attitude toward the Japanese government He had determined, before
reaching the coast, to carry out strictly this course in all his official relations,
as he believed it the best to ensure a successful issue to the delicate mission
with which he had been charged. He was resolved to adopt a course entirely
contrary to that of all others who had hitherto visited Japan on a
similar errand—to demand as a right, and not to solicit as a favor, those
acts of courtesy which are due from one civilized nation to another; to alow
of none of those petty annoyances which had been unsparingly visited
upon those who had preceded him, and to disregard the acts as well as the
threats of the authorities, if they in the least conflicted with' his own sense
of what was due to the dignity of the American flag.
The question of landing by force was left to he decided by the development
of succeeding events; it was, of course, the very last measure to he
resorted to, and the last that was desired ; hut in order to he prepared for
the worst, the Commodore caused the ships constantly to be kept in perfeet
readiness, and the crewB to he drilled as thoroughly as they are in time of
active war. He was prepared, also, to meet the Japanese on their , own
ground, and exhibit toward them a little of their own exclusive policy; if
they stood on their dignity and assumed superiority, that was a game at
which he could play as well as they. I t was well to let them know that
other people had dignity also, which they knew how to protect, and that
they did not acknowledge the Japanese to he their superiors. Henee he
forbade the admission of a single Japanese on board any of the ships, except
those officers who might have business with him,; and the visits even
of such were to he confined to the flag-ship, to which they were admitted
only on the declaration of their rank and business. The Commodore, also,
was well aware that the more exclusive he should make himself, and the
more unyielding he might he in adhering to his declared intentions, the more
respect these people of forms and ceremonies would be disposed to award
him; therefore it was that he deliberately resolved to confer personally with
no one but a functionary of the highest rank in the empire. He would
have been ashamed, in the indulgence of a contemptible ■ pride founded on
mere official rank, to assume a superiority, and affect a dignity, too lofty to
stoop to the level of men below him in station. As a man, he did not deem
himself too elevated to hold communication with any of his brethren in the
common heritage o f humanity; but in Japan, as the representative of his
country, and the accredited guardian of the honor of that flag which floated
over him, he felt that it was well to teach the Japanese, in the mode most
intelligible to them, by stately and dignified reserve, joined to perfect equity
in all he asked or did, to respect the country from which he came, and to
suspend for a time their accustomed arrogance and incivility toward strangers.
The Japanese so well understood him that they learned the lesson
at once. I t was this feeling, and this only, which prompted him to refuse
to see the vice-governor of Uraga, and to refer him to his aid for conference.
He saw him often enough afterward, when matters had been arranged between
the governments, on terms of friendship and equality. And we have
been thus particular, not for the information of our countrymen, who know
Commodore Perry, but for strangers who may read our story, and, without
this word of explanation, misapprehend the character of the man. No man
is more easily approached by his fellow-men, or assumes less on account of
the honorable position he fills in the service of his country.
The best proof that he judged wisely in determining on his course is in
the results. The squadron was left free of all annoyance or interference on
the part of the authorities during the whole period of its stay; an event
unprecedented in the intercourse of Japan with foreign ships for more than
two centuries. We have said there was no annoyance to the ships, but the
Japanese were as yet too suspicious of foreigners not to resort to their favorite
system of espionage: and, therefore, though the guard-vessels were
withdrawn, as we have seen, there might still be observed floating here and
there a boat in the distance, seemingly with the object of quietly watching
the movements of the strangers; but they never came near the squadron,
and were not by any act of .the authorities forced upon the recognition of
them, by the Americans, as guard-boats. That a watchful eye was kept
upon the squadron was probable. Three or four rockets were shot up from
the opposite land during the afternoon, which were supposed to be signals
for some purpose or other. When night came on, the presence of the ships
in their waters was evidently keeping up a very lively apprehension on the
part of the Japanese on shore. Beacon fires were lighted upon every hilltop,
and along the shores on either side as far as the eye could reach, and
during the whole night the watchers on deck could hear the tolling of a
great bell which was at first supposed to be that of a temple, but was probably
an alarum or signal of some kind. The bay was otherwise as quiet as
an inland lake, and nothing occurred to disturb the tranquillity of the night.
When, however, the nine o’clock gun of the flag-ship, a sixty-four pounder,
■was fired, the report reverberated loudly through the hills on the western
side of the bay, and apparently created something of a commotion on shore,
for here and there the fires were observed to be immediately extinguished.
There seemed, however, no reason to expect any interference, although every
precaution had been taken; the ships had quite a warlike aspect, with sentinels
stationed fore and aft and upon the gangways at the sides, with a pile
of round shot and four stands of grape at each gun, muskets stacked on the
quarter-deck, and boats provided with carbines, pistols, cutlasses, and other
necessaries for service.
An interesting meteoi ological phenomenon was observed in the course of
the night by Lieutenant Duer, in command of the watch, who describes it
as a remarkable meteor seen from midnight until four o’clock in the morn