fourth funeral among the Americans in Japan, and knowing the very strong
prejudice against Christianity, and, indeed, the very violent opposition to it
manifested by tbe Japanese, Mr. Jones had felt uncertain, when his duty
required him to officiate at the first interment, how far he would be permitted
to proceed unmolested. He accordingly asked the Commodore for
directions, and was told, u Do exactly as you always do on such occasions,
no more, nor no less;” and in answer to his inquiry how he should act if
interrupted, the answer was, “ still go on and have your usual service.” No
opposition, however, was made, and the chaplain felt that it was a day to be
remembered, that, after the lapse of centuries, a minister of Christ stood, in
his person, upon the soil of Japan, and, unmolested, performed one of the
rites of his faith. He could not but remember, that, more than two hundred
years before, it had been written in Japan, “ 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 violate this command, shall pay for it with his head.” The first
funeral was at Yoku-hama, the second at Simoda, and the last two at Hako-
dadi. Respect for the ceremonies was shown by the J apanesé at a ll; and at
the latter place the natives often alluded, in their intercourse with Mr.
Jones, to his officiating at the grave, and called him, in their language, “ the
praying ma n a n d instead of losing standing among them from his office,
as he expected to do, he found himself treated with increased friendliness
and attention.
By the burial ground at Hakodadi, which was allotted to our countrymen,
and had been long used by the Japanese themselves, there is a Buddhist temple,
surrounded with an enclosure containing large roughly carved stones, intended
to represent deities, and inscribed with various devices, and religious apothegms.
There are also several of the rotary praying machines, already described
; and when the chaplain turned inquiringly to the apparatus, the J apanese
put their hands together, signifying that it was intended for prayer, and
then pointed to the prayer-book in Mr. Jones’s hands, implying that it was
used for the same purpose ; a n explanation which the good chaplain felt to
be anything but a compliment to his much valued manual of devotion. By
the way, on the subject of prayer, the chaplain had an opportunity to obtain
further information. One day he wandered into a Buddhist temple when
the Japanese were at worship. There was a large altar exactly similar to
that in a Romish church, with a gilt image in its recess; two handsome
lamps lighted, two large candles burning, artificial flowers, &c., with an
abundance of gilding; there were also two side altars with candles on them
burning. Before the prineijpal altar, within an enclosure, were five priests,
robed and on their knees, the chief one striking a small saucer-shaped bell,
and three others with padded drumsticks striking hollow wooden lacquered
vessels, which emitted a dull sound. They kept time, and toned their
prayers to their music in chanting; after chanting, they knelt again, and
touched the floor with their foreheads; after which they repaired to the
side altars, and had a short ceremony before each of them. When all was
over, one of the priests approached, and, pointing to an image, asked Mr.
Jones what it was called in America. He answered: “ Nai,” “ we have it
not.” He then pointed to the altars and asked the same question, to which
he received the same reply. When the chaplain left the temple, as he
walked on, his official attendant asked him “ if the people prayed in America
? ’? He was answered in the affirmative, and Mr. Jones, dropping on one
knee, joined his hands, and with upturned face, closed his eyes, and pointed
to the heavens, to intimate by signs that we pray to a Being there. He
then asked his attendants if they prayed to that Being ? He replied:
“ Yes I we pray to Tien,” their word for heaven or God.
To return to our narrative of matters connected with the funeral, it was
found, in a few days after the interment of our countrymen, that the Japanese
authorities had caused to be erected a new picket fence around the
American graves, before it was known to our officers.*
After a farewell visit of ceremony on shore, and an interchange of
courtesies and presents, (among which was a block of granite for the Washington
monument,) the Powhatan and Mississippi, which were the only
vessels of the squadron left, took their departure for Simoda on the 3d of
June, 1854. The steamers, however, had hardly got under way at early
sunrise, when they were obliged to anchor again at the mouth of the bay,
in consequence of a dense fog. I t was providential that the weather had
remained clear a sufficient time to allow of securing some bearing for a safe
anchorage. As the day advanced the fog was dissipated, and the two
steamers, weighing again, got clear of the straits before night.
* The seamen of the Vandalia, to the crew of which ship the deceased had belonged,
with a pious reverence for their departed shipmates sleeping in that distant land, erected a
gravestone, upon which was inscribed an epitaph of their own composition, in the following
words, cut by the Japanese in English letters from a copy furnished them:
W Sleeping on a foreign shore,
Rest, sailor, rest ! thy trials o’e r ;
Thy shipmates leave this token here,
That some, perchance, may drop a tear
For one that braved so long the blast,
And served his country to the last.”
The want of poetic inspiration in this humble tribute may well be forgiven for the sake
of its mingled affection and patriotism. Poor Jack may not be able to write poetry, and
yet his heart may feel as strongly as another man’s those deep emotions of our nature
which underlie the poet’s work, when, “ with his singing-robes about him,” he soars aloft
with his impassioned gushes of spirit-stirring song, or, it maybe, in gentler mood, breathes,
as it were, on jEolian harp-strings, making the sadder “ music that can move to tears.”
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