in any way by any of our men, and if they persisted in following us with
spies hereafter he would not be answerable for the consequences.
“ The regent attempted to come forward and again present the reply;
but the Commodore rose and prepared to leave, declaring that if he did not
receive satisfactory answers to all his demands by noon the next day, he would
land two hundred men, march to Shui, and take possession of the palace
there, and would hold it until the matter was settled. With this declaration
he left, the regent attending him to the gateway, where he remained until all
the officers had taken their departure. The Commodore returned to the
beach, attended by his staff, and immediatelywent on board the Susquehanna.”
I t will be observed that the new regent, Shang-Hiung-Hiun, was a
great adept in the temporizing policy of his government, and was ever
ready with a thousand crooked arguments for not giving a direct answer
to a direct demand.
The Commodore, however, was not to be balked of his purpose by any
of the shams and devices of Lew Chew policy, and went straight on to the
end proposed, without allowing himself to be diverted from a broad, honest
course of fair dealing, into any of the bye-ways of the oriental hide-and-go-
seek diplomacy. As to resorting to force, which had been threatened at
the close of the conference with the regent, the necessity of violent measures
was never seriously contemplated by the Commodore, as it was rightly
judged that a resolute attitude would answer all the purpose of a blow.
The Commodore, therefore, sent Commanders Adams and Buchanan, accompanied
by Dr. Williams, to the mayor of Napha. These gentlemen were
instructed to obtain categorical replies to all the demands made upon the
regent the previous day. Simultaneously with this mission ashore, an incident
occurred, which, however slight in itself, had probably no small effect
upon the timid hearts of the Lew Chewans. The Commodore had dispatched
his carpenter to look after the sedan chair which had been deposited
in the temple at Tumai, since its use on the previous occasion of the grand
procession to the palace of Shui. The people of Lew Chew watched, with
considerable anxiety, the movements of the carpenter, and their frightened
imaginations already, no doubt, fancied the Commodore borne on in his car
of state, the aforesaid sedan chair, as a triumphant victor within the walls
of their capital. *
Whether this looking after the sedan chair was accidental or not, it
happened in the very nick of time, and probably hastened the decision of
the Lew Chew authorities. The mayor of Napha was very prompt in complying,
to the extent of his authority, with the demands of the Commodore,
as urged in his behalf by his representative Commander Adams, who returned
to the ship bearing the message that the regent would be immediately communicated
with, and that the Commodore might be assured that a definite
answer would be given to his propositions the next day.
M A T T E R S A M I C A B L Y A D J U S T E D 327
Accordingly, at about ten o’clock the following morning, the mayor
came on board the Susquehanna, with the information that all the Commodore’s
propositions had been acceded to, and would be carried out as far as
the people could be controlled. He then, in detail, stated the various concessions
to which the government had finally yielded. In regard to the
coal depot, he said that preparations had already been made for its construction,
and that the government had agreed upon the amount of rent, which
was to be ten dollars per month. As for access to the market, it having
been stated that the difficulty was with the common people, and particularly
the women, who were averse to entering into immediate traffic with
strangers, a compromise was proposed by the Commodore, and agreed to on
the part of the mayor, which was to the effect that a bazaar should be
opened in the Kung-qua for the sale of the various products of the country
which the Americans might desire to purchase.
The mayor proposed the subsequent Sunday for the opening of the
bazaar, when he was told that that was a day kept holy by Christians, when
buying and selling were contrary to their religion. I t was then proposed,
and acceded to, that as the squadron was not to sail until Monday, at nine
o’clock, that the market should be opened at six o’clock on tbe morning of
that day.
Although the authorities had soon found that it was necessary to give
a favorable answer to the demands of the Commodore, and the mayor of
Napha had come on board for the express purpose of giving such an answer,
which he accordingly did at once, yet while yielding each point, he
still pertinaciously insinuated all sorts of trivial objections to the Commodore’s
plans, He said that the coal would not be safe on shore, as the
natives would probably steal i t ; in answer to which he was told that the
government of Lew Chew would be held responsible for every lump of it.
The mayor was then ready with another objection, stating that typhoons
blew very severely on the island, and would no doubt sweep away the coal
depot; and thus, to the very last, while forced to grant all that was asked,
the authorities still clung to their prevaricating policy, as if deceit was so
much a part of their nature that they practised it for its own sake alone.
During the few days in which the steamers remained at Napha a party
of the officers and artists of the expedition, at the suggestion of Commodore
Perry, availed themselves of the occasion to visit the ruins of the
castle of Tima-gusko. The Commodore had requested them to take their
supplies with them, that they might be entirely independent of the natives
for the satisfaction of their wants. They accordingly set out well provided
with a supply of ship biscuit, and some American saki, which Japanese
word was now pretty generally accepted as the generic term for all that was
intoxicating and potable. Trusting to the general direction that the castle
was situated at the southern end of the island, and constantly repeating