely open, was hung with fine cloth, stamped with the imperial symbols in white on a ground of violet. On the right was a row of arm-chairs for the commodore and his staff. On the opposite side sat the two commissioners appointed to receive the letters, and who were announced by the interpreters as the princes of Izu and Iwami [Toda Izu-no-kami, and Ido Iwami-no-kami, Bugiōs of Uraga]. The former was a man about fifty, with a very pleasing and intelligent face. The latter was older by fifteen years or so, wrinkled with age, and of looks much less prepossessing. Both were splendidly dressed, in heavy robes of silk tissue, elaborately ornamented with threads of gold and silver. As the commodore entered, both rose and bowed gravely, but immediately resumed their seats and remained silent and passive as statues.

At the end of the room was a large scarlet-lackered box, standing on gilded feet, beside which Yezaimon and one of the interpreters knelt, at the same time signifying that all things were ready for the reception of the letters. They were brought in, and the boxes containing them being opened so as to display the writing and the golden seals, they were placed upon the scarlet box, and along with them translations in Dutch and Chinese, as well as an English transcript. The prince of Iwami then handed to the interpreters, who gave it to the commodore, an official receipt in Japanese, to which the interpreter added a Dutch translation, which translated literally into English was as follows:

The commodore remarked, when this receipt was delivered to him, that he should return again, probably in April or May, for an answer. “With all the ships?” asked the interpreter. “Yes, and probably with more,” was the reply. Nothing more was said on either side. As the commodore departed, the commissioners rose and remained standing, and so the interview ended, without a single word uttered on their part.

The Japanese officers of the town, with the Japanese interpreters, accompanied the American party back to the “Susquehanna,” whose machinery they examined with much interest. When off the town, they were set ashore; but the steamers, to show how lightly the injunction to leave was regarded, proceeded up the bay, and anchored a short distance above the point reached by the “Mississippi.” In spite of the solicitude of the Japanese officers, who came again on board, the whole bight between the promontory of Uraga and another north of it was carefully surveyed. At the head a river was found. The shores were studded with villages, whose inhabitants offered to the surveying party cold water, and peaches from their gardens. To the place where the steamers lay the name was given of “American anchorage.”

The next day (Friday, the 15th) the “Mississippi” proceeded on an excursion ten miles further up, and reached, as was supposed, within eight or ten miles of the capital. On the western shore were seen two large towns. On the extremity of a cape in front, some four miles distant, stood a tall white tower, like a lighthouse. Three or four miles beyond was a crowd of shipping, supposed to be the anchorage of Shinagawa, the southern suburb of Yedo. At the point where the steamer put about, she had twenty fathoms of water. On Saturday, the 16th, the vessels moved to a new anchorage, five or six miles down the bay, and much nearer the shore, and here the surveying operations were renewed. The same day an interchange of presents took place with Yezaimon, who, however, was induced to accept those offered to him only by the positive refusal of his own, except on that condition. Thus pressed, he finally took them, except some arms—articles, he said, which the Japanese neither gave nor received. In the afternoon he came again, in excellent humor, his conduct probably having been approved on shore, bringing a quantity of fowls, in light wicker coops, and three or four thousand eggs, in boxes, for which a box of garden-seeds was accepted in return.

The next day, 17th, and the tenth since their arrival, the vessels weighed and stood for Lew Chew, the bay being covered with boats, to witness their departure.[119]

Commodore Perry spent the remainder of the year on the coast of China, keeping one vessel, however, at Lew Chew, and prosecuting the survey of the Bonin Islands. Shortly after his visit, the Shōgun died, and an attempt was made to take advantage of that circumstance to delay or prevent the return of the American ships. A communication, forwarded to Batavia by the Dutch ship that left Nagasaki in November, and communicated by the Dutch governor-general at Batavia to the commodore, represented that the necessary mourning for the deceased sovereign, and other arrangements consequent on his death, as well as the necessity of consulting all the princes, must necessarily delay the answer to the president’s letter, and suggested the danger of confusion, or “broil,” should the squadron come back at so unseasonable a moment.

Undeterred, however, by this representation, on the 12th of February, 1854, Commodore Perry reappeared in the bay of Yedo, with three steam frigates, four sloops-of-war, and two store-ships, and the steamers taking the sailing vessels in tow, they all moved up to the American anchorage.

About two weeks were spent here in fixing upon a place to negotiate, the Japanese importuning the commodore to go back to Kamakura, twenty miles below Uraga, or, at least, to the latter place, while he insisted upon going to Yedo. As he declined to yield, and caused the channel to be sounded out within four miles of Yedo, they proposed, as the place of meeting, the village of Yokohama,[120] containing about ten thousand people, and situated on the shore, just opposite the anchorage of the ships. To this the commodore agreed, and the ships drew in and moored in line, with broadsides bearing upon the shore, and covering an extent of five miles.

“On the 8th of March,” says a letter dated on board the “Vandalia,” and published in the New York “Journal of Commerce,” “the day appointed for the first meeting, about nine hundred officers, seamen, and marines, armed to the teeth, landed, and, with drums beating and colors flying, were drawn up on the beach, ready to receive the commodore. As soon as he stepped on shore the bands struck up, salutes were fired, the marines presented arms, and, followed by a long escort of officers, he marched up between the lines and entered the house erected by the Japanese expressly for the occasion. Thousands of Japanese soldiers crowded the shore and the neighboring elevations, looking on with a good deal of curiosity and interest. The house was nothing but a plain frame building, hastily put up, containing one large room—the audience hall—and several smaller, for the convenience of attendants, etc. The floor was covered with mats, and very pretty painted screens adorned the sides. Long tables and benches, covered with red woollen stuff, placed parallel to each other, three handsome braziers, filled with burning charcoal, on the floor between them, and a few violet-colored crape hangings suspended from the ceiling, completed the furniture of the room. As we entered, we took our seats at one of the tables. The Japanese commissioners soon came in, and placed themselves opposite to us, at the other table; while behind us both, seated on the floor on their knees[121] (their usual position, for they do not use chairs), was a crowd of Japanese officers, forming the train of the commissioners.

“The business was carried on in the Dutch language, through interpreters, of whom they have several who speak very well, and two or three who speak a little English. They were on their knees, between the commissioners and the commodore. Our interpreter was seated by the side of the latter. It was curious to see the intolerable ceremony observed by them, quite humiliating to a democratic republican. A question proposed had to pass first through the interpreters, and then through several officers ascending in rank, before it could reach the commissioners, every one bowing his forehead to the floor before he addressed his superior. Refreshments were served in elegantly lackered dishes; first of all, tea, which, as in China, is the constant beverage; then different kinds of candy and sponge cake (they are excellent confectioners, and very fond of sugar); lastly, oranges and a palatable liquor distilled from rice, called sake. A flimsy banquet like this was not very agreeable to such hungry individuals as we, and we were the more disappointed, for, the Japanese using only chopsticks, we had, previously to coming ashore, taken the precaution, as we shrewdly thought, to provide ourselves with knives and forks. Imagine, then, our chagrin when finding nothing substantial upon which to employ them. What was left on our plates was wrapped in paper, and given to us to carry away, according to the usual custom in Japan.

“The commissioners were intelligent-looking men, richly dressed in gay silk petticoat pantaloons, and upper garments resembling in shape ladies’ short gowns. Dark-colored stockings, and two elegant swords pushed through a twisted silk girdle, finished the costume. Straw sandals are worn, but are always slipped off upon entering a house. They do not cover the head, the top and front part of which is shaved, and the back and side hair, being brought up, is tied so as to form a tail, three or four inches long, that extends forward upon the bald pate, terminating about half way between the apex and the forehead. It is a very comfortable fashion, and, were it not for the quantity of grease used in dressing it, would be a very cleanly one.

“Two audiences a week were held, at which the same programme was performed as related above, except that we fared more luxuriously.[122] Becoming better acquainted with our taste, they feasted us with a broth made of fish, boiled shrimps, hard-boiled eggs, and very good raw oysters. At one of the interviews (March 13), the presents from our government were delivered. They consisted of cloths, agricultural implements, fire-arms, etc., and a beautiful locomotive, tender, and passenger-car, one-fourth the ordinary size, which we put in motion on a circular track, at the rate of twenty miles an hour. A mile of magnetic telegraph was also erected on shore, and put in operation. The Japanese were more interested in it than anything else, but never manifested any wonder. So capable are they of concealing and controlling their feelings, that they would examine the guns, machinery, etc., of the steamers, without expressing the slightest astonishment. They are a much finer-looking race than the Chinese—intelligent, polite, and hospitable, but proud, licentious, unforgiving, and revengeful.”

The death of a marine afforded an opportunity, at the first meeting with the commissioners, of demanding a burying-place. It was proposed to send the body to Nagasaki; but, as the commodore would not listen to that, a spot was assigned near one of their temples, and in view of the ships, where the body was buried, with all the forms of the English church service, after which the Japanese surrounded the grave with a neat enclosure of bamboo.

A formal letter of reply to the propositions contained in the letters delivered at the former visit, repeated the story of a change of succession, and the necessity of delays. The justice, however, of the demands in relation to shipwrecked seamen, wood, water, provisions, and coal, was conceded; but five years were asked before opening a new harbor, the Americans, in the mean time, to resort to Nagasaki.

Of Nagasaki, however, the commodore would not hear, nor of any restrictions like those imposed on the Dutch and Chinese at that port. He demanded three harbors, one in Nippon, one in Yezo, and a third in Lew Chew. As to the two last, the Japanese pleaded that they were very distant countries, and only partially subject to the emperor, especially the last, upon which the commodore did not insist. In Nippon he asked for Uraga, and for Matsumae in Yezo, but acceded to the Japanese offer of Shimoda and Hakodate, having first sent a ship to examine the former.

The commissioners were exceedingly tenacious, even upon points of phraseology, but gave evidence of acting in entire good faith, and the commodore conceded everything which did not seem absolutely essential. The extent of the liberty to be allowed to American visitors was one of the greatest difficulties.

Shortly before the treaty was concluded, the commodore gave an entertainment on board the “Powhatan” to the Japanese officials, about seventy in all. In conformity to their customs, two tables were spread, one in the cabin for the commissioners and the captains of the fleet, another on deck for the inferior officers. “They did full justice,” says the letter-writer already quoted, “to American cookery, and were exceedingly fond of champagne, under the influence of which they became so very merry and familiar that one of them vigorously embraced the commodore, who, until his epaulets began to suffer in the struggle, was very good-naturedly disposed to endure it.”

Three copies of the treaty, in Japanese, signed by the commissioners, were delivered to the commodore, for which he exchanged three copies in English, signed by himself, with Dutch and Chinese translations. This method was adopted to satisfy the commissioners, who alleged that no Japanese could lawfully put his name to any document written in a foreign language. The TREATY was as follows:

“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 Shimoda or Hakodate, 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 subjected to confinement, but shall be amenable to just laws.

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

“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 be permitted to carry away whatever articles they are unwilling to exchange.

The day after the signing of the treaty a number of presents were sent on board for the president, the commodore, and other officers of the squadron.

In agreeing to negotiate at Yokohama, Commodore Perry had stated his intention to carry the ships, at some future time, close up to Yedo, and to anchor them there, “as well to do honor to his imperial majesty by salutes as to be in full view of the palace, and convenient to be visited by such of the court as may desire to examine the steamers.” Accordingly, on the 8th of April, to the great distress of the Japanese officials, he got under way; but, as the Japanese interpreters threatened to cut themselves open if he proceeded, he presently turned about and took a lower anchorage down the bay. The published official letters of the commander say nothing of this movement; the letters from the fleet, published in the newspapers, do not agree as to how far up the commodore went. According to one letter, Yedo was full in sight.

On the 18th of April the fleet sailed for Shimoda, one of the ports granted in the treaty, of which a letter dated on board the “Powhatan,” and published in the New York “Tribune,” gives this account:

Shimoda is situated near Cape Fògu [?], sixty miles west from Point Sagami, at the entrance of the bay of Yedo. It is a good, commodious harbor, well sheltered by hills several hundred feet high, with a rock within the entrance which affords a still more protected anchorage. The town, of about one thousand houses, is situated at the northwestern end of the harbor, on the banks of a small stream flowing down through a fertile valley, which is often not more than half a mile wide, but sometimes widens to one and a half miles. Several little brooks offer good watering-places for the ships. The larger Japanese junks mostly anchor at Kakizaki, a village of about three hundred houses, on the northeastern end and opposite Shimoda. There are eight temples, some of which are very large, in the town, and little chapels (miya) on almost every eminence, and by the roadsides.

“The country is exceedingly picturesque, and resembles very much the lower ranges of the Alps. Along the little river of Shimoda are many villages, and numbers of rice-mills stamp and grind along its banks. About six miles above the bay this river separates into several branches. Following either of them, you pass through numerous gorges and glens, and finally reach the barren tops of mountains, some three thousand feet high. Their summits and the narrow tablelands are covered with bushy grass, among which a certain berry, upon which pheasants and partridges feed, grows very plentifully.

“In one of the larger temples a place has been arranged for the daguerreotype, and Mr. Brown is actively at work. He has obtained many very fine daguerreotypes of the Japanese, and will have a fine collection to show when he reaches home. Mr. Heine continues his sketching, drawing, painting, gunning, skinning, pressing, and preserving plants. Lieutenants Murray, Bent, Whiting, Nicholson, etc., etc., have been busily engaged in the survey, and deserve no small credit for their exertions and the important results they have obtained.”

Of this visit to Shimoda, the officer of the “Vandalia” already quoted thus speaks:

“Here we were permitted to go on shore and ramble about in a circuit for ten miles, much to our delight as we all felt the want of exercise. Excepting at Yokohama, where we were not allowed to go far from the audience house, we had not been on shore since we left Lew Chew. They watched us very closely at first, sending guards of soldiers to accompany us, shutting the shops, and concealing the women; but in a few days these restrictions were removed, and we were left undisturbed to wander where we pleased. The town, containing eight thousand people, is pleasantly situated in a well-cultivated valley, surrounded by high hills that conceal from view the entrance to its safe and picturesque harbor. The streets are wide and straight, and the better class of houses two stories high, plastered, and roofed with elegant tiles.[124] The interior is kept very clean and neat, and the rooms, covered with mats, are separated from each other by sliding screens, that are closed or removed at pleasure. There are no chimneys in Japan. A charcoal fire is built in a little sandpit in the middle of the floor, around which the family are usually found seated on their knees (qu. heels?), drinking tea and smoking their pipes. Not a chair or any other piece of furniture can be seen. Tubs of water are kept in front of each house, as well as on the roofs, in readiness against any fire, for conflagrations are so frequent and extensive that whole towns are sometimes burnt down.

“The temples, chiefly Buddhist, are beautifully situated in the suburbs. The entrance to them leads generally through rows of elegant trees and wild camellias. They are large, plain structures, with high, peaked roofs, resembling the houses pictured on Chinese porcelain. In the space immediately in front is a large bell for summoning the faithful, a stone reservoir of holy water, and several roughly hewn stone idols. The doorway is ornamented with curious-looking dragons and other animals, carved in wood. Upon entering, there is nothing special about the buildings worth noting, the naked sides and exposed rafters having a gloomy appearance. The altar is the only object that attracts attention. It so much resembles the Roman Catholic, that I need not describe it. Some of the idols on these altars are so similar to those I have seen in the churches in Italy, that if they were mutually translated I doubt whether either set of worshippers would discover the change. The priests count beads, shave their heads, and wear analogous robes, and the service is attended by the ringing of bells, the lighting of candles, and the burning of incense. In fact, except that the cross is nowhere to be seen, one could easily imagine himself within a Roman Catholic place of worship.

“I saw some very pretty girls here. They understand the art of applying rouge and pearl powder, as well as some of our ladies at home. The married women have a horrid and disgusting fashion of staining their teeth black.”