The Russians, who hitherto had no port on the eastern side of their empire contiguous to north China, had been compelled to carry on their teatrade by inland caravans that had been stopped by the insurgent fights, and who could only send supplies to their posts of Sitka and Petropaulofski, near the Ochotsk sea, by Cape Horn, had, under Count Muravieff, boldly seized on the mouth and fine harbor of the river Amoor, in the Tartar territory, and fortified it. As the position was weakened by the river emptying into the channel of Tartary, Muravieff, to make assurance doubly sure, had seized that too.
Intelligence of these doings having reached Yedo, one of the deputies at Hakodadi, Hirayama Kenziro, was on his way to Saghalien to find out whether the Russians were not coming the filibuster Chowstoff on them again.
These functionaries made some of their characteristic communications to the commodore:—
In the paper, sent his Excellency this morning, it was stated, that we had received orders from Yedo to go to Karafto; that on the road we heard, that your ships were at Hakodadi, and as the consultations at Yokohama were not fully known on these distant frontier places, there might some misunderstandings arise, and so we came here especially to see you. If there are any points connected with the treaty, which need deliberation and settlement, we desire that you will let us know them.
With regard to going through the streets and seeing shops and houses shut, with neither women nor children in their ways, let it be here observed, that at Yokohama this very matter was plainly spoken of by Moriyama, the interpreter at that place. The customs of our country are unlike yours, and the people have been unused to see persons from foreign lands; though the authorities did what they could to pacify them, and teach them better, they still were disinclined to believe, and many absconded or hid themselves.
If the commodore will recall to mind, the day, when he took a ramble at Yokohama, in which some of us accompanied him, he will recollect, that in the villages and houses we hardly saw a woman, during the whole walk. If he saw more of them at Simoda as he went about, it was because there the people were gradually accustomed to the Americans, and their fears had been allayed, so that they felt no dread.
On these remote frontiers, many hundred miles from Yedo, the usages of the people are so fixed, that they are not easily influenced and altered; but pray, how can the inhabitants here think of regarding the Americans with inimical feelings? Even when they see their officers, with the sight of whom they are not familiar, they also run aside, and as if for fear, they seek to escape us. It is the custom of our country, that officers should accompany visiters about; a custom not to be so soon changed. Still the disposition of the men here, is ingenuous, brave, upright, and good; and that of the women retiring and modest—not gazing at men as if without bashfulness. Such characteristics and such usages must be considered as estimable, and we think that you also would not dislike them.
There is a spring near the town, the water of which is strongly impregnated with sulphur, and supposed to be highly medicinal; but what of thy various supplies, O Hakodadi! An egg, like Cæsar’s wife, should be above suspicion. The number gotten by our mess, like the swords of the clan of Lochiel, was “a thousand;”—the good ones, were “one.” Hakodadi, in Japanese, is “box-eating house;” in American memory it is questionable eggs.
On the 3d of June, the Powhatan and the Mississippi started on their return to Simoda: we looked upon the departure from Hakodadi as the culminating point of the cruise. When we reached the entrance to the harbor, a sudden and dense fog settled on us—