It may be that the veneration, in which the memory of Iyeyas, is held by the Japanese, had much to do with the making of the treaty. Notwithstanding this Iyeyas, charged with the guardianship of the son of Taico, who was the husband of his granddaughter, usurped his powers and seized the ziogoonship for himself, still, barring his perfidy, he may be considered the great Lycurgus of Japan. His laws and influence endured longer than those of the ruler of Sparta. During his usurpation he took the names of Daifusama and Ongonchio, and with the honors that wait on success, about which it boots nothing to inquire,—at his death he was deified by impotent ziogoonship. Such was the reverence, in which Iyeyas was and still is held, with a people, in whose annals, a century is spoken of as yesterday, that his will was not only law, but any wish, that he was known to have expressed, became sacred. He it was who first granted the privilege of intercourse with the Dutch: and that nation, instead of submitting to acts which would cause any cheeks to tingle, but those of great moral obliquity or meerschaum stupidity—instead of submitting to the durance vile of Dezima, and trampling upon the symbol of a Savior’s sufferings—had it in their power to exact anything, by expressing a wish or determination to leave their fan-shaped prison factory: but they are old fogies, and their course shows, that to stupidity they add stultification.
DEZIMA.
The contempt for mercantile pursuits, and the revenue derived therefrom, ascribed by the Dutch writers, to the “Japonicadom” of Japan, is all leather and prunella. The exchequer of the princes at times, is exceedingly limited and they are willing at such times to get funds and a wife, by taking the daughter of some wealthy merchant as one of their better halves. The quid pro quo to the father, for the dimes, that the patrician son-in-law may take from his coffers, is the privilege of wearing his coat-of-arms on the sleeve of his garments.
But I have wandered from Iyeyas. This apotheosized usurper, enjoined upon his people to have nothing to do with Europeans, and our country not being known at the time of this injunction, and of course not included in such a designation, the hermetics may have thought, they could make a mere treaty of amity (and not of commerce, as has been stated), without mental reservation, with the United States. Then, too, the Japanese have an intelligent and excessive curiosity upon all subjects of information, and they contend, that inventions and discoveries are made now in such quick succession, that no nation may keep pace with them, that has not access to the world.
While it must remain on record, that as the Americans were the first to deny one cent of tribute, and put an end to Tripolitan piracy, they were also the first to break down the unsocial barrier, which the “kingdom of the virgin of the sun” had hedged itself with, yet the Japanese have now declared their purpose to make treaties, with all nations similar to the one made with the United States, and they have since done so with the English through Sir James Sterling, though his compact is not as good as that of the Americans—the statements of the London press to the contrary, because it contains no clause at once granting to them any privilege, which any other nation may obtain from the Japanese.
The Japanese were much concerned about the siege of Silistria, and knowing the vulnerability of their country, Russia from her proximity to them, is the great bug-bear. They were told by the English at Nangasaki, that the French were also coming up there, and knowing that these two nations, and that of Chowstoff were at war, they were much concerned for fear, these enemies should meet and have a fight in their waters, and for the purpose of preserving and securing the inviolability and neutrality of their country effectually, they make treaties with all the parties, maugre the injunction of the great Iyeyas, and their declarations to us of a few months before.
The Japanese were to have had a bazar opened at Simoda on our return from Hakodadi, when our officers might procure the curios of Japanese lacquer, porcelain, crape, &c., but they were quite dilatory in getting it ready, and urged as the cause, the non-arrival of some junks from Osacca (pronounced like the city of Oaxaca in “Maheco,” or Mexico), the seaport of Meaco. In the meantime, at the temple Leosenthsi, daily conferences were held between some financial officers from Yedo, the first lieutenant-governor, Kewakawa Kahei, and second lieutenant governor, Isa Sintshiro, first and second presidents of the board of revenue, on the part of the Japanese, and Pursers William Speiden of the Mississippi, and J. C. Eldridge of the Powhatan, on the part of the United States, to settle the very important question of the relative value of the coins and currency of the two countries. The result was anything but satisfactory.
The Japanese commenced by stating that the tael was their decimal basis, in their system of weights and measures. As one of our cents was ten mills, so one of their taels is ten mace. Next to the tael comes the canderine, then the cash. But this is as to weights. Their monetary system, while adopting the same nomenclature, is very different. The coin denominated a tael with them is equal to 1,000 cash; a tael weight of silver, is equal to two taels, and five canderines, of currency; or 2.25 tael coin, or 2,250 cash. A tael weight of gold is equal to 19 taels, or 19,000 cash.
They had no means of assaying the American, Mexican, and Spanish dollar, but presuming them all to be of good silver, they proceeded to determine the relative value with their coins by weight; a silver dollar was found to be, by this standard, 7.12 mace—equivalent to a little over 1,600 cash. Our twenty dollar goldpiece was of 8.8 mace weight, and estimating the mace weight of gold at 1,900 cash, the piece was deemed by them equal in value to 16,720 cash, or $10.45 of our money. This made the gold dollar worth fifty-two cents; and silver to bear the proportion to gold of 1 to 8.44.