informed me he was afraid of being shot, whereupon we returned to the more peaceable surroundings along the studios of the “geishas.”
The police register the arrival of all strangers, keeping a record of their movements and admonishing them as to their behavior. The temples are of great interest; in one I was shown the tomb of Buddha, whose final interment, like the disposition of the bones of Columbus and John Paul Jones, has been based on presumptive evidence.
Besides the diplomatic corps, there are a great many missionaries in Tokio, while the army is everywhere in evidence.
July the 14th, the day set for the unveiling of Commodore Perry’s monument at Uraga, dawned with a heavy fog hanging over the harbor. Coincident with this event was the anniversary of the destruction of the “Bastille,” which the flag-ship of the French fleet, the cruiser Friant, had prepared to celebrate.
About 7.45 A.M. quarters sounded: the marines formed an alignment on the starboard
side of the quarter-deck, attired in full dress; saluting gun crews fell to the forward six-pounders, and blue-jackets formed an alignment on the port side. Everything ready, my annunciator rang, and I reported to Admiral Rodgers, eight bells and under way. As we steamed by the British, French, German, Italian, and Japanese war-vessels, followed by the American fleet, the various bands played “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the marines presenting arms, while the American band played the Japanese national air, and in turn the “Marseillaise,” the national air of the French republic. In less than an hour we had entered the harbor of Kurahama, near Uraga, firing a salute of twenty-one guns, our ships dressed in holiday attire from bow to stern, with the Japanese ensign flying at the main. Our salute was returned by the Japanese, and we anchored near the spot where Commodore Perry’s ships anchored in 1854.
The Japanese fleet represented ancient, medieval, and modern warfare, and included two of the most modern battleships afloat at
that time,—namely, the Shikishima and Hatsuse, both of which figured prominently in the bombardment of the Liaotung Peninsula and the terrible slaughter of the Russians in the Straits of Korea.
The Yokohama Yacht Club was well represented in the harbor, and every craft and packet, down to the odd-looking sampan, endeavored to appear festive and holiday like.
The terrible weather prevented what was to have been a very imposing ceremony. Thousands of Japanese from Tokio, Yokohama, Hakodate, Kioto, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki, and the interior villages, had congregated to witness the unveiling. A guard of five hundred marines from the fleet, with the naval band of the Hatsuse, landed and were stationed in front of the monument. The officers of the ships and government officials were stationed on stands erected.