Chrysanthemum Figures
Theatrical Representations
As soon as the steamers dropped their anchors, they were approached by two boats, containing their former visitors, the first and second officers of the town, with the interpreters, very richly dressed in silk brocade, bordered with velvet, and having on their garments of ceremony. The steamers lay with their broadsides to the shore, ready for action in case of treachery. Fifteen launches and cutters were got ready, from which three hundred and twenty persons, officers, seamen, marines, and musicians, were landed on an extemporaneous jetty which the Japanese had formed of bags of sand. Last of all the commodore landed with due formality, when the whole body, preceded by the Japanese officers and interpreters, marched to the house of reception, carrying with them the president’s letter, the box which held it wrapped in scarlet cloth, as was also that containing the letter of credence. In front of the houses prepared for the interview were two old brass four-pounders, apparently Spanish, and on each side a company of soldiers, those on one side armed with matchlocks, those on the other with old Tower muskets, with flint locks and bayonets. The reception building was a temporary structure, evidently put up for the occasion. The first apartment, about forty feet square, was of canvas. The floor was covered with white cotton cloth, with a pathway of red felt leading across to a raised inner apartment, wholly carpeted with the same red felt. This apartment, of which the front was entirely open, was hung with fine cloth, stamped with the imperial symbols in white on a ground of violet. On the right was a row of arm-chairs for the commodore and his staff. On the opposite side sat the two commissioners appointed to receive the letters, and who were announced by the interpreters as the princes of Izu and Iwami [Toda Izu-no-kami, and Ido Iwami-no-kami, Bugiōs of Uraga]. The former was a man about fifty, with a very pleasing and intelligent face. The latter was older by fifteen years or so, wrinkled with age, and of looks much less prepossessing. Both were splendidly dressed, in heavy robes of silk tissue, elaborately ornamented with threads of gold and silver. As the commodore entered, both rose and bowed gravely, but immediately resumed their seats and remained silent and passive as statues.
At the end of the room was a large scarlet-lackered box, standing on gilded feet, beside which Yezaimon and one of the interpreters knelt, at the same time signifying that all things were ready for the reception of the letters. They were brought in, and the boxes containing them being opened so as to display the writing and the golden seals, they were placed upon the scarlet box, and along with them translations in Dutch and Chinese, as well as an English transcript. The prince of Iwami then handed to the interpreters, who gave it to the commodore, an official receipt in Japanese, to which the interpreter added a Dutch translation, which translated literally into English was as follows:
“The letter of the President of the United States of North America, and copy, are hereby received and delivered to the emperor. Many times it has been communicated that business relating to foreign countries cannot be transacted here in Uraga, but in Nagasaki. Now, it has been observed that the admiral, in his quality of ambassador of the president, would be insulted by it; the justice of this has been acknowledged; consequently the above-mentioned letter is hereby received, in opposition to the Japanese law.
“Because the place is not designed to treat of anything from foreigners, so neither can conference nor entertainment take place. The letter being received, you will leave here.”
The commodore remarked, when this receipt was delivered to him, that he should return again, probably in April or May, for an answer. “With all the ships?” asked the interpreter. “Yes, and probably with more,” was the reply. Nothing more was said on either side. As the commodore departed, the commissioners rose and remained standing, and so the interview ended, without a single word uttered on their part.
The Japanese officers of the town, with the Japanese interpreters, accompanied the American party back to the “Susquehanna,” whose machinery they examined with much interest. When off the town, they were set ashore; but the steamers, to show how lightly the injunction to leave was regarded, proceeded up the bay, and anchored a short distance above the point reached by the “Mississippi.” In spite of the solicitude of the Japanese officers, who came again on board, the whole bight between the promontory of Uraga and another north of it was carefully surveyed. At the head a river was found. The shores were studded with villages, whose inhabitants offered to the surveying party cold water, and peaches from their gardens. To the place where the steamers lay the name was given of “American anchorage.”
The next day (Friday, the 15th) the “Mississippi” proceeded on an excursion ten miles further up, and reached, as was supposed, within eight or ten miles of the capital. On the western shore were seen two large towns. On the extremity of a cape in front, some four miles distant, stood a tall white tower, like a lighthouse. Three or four miles beyond was a crowd of shipping, supposed to be the anchorage of Shinagawa, the southern suburb of Yedo. At the point where the steamer put about, she had twenty fathoms of water. On Saturday, the 16th, the vessels moved to a new anchorage, five or six miles down the bay, and much nearer the shore, and here the surveying operations were renewed. The same day an interchange of presents took place with Yezaimon, who, however, was induced to accept those offered to him only by the positive refusal of his own, except on that condition. Thus pressed, he finally took them, except some arms—articles, he said, which the Japanese neither gave nor received. In the afternoon he came again, in excellent humor, his conduct probably having been approved on shore, bringing a quantity of fowls, in light wicker coops, and three or four thousand eggs, in boxes, for which a box of garden-seeds was accepted in return.
The next day, 17th, and the tenth since their arrival, the vessels weighed and stood for Lew Chew, the bay being covered with boats, to witness their departure.[119]