The commodore, through his captain of the fleet, peremptorily refused to accede to this request, on the ground that the anchorage there was too much exposed at that season of the year; and requested them to inform their government that a suitable place for his interviews with those appointed to confer with him, must be selected in the vicinity of the then anchorage of his squadron, otherwise, if he moved at all, it would be to ascend the bay in the direction of Yedo.
Several days were allowed to elapse before the Japanese consented to change the location for the negotiations. The weather proved quite rough, but the boats of the squadron, under that most admirable officer and gentleman, Lieutenant W. L. Maury, continued to make soundings and cross-bearings in the direction of the city. On one day the weather proved so rough, that the surveying-boats and their parties, unable to get back to their own ships, remained with the Southampton all night, which vessel had been moved further out and higher up to triangulate upon.
The Mississippi was heeled with her guns, and her shot and shell temporarily transferred to the Susquehanna, to get at her leak. The broad-pennant was transferred from the latter ship to the Powhatan; state-department cherry cordial was freely set out for visiting Japanese officers aboard of the flag-ship; and the Vandalia, with Fleet-Captain Adams, was sent down to Uraga to have an interview with the governor of the place, and to tender a passage up to the squadron, to the high functionary with the imperial answer at that place. This was declined. They said that thus far they had yielded to us, and it was but right that we should do so in some things to them, especially as they had already erected houses for reception and negotiation at Uraga.
It was well known that “nulla vestigia retrorsum,” should be the motto in dealing with these people; and the Japanese finding that the American “Mahomet would not come to the mountain,” decided that the “mountain should go to Mahomet,” and so consented to the removal of their buildings higher up the bay. It so happened, that just at the time that the Vandalia appeared in sight on her return with the declension of the Japanese, that the remainder of the squadron had gotten underway to move ten or twelve miles higher up to the more land-locked anchorage off Kana Gawa, or river Kana, and the Japanese believing there to be an immediate concert of action, and our surveying-boats having approached to within a very few miles of their great capital, very readily acquiesced in our requests.
On the 22d of February the different ships fired a salute in honor of the day. The atmosphere was the purest, and it was a fit presence in which to honor the memory of George Washington—Foogee-Yama, with its mantle of snow, towered upon the sight, its ermine of the elements typifying the purity of his character; and its great height, the eminence which he attained in the eyes of the world.
The spot selected for the erection of the buildings for the conferences, was on the beach of the village of Yokohama, or compost town, in the small bight of Kawa-saki, and separated from the city of Kanagawa by the little river Kana. This place was quite sheltered by a projecting bluff below. The Japanese, as could be seen through a glass at two and a half miles distant, set to work in the erection of the buildings on shore, with a Babel-like activity; and the ships of the squadron moved in closer and formed a crescent line in their anchorage, agreeably to buoys previously established.
While the buildings were being gotten ready, a number of their fast-sailing, sharp, copperplated and tassel-prowed boats, some quite ornamentally painted, came off and moved round the ships, their inmates not being allowed to come alongside by their government’s cruisers, peering all they could. The sterns of these boats are open, or indented to the distance of a foot or so in their build, they believing, perhaps, that the eddying water at this point serves to propel the craft. The tall, square masts of their boats, when not under sail, rests on a kind of gallows at the stern. At one corner of the stern is an upright bamboo-pole to which, like a tavern-keeper’s sign, is attached by strips, a cotton or provincial flag; if it be a government or customhouse boat, the flag is of white cotton with a horizontal black stripe through the centre of it. On the other corner is a similar arrangement, from which is suspended the universal paper lantern, differing from the Chinese in lifting up, instead of opening out like an umbrella. The rowers of these boats are athletic men, who appear very indifferent to cold, and in the chilliest weather their cotton garments are most epigrammatic in character.
The Japanese officials, or gentlemen, who came off to the ships were politely received and kindly entertained, at which they seemed gratified, and, after the manner of their land, indicated their appreciation by bringing from time to time little presents of lacquered-ware, &c. I don’t remember to have seen anything else but the most quiet and gentle manner in any of these visiters, except in the case of an impertinent little officer of artillery, who it would have been as well to have shown the gangway. This fussy little animal, who rejoiced in a flaming pair of big brocade breeches, being a consumptive, according to the Æsculapian theory of his country, left all “the hair on the top of his head,” which according to our theory is the “place where hair ought to be.” He had, however, the cheroot-cigar-looking tuft of hair laying horizontal, and end pointing forward. This fussy little person pryed into everything about the ship with rude curiosity. He came and went from the cabin without decorum, and examined huffily officers’ state-rooms, without solicitation. The only point of interest in the diminutive animal was, that he appeared to understand quite well, how a howitzer in battery should be worked.
A dinner was given on the Susquehanna, by her commander, to Yezimon, governor of the province of Uraga, and a suite of ten others, among whom was the little peripatetic consumptive of the artillery. The Japanese being accustomed to the use of the chop-sticks at their meals—which are not of ivory as the Chinese, but lacquered black—were a little awkward at first in the use of the Christian assistants of knife and fork, but it did not take them long to acquire the requisite facility, when they made up for lost time. The cherry cordial, of which they are very fond, did not go untasted, and champaigne was by no means neglected by them. Accustomed to the small saki-cup, they admired the contents more than the size of our glasses. When any health was proposed, the Japanese—as if using the staghead-pattern cup dug up at Pompeii—turned their goblets upside down on the table, to show the absence of heel-taps.
The health of their emperor was drank, for which the governor, through his interpreter, returned thanks and gave the health of the president of the United States; and after his own health had been given, he gave the health of the commodore (not present). This was all very well apparently, but I shrewdly suspect that for the hint, they were indebted to Mr. A. L. C. Portman, who was present and interpreted from the Dutch, in which they preferred conversing at all times: he is too conversant with the proper etiquette of such occasions, to let this surmise go unindulged in. They remained at the table some two hours, during which time one of their number present, “by request,” sang a Japanese song—if a kind of a cross between the half wail, half-vocal screech of the Chinese, a boy dragging a stick over the palings after him, and a severe asthma, may be called a song. In return one of the lieutenants of the ship present, sang “Ginger Blue.” “Ginger Blue” sang in the hermetic empire! What impertinence, O Jonathan! to indulge in such refrains before the potentate presence that once required knocking of head from a Russian count! Thy good friend the London Times, will “condemn thee to everlasting redemption for this,” and when it learns it, how many additional articles will appear in its columns headed “More American Wit.”