Whose rude throats, Jove’s dread clamors conterfeit,”
the contrast showed them the defectiveness of their defences, and with an enterprise far ahead of their Cathayan neighbors, they at once proceeded to cudgel their brains to see how their security might be made greater. They at first thought of fortifying Simoda, but being told that it could never become a great commercial place, they gave that up. Izabavo, one of their most prominent engineers, was told to make a report as to the fortification of Uraga, because with more sagacity than that displayed by the Americans, they know its importance with reference to their capital. Yedo is the London—the Paris of Japan. When it falls, the empire goes with it. They know that the supplies for this enormous place are gotten coastwise by the junks, who come into the bay, and that the blockading of Uraga in the bay of Yedo, easily reached, would stop the throat of the Japanese empire.
Izabavo reported, that, as no two fortifications could protect Uraga, and that the width and roughness of the bay at times, and the depth of water, would make floating batteries impracticable, a gunboat system, such as was once adopted by our own government, must be their defence. These matters were discussed by the imperial council, as also the reorganization of their army on the European plan, that is the having a standing army, that would obey promptly, the behests of the centralized government at Yedo, and quiet any refractory sentiment of their thousands, like the coup d’etat of the 2d of December by Napoleon III., instead of each of the princes of the empire contributing a quota of troops, as now.
We had now lain nearly a month at Simoda, seeing more of Japan than during the two months we lay in the bay of Yedo. We had enjoyed the walks ashore, we had enjoyed baths from a fine spring, and picknicked in the woods of Sarahama. But we had missed Foogee Yama, which at all other points we thought ubiquitous. I had climbed the high hills back of Kakizaki, to get another look at the mountain, but other and higher hills more distant, obstructed the view.
Foogee Yama since our arrival in the waters of Japan, as the Howadjis on the Nile tell of the great pyramid, seemed to follow us wherever we went. When the cold clear morning of February found us running into the bay of Kawatsoo, we saw over our bowsprit Foogee, looming up in austere magnificence. When our colors were hauled down in the evening at Yokohama, every one admired the majestic beauty of Foogee peering like a ponderous pile of marble out of the furnace of sunset. If the rains fell heavily during the night, when the curtain of cloud lifted up in the morning, in patches here and there, Foogee appeared to wear under its mantle of chilling cold, a garment of genial green; and when the Mississippi lay at Webster island, from her hurricane-deck, above the line of pines that covered the bold bluffs of the shore, sometimes near, sometimes afar off, its summit clothed in fleecy clouds of deferential beauty, grandly shone the towering mound; so now, land-locked and our view shut in by the high hills around Simoda, we missed Foogee Yama.
FOOGEE YAMA.
CHAPTER XIII.
On the 13th of May, the fifty days after the signing of the treaty having nearly expired, the Powhatan and Mississippi started for Hakodadi, leaving the storeship Supply at anchor at Simoda. Instead of keeping in shore, the two steamers stood off and ran between Oho Sima and Ja Sima. The day being clear, Foogee from his aerial height was soon looking at us. We ran quite close to the southwestern side, and had a good view of Oho Sima. The whole island appears to have been upheaved by volcanic action from the sea. From the jaws of a basin-shaped crater, issued white smoke and ashes. The side of the mountain next to us was marked by large fissures, or streaked with streams of lava. The vegetation on many of the slopes presented a pretty picture, when contrasted with the dull-charred mass that encompassed it. There are said to be three towns on the place. We saw two quite plainly, but where their harbor is, or how the steep shores are approached in rough weather, it was difficult to perceive.