A railway with steam-engine; a magnetic telegraph; a surf-boat; a life-boat; a printing-press; a fine lorgnette; a set of Audubon’s American Ornithology, splendidly bound; plates of American Indians; maps of different states of America; agricultural implements, with all the modern improvements; a piece of cloth; a bale of cotton; a stove; rifles, pistols, and swords; champagne, cordials, and American whiskey.
And for the empress (presuming there was one):—
A telescope; a lorgnette in a gilded case; a lady’s toilet-box, gilded; a scarlet velvet dress; a changeable silk dress flowered; a splendid robe; Audubon’s illustrated works; a handsome set of China; a mantelpiece clock; a parlor stove; a box of fine wines; a box of perfumery; a box of fancy soaps.
Among the presents, perhaps the one most valued, was a copy of Webster’s complete dictionary, to the imperial interpreter. To the high officers were given books, rifles, pistols, swords, wines, cloths, maps, stoves, clocks, and cordials, the latter of which they fully appreciated; and as regards clocks, when it was proposed to bring an engineer from shipboard to set them agoing, the Japanese said there was no occasion for that, for they had clockmakers in Yedo who understood them perfectly. They were curious to know, however, if Ericsson’s caloric engine, of which they had heard, had been successful. There were also given them a quantity of Irish potatoes, and an hydraulic-ram.
We had now been lying in their waters a month; the necessity for the reference of many things to Yedo, caused the negotiations to drag their weary length along. Diplomatizing may have been all very well for those engaged in it, and getting a munch of something fresh the while on shore, but the enchantment lent to those confined on board and compelled to watch proceedings with a spy-glass, or take exercise on a hurricane-deck, was very slight indeed. The supply of eatables brought from China had disappeared; ship’s rations were ubiquitous upon the table; and the appetite of an American exceeding, or at his ordinary meals consuming as much as four Japanese, the scanty supply of watery vegetables, a few pounds of fish, sweet potatoes, and chickens which had attained their majority, and upon whose muscular thighs neither the molars nor incisors of the most assiduous masculine chewer could make any impression—which negotiation obtained from shore—when distributed by signal from a storeship among a whole squadron, went but a little way. We were undergoing all the annoyances of a state of siege, without any of its excitements. And “Oh! it is sweet for one’s country to die,”—but not of short commons.
The Japanese said they had no objection to the officers going ashore to walk about the towns of Yokohama and Kanagawa, but trusted they would not for the present go further; the people had not become used to strangers, and their presence might produce unnecessary excitement among them.
The chaplain of the Susquehanna was ashore on the 14th, and took a long stroll, not getting aboard until ten o’clock at night. Had he made the best of his time he might have had a sight of the city of Yedo, but he spent some two or three hours in going to and fro in Kanagawa, and an adjoining place, which enabled the wily Japanese authorities time to communicate his whereabouts to the commodore, and to make complaint of it. He visited the very populous city of Kanagawa, and also Kasacca.
At a wave of the hand of the Japanese officials who accompanied him, the crowds of people opened a clear passage in the centre of the street for him. He entered some of the houses, which he found primitive in their furniture and arrangements, but, compared with other oriental dwellings of the same class, neat, clean, and comfortable. In some of them he observed clocks of Japanese manufacture. He also visited several temples, which though smaller than in China, have more gilding on their walls, and ornaments on their idols, and generally are in better order. The priests as well as the people were distinguished for their courtesy.
The cities thus visited were not only very extensive (estimated to be six miles long), but had wide, well-formed streets. As he was returning, a Japanese officer put into his hands an order from the commodore for all officers to return on board, and shortly afterward a courier, mounted on a splendid black horse, delivered a similar despatch, and finding it was understood and acted on, turned round and galloped back again to report the approach of the American officer, who concluded his journey by torch-light, and found on his arrival that everything that had occurred had been noted, even the number of buttons on his coat being recorded. On his route he met the escort and train of some high functionary, supposed to number some two thousand. They were supposed to be conveying to Yokohama the few presents which they said the emperor could only now send, for want of time to prepare others.
The negotiations, which were interrupted by the equinoctial gale, were resumed on the 17th of March. The commodore wished them to give us three or four ports; his squadron was a powerful one; but if he carried back an unsatisfactory answer to his government it would send another and a larger one for a different purpose. The Japanese were willing to give us one port then, and another in five years; they said they could not grant a port in the island of Yezo—hitherto called Matsmai—without consulting the prince of that department. To this, it was replied, “Give the port in the island of Niphon, and the squadron would go to see the prince of Matsmai.”