August 4th.—I have just had a visit from the Vice-Governor of Nagasaki. One of his own suite did the interpretation. These are the nicest people possible. None of the stiffness and bigotry of the Chinese. I gave them luncheon, and it was wonderful how nicely they managed with knives and forks and all other strange implements. The Admiral arrived this forenoon. He now finds that his instructions direct him to send the 'Emperor' yacht (which is to be a present) to Yeddo. I shall take advantage of this and go to Yeddo myself at once. I may do something, or find out what I can do.
August 5th.—Four P.M.—The heat yesterday, and for the two nights at Nagasaki, was very great. It must be a charming place when the temperature is low enough to admit of walks into the country. As it is we have just passed into the sea, through what Captain Osborn calls a succession of Mount Edgecumbes. I went ashore yesterday and this morning, chiefly to make purchases. Things here are really beautiful and cheap. The town is wonderfully clean after China. Not a beggar to be seen. The people clean too; for one of the commonest sights is to see a lady in the front of her house, or in the front-room, wide open to the street, sitting in a tub washing herself. I never saw a place where the cleanliness of the fair sex was established on such unimpeachable ocular evidence.
[Sidenote: Gales.]
August 6th.—Four P.M.—At anchor off the southernmost point of Japan. It has been blowing hard all day, and our captain proposed, that instead of rounding this point and facing the sea and wind, against which we should not be able to make any way, we should creep in under it and anchor. We intend to remain till the gale abates. Nothing can be finer than the coast. We have passed to-day some very high hills, one especially on an island to the right, and a conical- shaped one on the left, on the Japan mainland. I see little sign of population on this coast off which we are anchored: only one little fishing village. There were a good many junks yesterday. It is very hot though, and I find it difficult to sit at my table and write.
August 7th.—Three P.M.—Still at anchor in the same spot. The storm has not abated, and the wind is dead against us. My time is so short that I cannot well afford to lose any.
August 10th.—Ten A.M.—I wonder if I shall be able to write a few lines legibly. There is still a good deal of motion, but a cool breeze, which is such a relief after the sweltering six weeks we have spent. Ahead of us is a great conical-shaped mountain, the sacred mountain of Fusiama (etymologically 'the matchless mountain'), and somewhere nearer on the long range of bold coast which we are approaching, we expect to find Simoda. But I must tell you of our two past days—days of suffering. At about twelve during the night of the 7th, the wind shifted and began to blow into our anchorage, so as to make it unsafe to stay there, and to promise us a fair wind if we proceeded on our way; so off we started. We have had our fair wind, but a great deal of it; and as the 'Furious' is both a bad sailer and a good roller, we have passed a very wretched time,—every hole through which air could come closed. However, we have made good progress and burnt little coal, which is good for the public interest. We see now in the distance two sails, which we suppose may be our consorts, the 'Emperor' and 'Retribution.' We have travelled some 1000 miles since we left Shanghae, besides spending two days at Nagasaki.
[Sidenote: Coast view.]
Same day.—Noon.—It is a magnificent prospect which we have from the paddle-box. Immediately before us a bold junk, its single large sail set, and scudding before the breeze. Beyond, a white cloud, slight at the base, and swelling into the shape of a balloon as it rises. We have discovered that it rests on a mountain dimly visible in the distance, and which we recognise as the volcanic island of Oosima. Towards the right the wide sea dotted with two or three rocky islets. On the left of the volcano island a point of land rising into a bold and rocky coast, along which the eye is carried till it encounters a mighty bank of white clouds piled up one upon another, out of which rises clear and blue, with a white streak upon the side which seems to tell of perpetual snow, the cone-shaped top of Fusiama. Passing on the eye from this magnificent object to the left still farther, the rocky coast is followed till it loses itself in the distance. What is almost more charming than the scene is the fresh breeze which is carrying off the accumulated fever of weeks.
[Sidenote: Simoda.]
August 12th.—At sea again. (Grouse day. I am following different game.) We dropped anchor in the harbour of Simoda on the 10th at about 3 P.M. I went off immediately to see the American Consul-General, Mr. Harris, the only foreigner resident at Simoda. I found him living in what had been a temple, but what in point of fact makes a very nice cottage, overlooking the bay. As soon as we anchored we began to feel the heat, though not so great as at Shanghae. I found that the Consul had contrived to make a pretty good treaty with Japan, evidently under the influence of the contrecoup of our proceedings in China. He had had an interview with the Emperor, but it transpired that he had a letter of credence, which I have not, and that Putiatine, not having one, is not permitted to go to Yeddo. I also learnt that there is no way of communicating with the Japanese officials except through the Dutch language. Being without a Dutch interpreter, and without letters of credence, my case looked bad enough. However, I made great friends with the American, and the result is that he has lent me his own interpreter, who is now beside me translating into Dutch a letter from me to the Foreign Minister of the Japanese Emperor. You see how I was situated. The problem I had to solve was:—How to make a treaty without time (for I cannot stay here above a few days), interpreter, or credentials !! When I say credentials, I do not mean full powers. These I have, but prestige is everything in the East, and I should not like to be prevented from seeing the Emperor, now that the American has been received. We shall see how we can get out of all this.