Conferences were now held daily, and negotiations progressed slowly, but harmoniously.
It was agreed that everything official, that transpired at these interviews, should be committed to writing that nothing might be misunderstood, nor retracted.
On the days of assembling, an imperial barge with a canopy and gaudy streamers, moving like the stately boat of some Doge, towed by a number of boats, conveyed the high commissioner and suite from Kanagawa to the place of meeting.
Among the presents intended for the emperor was a small railroad-track, with locomotive-tender, car, &c., and a magnetic telegraph, which were erected and put in operation on shore.
These excited a great deal of interest among the Japanese, particularly the latter, when they were made to comprehend its utility in the transmission of intelligence. Communications were made in their presence in the English, Japanese, and Dutch languages. They were also delighted with the railroad, when they saw the engine and car flying round the track at the rate of twenty miles an hour, but thought it would be impossible to construct them to advantage in Japan owing to the very uneven surface of the country.
Nearly two centuries ago, the Jesuits in China seeing how necessary the protection of the government was for their propagandism, made a number of things to amuse and excite the curiosity of the emperor Kang-hi. One of their inventions resembled the modern locomotive, though on the Ericsson plan; it was made, like the locomotive presented to the emperor of Japan, at Yokohama, to run in a circle also. In the large old folio history of China, from the French of Du Halde, printed in London one hundred and nineteen years ago (a copy of which is in the possession of John V. L. M’Mahon, Esq., of Baltimore), I find the following:—
“The Pneumatick Machines also, did not less excite the Emperor’s curiosity:
“They caused a Waggon to be made of light Wood about two Foot long: in the middle of it they placed a Brazen Vessel full of live coals, and upon that an Æolipile, the wind of which came down through a little Pipe upon a sort of a wheel made like the sails of a Wind mill; this little wheel turned another with an Axle tree, and by that means set the Waggon in Motion for two hours together. But lest room should be wanting to proceed constantly forward it was contrived to move circularly.”
Negotiations having progressed harmoniously, on the 13th of March launches were sent alongside of the storeships, and the presents for the Japanese being put in them, the captain of the Macedonian with a suite of officers, pulled ashore, and delivered them pro forma to the authorities. They were afterward pleasantly entertained by them. The Japanese must have formed a rather exaggerated opinion of the quantity of the presents intended for them by the Americans—judging from the size of the room set apart for their reception. They were given to understand that these were tokens of amity, not a tribute.
The presents for the emperor consisted of, among other things:—