The principal cause of the alarm of the Japanese officers, on the approach of the ships to Yedo, was in some anticipated outbreak on the part of its rabble, who must comprise a great number in a city of over fourteen hundred thousand inhabitants. These lazzaroni have more than once threatened the stability of the government; a huge unmanageable mob threatening destruction, and deaf to reason; a horrid hydra easily moved, but controlled only with great power and force. The effect upon such a population of the novel sight of two large steamers off their city, who in addition to other engines of destruction, were believed to have on board steam-guns, can be easily imagined, especially when the mob never expected to see such a sight again. Then, too, they are more eager after novelty because of having been kept in ignorance by the stringent laws against foreigners; and they have been taught that they are beneath laws.
Such is the intense curiosity of the Japanese character, and the great rush to gratify it, that at one time, before the signing of the treaty, there was as many as seventy thousand people from all parts of the country, congregated in Kanagawa and its immediate vicinity, eager to get a look at our ships, and endeavoring to get aboard. To furnish a pretext for their assemblage near the place of negotiations, many resorted to the ruse of offering their services to the authorities, in the event of the negotiations with the Americans, taking a hostile turn. Many of the princes of the empire, anxious to see the ships and not being able to get permission or authority to do so, resorted to the plan of getting on board by going disguised in the suite of Moriyama Yenoske, the chief interpreter. On one occasion—April 4th—a number of Japanese gentlemen of rank, having obtained permission to visit the ships, it was surmised, and upon very good authority, that the young emperor himself had been aboard. His features would probably not be known to one of his subjects outside of his immediate attendants or council. The boldness and tact with which they manage nayboen matters is remarkable. The interpreters were always very cautious, and never committed themselves by giving information. A great many of the better class Japanese, who came aboard, were able to write, and sometimes speak a little Dutch (Holland), and generally expressed themselves with much correctness.
The next morning, after anchoring off Nati Sima, the Macedonian was despatched to the Bonin islands with some agricultural implements, and to look after some men, with orders to join us at Simoda.
While our surveying boats were running their line of soundings, and triangulating in the vicinity of the anchorage, some of the officers, in other boats, paid visits to Webster island, which afforded a fine opportunity for exercise, besides being a very pretty view. Before returning to the ships, we pulled into a number of little inlets and small bays near by. The hill-sides were well wooded, and the deep green of the thorough cultivation on terraces and steppes was delightful to the eye. In some obscure coves, were built stone piers for landing, and a number of junks had been beached, and their owners were preparing them, or firing their bottoms, that the sea slime might be removed and their speed increased. In others, the fronts of large quarries of sandstone, and what appeared to be fuller’s earth, approach the edge of the water. The latter was cut away in square blocks, leaving the face of the hills like the smooth masonry of a curtain-wall and bastion.
On the morning of the 18th of April, the Vandalia and Lexington having preceded us, the Powhatan and Mississippi steamed slowly out of the bay of Yedo, running a line of soundings from the ships as we went, after passing Sagama cape, the two ships stood over in the direction of Ohosima, that the bearings of that island might be taken, and then headed off southward and westward, leaving the bay of Kawatsu on our right hand. The volcano on Ohorima was not in a state of eruption, as when we passed it three months before. We soon saw Cape Idzoo, and by three o’clock were up with Rock island, that marks the mouth, and ran into the harbor of Simoda. This place from having been visited in May, 1849, by the English man-of-war Mariner, our own sailing ships, which preceded us, were no novelty to the people, but the approach of the Powhatan and Mississippi running in a straight line through the narrow entrance, filled the height on either side with a throng, looking for the first time, and with wonder, on steamships.
CHAPTER XII.
Simoda—in Japanese “Lowerfield”—situated in the principality of Idzoo, which occupies about the same latitudinal, though not isothermal lines—as our state of North Carolina, is a place containing a population of twenty thousand. The streets are narrow, though regularly laid out, and at their intersections have gates, which may be easily closed in the event of any emeute. At their points are also placed stone structures, surmounted by little roofs protecting copies of the laws and municipal regulations so conspicuously posted, that all who run, may read. The houses, which are usually and ornamentally stuccoed in light blue and white diamond shapes, are nearly all of one story with parapets, and without chimneys. Between the parapets wires are stretched to prevent the bird, which “by the hoarseness of its note doth indicate a crow,” from alighting on the roofs. The Japanese certainly can’t regard them as a bird of evil omen, from the great numbers that fill their streets. Perhaps they are kept from injury, for sanitary purposes, like one more ungainly, found in our southern cities. There are a number of temples in and near the place, dedicated to different deities. Behind the town stretches a lovely level valley for some miles, through which flows a little stream—Simoda gawa, and surrounded on either side by towering bluff-hills, that make the resemblance very great to the scenery on the Potomac, at Harper’s Ferry. From this stream, junks and ships are supplied with fresh water, and on its banks are built rice and grain mills, with undershot wheels, to turn which, the water is diverted from its course by artificial excavations. The amphitheatre of high hills that surround the place in other directions, is very thickly wooded, and presents a green and lovely prospect from the water. The town has about fifteen hundred houses, and it is wonderful to see how many people a Japanese town will hold.
The harbor of Simoda, though of rather difficult access at times to sailing vessels, and subject to quite a heavy swell, when the wind blows from a southerly direction, is quite a secure one, after getting in. The entrance is narrow between high bluffs, but on passing inside, the water spreads into a fan-shaped bay, with a bight, on which the principal town of Simoda is situated, on the left hand, which place is not visible until reaching a central island. It is encompassed on every hand by high hills, bleak and uninviting in some patches, and others cultivated in terraced fields of rice and wheat, or clothed in the deep verdure of the pine and other trees. Across the bay of Simoda about half a mile round a sweep of white level-shiny beach, on which the waves sullenly chafe, is a little fishing village, called Kakizaki, which also has its temples. Here was a spring possessed of sulphurous qualities; and on the beach the ship’s seines were hauled with some success.
Having to remain at Simoda some time, a party under Lieutenant Maury was at once set at work to make a survey of the harbor. The officers spent their time ashore in strolls through the town, visits to the temples, rambles into the country, occasionally taking a gun, though there was very little to kill. The people, when we landed, appeared glad to see us, and were always inclined to be sociable, but for the omnipresence of their police. They would gather around and examine the cloth of our clothes with much curiosity—particularly the old women—and the designs on our buttons. The remarkable and unremitting espionage of the Japanese is everywhere shown. Should you give some peasant a button, even while apparently out of sight of any one, it will be most singular, if one of the officers does not return it to you before or after you are on shipboard again. At first our steps were dogged by the police wherever we went. This did not require much effort in the town, but when we struck into the country and climbed hills with thick and sharp undergrowth, these officers not being as well habited as ourselves to withstand brier and thorn, their scratched legs usually paid the penalty. Besides this, their lazy habits had made them very indifferent pedestrians. In a walk of any length they generally broke down; they would rub their legs and beg us to return, but as we were not aware of having solicited the pleasure of their company, we declined compliance with their requests. The commodore complained to the acting chief magistrate, Kimakawa Kahei, of this practice of spying upon the movements of his officers, and said, that if it were not stopped, he should recommend them each to take a stick with them, and stop it. They contended, that it was a precaution for our protection, the people not yet being accustomed to the sight of us. They were answered, that we felt ourselves quite competent for our own protection.