A Blind Masseur
Scenes in the Home
“‘Well,’ replied he, ‘allow me to give my sailors my last and most urgent instructions, as to what they must communicate from me to the governor of Kunashiri.’ He then rose up—for during this conversation he sat, according to the Japanese custom, with his legs under him—and addressed me very earnestly in the following terms: ‘You know enough of Japanese to understand all that I may say in plain and easy words to my sailors. I would not wish you to have any ground to suspect me of hatching base designs.’ He then sat down again, when his sailors approached him on their knees, and hanging down their heads, listened with deep attention to his words. He reminded them circumstantially of the day on which they were carried on board the ‘Diana,’ of the manner in which they had been treated on board that ship and in Kamtschatka, of their having inhabited the same house with me, and being carefully provided for, of the death of their two countrymen, notwithstanding all the attention bestowed upon them by the Russian physician, and, finally, that the ship had hastily returned to Japan on account of his own health. All this he directed them faithfully to relate, and concluded with the warmest commendations of me, and earnest expressions of gratitude for the care that I had taken of him by sea and on land. He then sank into a deep silence and prayed, after which he delivered to the sailor whom he most esteemed, his picture to be conveyed to his wife, and his large sabre, which he called his paternal sword, to be presented to his only son and heir. This solemn ceremony being finished, he stood up, and with a frank and indeed very cheerful expression of countenance, asked for some brandy to treat his sailors at parting. He drank with them, and accompanied them on deck, when they were landed, and proceeded without interruption towards the fortress.”
Rikord was a good deal troubled and alarmed at the air and manner of Kahei; and finally, after consulting with his officers concluded to dismiss him unconditionally, trusting to his honor for his doing his best to procure the release of the Russians.
Kahei was greatly delighted at this mark of confidence, though he declined to go on shore till the next day, as it would not conform to Japanese ideas of etiquette for him to land on the same day with his sailors. He confessed to Rikord that he had been greatly wounded by the threat to carry him to Okhotsk. It was not consistent with Japanese ideas, that a man of his position should remain a prisoner in a foreign country, and he had therefore made up his mind to prevent it by cutting himself open. He had accordingly cut off the tuft of hair from his head,—and he showed that it was gone,—and had laid it in the box with his picture; it being customary with those about to die honorably, by their own hands, in a distant place, to send this token to their friends, who bury the tuft of hair with all the ceremonies which they would have bestowed upon the body. And he even intimated that previous to doing this execution on himself, he might first have stabbed Rikord and the next in command.
Kahei exerted himself with the greatest energy in the matter of the negotiation, and he soon was able to produce a letter, in the hand-writing of Golownin, and signed by him and Moor, but which the jealousy of their keepers had limited to the simple announcement that they were alive and well at Matsumae. Afterwards one of the imprisoned Russian sailors was brought on board the ship, being sent from Matsumae for that purpose; but, though allowed to spend his days on board the “Diana,” he was required to return to the fort every night. In spite, however, of all the watchfulness of the Japanese, he had brought sewed up in his jacket a letter from Golownin, in which he recommended prudence, civility, candor, and especially patience, and entreated that no letters nor anything else should be sent him which might cause him to be tormented with questions and translations.
The Japanese would not deliver up their prisoners till the “Diana” first sailed to Okhotsk, and brought from the authorities there a formal written disavowal of the hostilities of Chwostoff. At Okhotsk was found the letter from the governor of Irkutsk, previously sent for at Kahei’s suggestion, and with this document and another letter from the commander at Okhotsk, the “Diana” reached Hakodate towards the end of October.
“As we approached the town,” says Rikord, “we observed that cloth was hung out only at a few places on the hill, or near it, and not over the whole buildings, as at Kunashiri. With the assistance of our telescopes, we observed six of these screens of cloth, probably intended to conceal fortifications. There were, beside, five new fortifications at short distances from each other, and from two to three hundred fathoms from the shore.
“We no sooner entered the roads than we were surrounded by a number of boats, of all descriptions and sizes, filled with the curious of both sexes. A European ship must indeed have been to them an object of uncommon interest; for, as far as I could ascertain, they had seen none since they were visited twenty-two years before by Laxman.[99] Many of the inhabitants, therefore, had never beheld a European vessel of any kind, and still less a ship of war; they accordingly thronged about us in vast numbers, and their curiosity frequently gave rise to disputes among themselves. The Dōshin (soldiers), who were stationed in the watch-boats, continually called to them to keep at a further distance; but so great was the confusion that, though the people generally showed great respect to the soldiers, their orders were on this occasion disregarded. The military, therefore, were under the necessity of using the iron batons which they wear fastened to their girdles by long silken strings. They spared neither rank nor sex; old persons alone experienced their indulgence, and we had various opportunities of observing that the Japanese, in all situations, pay particular respect to old age. In this case blows were freely dealt out to the young, of every description, who ventured to disobey the commands of the soldiers, and we were at length delivered from a multitude of visitors, who would have subjected us to no small degree of inconvenience.”
Kahei came on board the next morning, and the letter from the governor of Okhotsk was given to him to be transmitted to the governor of Matsumae; but Captain Rikord refused to deliver the other letter, except in person. After much negotiation the ceremonial for an interview was arranged. The Japanese even conceded that the ten men who landed with Rikord as his guard of honor should be allowed to take their muskets with them; he, on his part, agreeing to land in the Japanese governor’s barge, and, before entering the audience chamber, to substitute, instead of his boots, shoes, which Kahei undertook to pass off as leather stockings. Rikord had for his interpreter a Japanese whom he had brought from Okhotsk, sent thither from Irkutsk, and who bore the Russian name of Kesseleff. The Japanese had Teisuke, who had learnt Russian of Golownin. The governor of Matsumae, Hattori-Bingo-no-kami, was represented on this occasion by the governor of Hakodate, and by an academician sent for the express purpose of making observations on the Russian ship of war, and collecting particulars respecting European science,—no other, indeed, than Doeff’s friend, “Globius.”