The policy pursued with these people was a mild but firm one. They were asked for a house on shore that might be used as a place for our sick to recruit. They declined; and a few days after one of our officers and some men occupied one of their buildings in the town of Tumai, divided from Napa by a small stream. This building had been used as a kind of town-hall, where the chiefs assembled in council, carried thither in sedan-chairs, encased in ratan lattices, and swung from a pole resting on the shoulders of two serfs. The honesty of the natives was shown in the security of clothes and everything else that might be left out; even a boat’s anchor lost, and found by them, was returned to this place, though they kept a spy upon its American inmates night and day. Here, while dining with the young officer in charge, I “tried on,” with some of the more intelligent natives, sentences in their language, from a vocabulary which had been prepared for him, and with which he had been able to negotiate for his daily supply of chow-chow, and eatables for some of the ships. “Cha tooti kwoo”—tea bring to me; and “Midzoo tooti kwoo”—water bring to me; and similar simple sentences they understood readily; but the attempt at more complicate ones, in which the vowel sound is dropped, rather awoke their risibles.
The authorities sent off protests against the further occupancy of the house at Tumai, and requested that we would vacate it. They stated it was the place they had for assembling; it was the only place they had for meeting together to debate their local affairs, and it was also the place where their young were taught. They also took the opportunity of mentioning that the fertility of their island was not equal to the wants of its population; and that every draft upon them for live-stock, &c., was an oppression. In this there was obvious dissimulation; because they sent away to other countries a good deal of the produce of their land, and a great deal as tribute, while we paid well for whatever we got. The commodore had notified them of his intention of going up to their capital, Sheudi, distant some four miles from the anchorage, to pay his respects to the prince-regent at the palace; they did not covet the honor; they trusted he would not confer it.
Not far from Tumai are a number of the native tombs, beautifully located on green hill-sides. They are large, built in the form of a horse-shoe, with a cemented dome fronted by a little court, into which you descend by a flight of stone steps, and are kept whitened with great assiduity by the surviving relatives. The most attractive and romantic spots are chosen for their location. Their reverence and care for the homes of the dead, may well put to the blush, the wickedness of Christian communities who make streets through graves and graveyards.
In a grove of pines, at Tumai, not far from the landing-place, is a secluded spot, which appears to have been set aside for the interment of foreigners. Our ships buried some of our men and one officer there. As soon as the graves are closed the authorities cause them to be well built over, without charge, in a parallelogram, with coral rock and cement, leaving an inclination toward the feet that the rain may run off. Any inscription that the friends please, may either be imbedded in the masonry or erected at the head, which will be respected and preserved by the natives. On copper plates, tacked on wooden crosses at the end of some of these tombs, I read:—
“Wm. Hares, seaman in his Britannic majesty’s ship, ‘Alceste,’ aged 21 years, lies buried here, October 16th, 1816. This monument was erected by the king and inhabitants of this most hospitable island.”
“Vive Jesus: † vive sa croix: Ci-Git Calland (Pierre Juler), second chirurgien a bord de la corvette de Roi la Victoriense; mort a bord le 16th Septembre, 1846.”
“Ci-Git Le Corps Du R’d Mathieu Adnet, Pêre Miss’re Apostolique, Fréres du Japon, Decedé le hier J’et, 1848.”
The Loo-Chooan manner of making salt is peculiar. They clear acres of ground in the vicinity of the water, and make it as level as possible. During the extreme heat of the day men continue to throw into the air, that it may descend on this level space, ladles full of salt-water. Partial crystallization is thus produced, which unites with the sand under foot, which, being allowed to dry, is piled up aside, and afterward the saline matter is washed from it, filtered through straw into earthen vessels, and then evaporated by heat. On these level places our marine, and boat-howitzer divisions were usually landed for drilling purposes.
You see no wheeled vehicles on the island, and one in the shape of an ambulance-cart which the commodore had built, and once ashore there, is, no doubt, the first that a Loo-Chooan ever looked on. Small horses, with their untrimmed fetlocks, are the only means of conveyance from the junks to the interior, of whatever little merchandise they now consume. The load is placed on a rude saddle secured by girth and a crupper of rope enveloped in bamboo-rollers like strung necklace; and the bridle, with its head-stall of rope, has two small pieces of wood passing on either side of the nostrils of the horse, with a cord through them, by which he is controlled in place of a bit.
On the 6th of June, the commodore, with a suite of officers, determined on paying an official visit to the prince-regent, at his palace at Sheudi—a visit which the authorities had vainly endeavored to get indefinitely postponed. They did not understand these attentions: stretching wide their hands, they said “America was a great nation; while Loo-Choo was no larger than the points of the fingers scarcely separated—what does America want with Loo-Choo?” The escort, when landed and formed at Tumai, consisted of two companies of marines in full dress—to whom, for some purpose or other, six rounds of ball-cartridges had been issued per man—two brass pieces and fixed ammunition, manned by sailors, and two full bands from the Susquehanna and Mississippi, while in front were three tall fellows carrying the American ensign. The rear was brought up by servants carrying some presents consisting of arms and calicoes sewed up in red cloth, and others with chow-chow baskets. The march was over a well-paved and graded road of coral rock. First we passed over a large terrace overhung by enormous banyan-trees, which fronted a very thick arched wall enclosing a temple and the tomb of some of the royal family. A tablet standing on a large pedestal near the step of this terrace, in native characters, warns the peasantry that when the sedan of any high functionary rests here, that the lower classes must take the road to the right. Sometimes we passed sugar-cane growing on one side of the road, and on the other ingeniously-irrigated paddy-fields were waving in green rice. The road then ascended by a grade of about seven degrees, quite a high ridge, from which the extended prospect of cultivation was very fine indeed. The sun came down hot, though at times we walked under the shade of thick and pretty bamboo-hedges. The sight was a rare one to the peasantry; some, attracted by the music and the novelty of uniform, left their work in the fields and ran to the eminences on the roadside, then others were alarmed and bolted; one fellow I saw jump into a muddy stream, swim for it, and not look back until he stood on the other side.