it was the custom in the United States to afford every facility to foreigners
in that respect, and that if the Japanese came to the United States they
would find the navigable waters of the country free to them, and that they
would not he debarred even from the rich gold fields of California.
Yezaimen had nothing more to say, and, whether persuaded or not, had
the courtesy to refrain from pushing his demands any further. He and his
companions, upon being invited to partake of some refreshments, readily
complied, and were soon engaged in discussing with a vigorous appetite the
collation that was spread before them. Another government boat was at
this juncture announced as being alongside, when immediately the Japanese
officials who were on board of it were invited to share in the hospitalities of
the cabin. Quite a convivial scene ensued, in the course of which abundant
supplies of ham, ship’s biscuit, and other stores, washed down by plentiful
draughts of whiskey, quickly disappeared. The cheer seemed to be much
relished, and the interpreters were so exceedingly delighted, that they desired
to bear away some substantial mementos of the pleasant feast, and, accordingly,
not satisfied with well-filled paunches, they carried off in their
capacious sleeves pieces of the bread and ham, wherewith to refresh their
memories and their future appetites. As the night approached, the Japanese
took their departure, full of courteous expressions of satisfaction at the
hospitality of the ships.
The following morning (July 15th) a surveying party was again, at a
very early hour, dispatched by the Commodore to sound further up the bay.
Three of the boats pulled round to the other side of the battery which shut
out a part of the country inland from the view of those on board ship.
Here they found an inlet and a beautiful surrounding country watered by a
stream, upon the fertile borders of which were grouped a great number of
picturesque Japanese villages, while fertile fields and highly cultivated gardens
stretched out beyond them. The officers ordered their boats up the
river, and were met as they advanced by crowds of the inhabitants, gathering
upon the shores to satisfy their curiosity in a look at the strangers.
Some of the people greeted the boats with every indication of welcome',
and readily supplied those on board with water and some excellent
peaches. There were a few government boats lying near, and the officers on
board gladly welcomed our people to a visit, in the course of which such a
mutual friendliness sprung up that the Americans joined the Japanese in a
social pipe or two of tobacco. Our officers, in return for their hospitable
entertainment, amused their newly-found hosts with an exhibition of their
revolvers, and fired them off, to the intense surprise and delight of the J a panese.
In the midst of this enjoyment of social intercourse, where the
greatest harmony prevailed, and in which the Japanese seemed remarkably
genial in manner and expansive in hospitality, down came some severe offioial,
and beckoned off his countrymen, who rapidly scattered away, like so
many children caught in the very act of some awful disobedience.
On the return of the ships’ boats from sounding, all the officers and men
were in raptures with the kindly disposition of the Japanese and the beauty
of their country. In fact, nothing could be more picturesque than the
landscapes wherever the eye was directed, and even those on board ship
never tired of looking at the surrounding shores. The high cultivation of
the land everywhere, the deep, rich green of all the vegetation, the innumerable
thrifty villages embowered in groves of trees at the heads of the inlets
which broke the uniformity of the bay, and the rivulets flowing down the
green slopes of the hills and calmly winding through the meadows, combined
to present a scene of beauty, abundance, and happiness, which every one delighted
to contemplate.
In the course of the afternoon the Commodore transferred his pennant
from the Susquehanna to the Mississippi. He then proceeded some ten miles
further up the bay toward Yedo, and reached a point estimated to be distant
twenty miles from the anchorage at Uraga. The port or shipping place of
Yedo was distinctly seen on the southern Bide of the capital, but not the
capital itself, which, being composed of low houses, like those of China, was
completely hidden behind a projecting point, beyond which the bay took
an easterly direction, and was bounded by a shore of low alluvial land.
The town observed was probably Sinagawa, a suburb of Yedo. On the
western side of the bay a view was obtained of Kanagawa and lEonazaki,
two populous places. Some four miles beyond the extreme point reached
by the Mississippi there was a cape formed by a projecting point of land,
and marked by a white tower, which resembled in appearance a light-house;
it was some three or four miles still further where the shipping and supposed
port of Yedo appeared to the view. The Commodore thus supposed
that he had taken his ship within ten miles of Yedo, and as the lead gave
twenty fathoms where he put about, he concluded that he could readily have
gone still higher up. He was apprehensive, however, of causing too much
alarm, and thus throwing some obstacle in the way of a favoradle reception
at court of the President’s letter, that had only been delivered the day before,
and which was probably then under consideration. The Commodore
thus thinking that he had done enough, without going further, caused the
ship to rejoin the squadron at the “ American Anchorage.”
During the passage of the Mississippi, there was no show of opposition
to her movements, although there was a considerable display of troops about
the batteries, loosely grouped, as if gathered for curiosity and not for martial
manifestation, and an occasional government boat put out from the shore
with the. apparent design of watching the steamer. While the Commodore
was absent on his expedition up the bay, Yezaimen and his interpreters came
alongside the Susquehanna, bringing some boxes containing presents, but