The island of Great Loo-Choo appeared in sight after a run of three days from China. Previous to reaching there, the commodore issued a general order, requiring look-outs to be kept in port as at sea, during the stay of the squadron among the Japanese islands, and all movements of vessels or collections of boats were to be reported to the officer of the deck, and by him to his superiors; sentinels with loaded musket and six rounds of ball-cartridges; general and division exercises of great guns and small arms, with artillery and infantry drills, were to be prosecuted with increased diligence; and in navigating those seas attention was to be given more to precautionary measures to secure safety than to accomplish quick passages. Another general order stated that the countries which our ships were then about to visit were inhabited by a singular people, whose policy it had been, during more than two centuries, to decline all intercourse with strangers, to which end they had resorted to acts at variance and irreconcilable with the practices of civilized nations; that one of the duties enjoined upon the commodore, was to endeavor to overcome these prejudices by a course of friendly and conciliatory measures, and to strive to convince the Japanese that we went among them as friends, though assuring them of our determination never to submit to insult or wrong, or desist from claiming and securing those rights of hospitality justly due from one nation to another. In pursuance of these objects, every individual under his command should exercise the greatest prudence, forbearance, and discretion, in their intercourse with all with whom they came in contact. While distrustful of their apparent friendship and sincerity, and guarding against treachery, they would extend toward those oppressed and misgoverned people every kindness and protection, and would be careful not to molest, injure, or maltreat them in any manner; that it would be in time to resort to extreme measures when every friendly demonstration should have been exhausted. The commodore also stated that his instructions directed him to forbid in the most positive manner the acceptance of presents or supplies, unless those who proffered them, were prepared to receive adequate returns.

That we might be the better prepared, in addition to the great-gun exercises, drill, &c., when “friendly demonstrations should have been exhausted,” the commander-in-chief provided himself with an octagonal marquee made of red, white, and blue, caused ambulances to be made in the different ships, and directed that all boats of the squadron when prepared for distant or active service, were to be armed and provided, so as to be ready at a sudden call, with anchor and cable, two spare oars, masts, sails, and rigging, spun-yarn and seizing stuff, four battle-axes, a hand-saw for each division, one wood-axe, spikes, bag with hatchet, sheet-lead and nails, spy-glass for commanding officer of division, musket, pistol, and cutlass for each man, cartouch-box filled, screw-driver and nipple-wrench, cleaning rags and oil for each boat, a crow-bar, two blue-lights, two rockets, candles primed, and match-ropes in tin-box, lantern and materials for getting light, boat’s colors and signals, compass, bread, water and provisions, oar-muffles, bandages and laudanum for wounded, lead-lines, small cooking apparatus for largest boat, flash-pans, and awnings.

On getting to our anchorage we felt as if we had arrived at the outer door of the hermetic empire that we had come so far to deal with, we being then only about eight or nine days’ sail from the bay of Yedo. As Loo-Choo had no doubt been selected as the base of operation, upon the principle of reaching the old hen by first going at the chickens, it will be as well to give an outline of its history.

The Loo-Choo islands—pronounced in Japanese Lu Kiu—are a dependency of the Japanese prince of Satsuma. There are thirty-six islands in all, which are divided in three groups: the Northern or Sanbok, the Middle or Tchusan, and the Southern or Sannan group. According to the belief of the inhabitants, the origin of the people of these islands, like that of nearly all the orientals, is divine, and nowise of the Lord Monboddo theory. Their annals always commence with a series of gods, then follow a race of demi-gods, and at last come human beings. To their great veneration for their ancestors, may probably be ascribed these conceits. A son reveres his father beyond everything else; this father likewise revered his progenitor. So the grandfather gets all the love of his son, with a large share of that of the grandson through the grandson’s father. A thousand years in Loo-Choo chronology is a small matter: they note the existence of their islands for seventeen thousand years, that is agreeably to what the Chinaman would call their “fash;” so compound interest for a thousand years in filial veneration gives divinity of origin to their nation.

The Chinese emperor, Kang-hy, in 1719, sent a man of great attainments to Loo-Choo. The report of this learned pig-tail, upon what he saw in the country, was translated by Father Gaubil of the French Jesuit mission in China, whose records probably contain more data relative to the ancient history of the East, than is to be found in any other mission.

The Chinese histories first make mention of Loo-Choo in the year 605. In that year a party of Chinese visited the islands, and on their return brought with them some of the natives, who were taken to Pekin. Here they were recognised as Loo-Chooans by the Japanese embassador at that court. They are described as being very ignorant and very poor. The emperor Yang-ti, however, sent embassadors and interpreters to claim sovereignty over the islands, but the king of Loo-Choo rejected all proposals of the kind, whereupon the emperor sent ten thousand men from Fokien to invade the islands. They landed on the island of Great Loo-Choo, and were bravely met by the king at the head of his army. A pitched battle was fought, in which the king was slain, when the Chinese triumphed, taking five thousand prisoners, and sacking the cities of Sheudi and Napa. The Chinese chronicle the fact that the Loo-Chooans were so lamentably destitute that they did not even know the use of “chop-sticks!” and also state that they sometimes sacrificed human beings at their religious festival, which barbarous custom was at once abolished.

The Chinese emperors of the Ting dynasty, and also those of the succeeding Song dynasty, did not exercise sovereign rights over the islands. A trade had sprung up between the two countries, and all went as well as a junk could sail, until 1291, when the emperor Chit-su, of the Eeven dynasty, resolved upon their conquest. He fitted out and despatched an armed expedition for this purpose, but the Tartars and Chinese, both disgusted and disheartened by the recollection of their terrible failure in a similar attempt on Japan, after a short absence returned to the port of Fokien, not having gone in sight of the islands. The history of the islands speaks of constant civil war, and bloody battles. In 1372 the largest island was divided into three kingdoms. Hong-u, the first of the Ming dynasty, sent an embassador to Loo-Choo, whose diplomacy was such as to induce T’say-too, one of the kings who resided at Sheudi, to declare himself tributary to China. His example was followed by the two other kings, and peace was restored. Thirty-six Chinese families, by order or with the consent of the emperor, emigrated to the island, who received their “quarter sections” from the king, and from that time dates the commencement of civilization and Chinese influence. Young men from Loo-Choo were annually sent to Nanking, to learn the Chinese language at the expense of the emperor; and presents were exchanged by the sovereigns. At the death of T’say-too the emperor sent his son to preside over the realm. Loo-Choo then became prosperous, trade sprang up; and during the reign of Chang-pat-shi, the great grandson of T’say-too, the three kingdoms of the islands were re-united, and the royal family assumed the title of Chang.

Revolutions and civil wars raged from time to time, and a feudal system was established. Commerce with China increased, and the Chinese complained of the scarcity of silver and copper coin in the provinces Tshe-kiang and Fokien, on account of the exportation of it to Loo-Choo. In 1500, the Loo-Choo people sent a trading junk to Malacca, many to the island of Formosa, and a great many to the southern ports of Japan. During the reign of Chang-tching, Loo-Choo became the market where Japanese and Chinese merchants met to exchange their goods. Commerce became brisk, and the constant quarrels between the Chinese and Japanese gave the king an opportunity to extend his influence. The extensive piratical operations of the Japanese, about the year 1525, having their headquarters at Ke-long-chan, on the island of Formosa, compelled the emperor of China to have recourse to the king of Loo-Choo as mediator between him and the emperor of Japan. The mediation did not suppress the piracy complained of, though backed by large squadrons sent to sea by the celestial emperor, to destroy the pirates, over whom his imperial confrere of Japan professed to have no control; indeed, the Japan monarch alleged that there were many Chinese among these outlaws.

The ascent of the throne of Japan by Taico Sama, proved an event of great importance. He was a man of great ability and shrewdness, and attained his high position by his own exertions, and not by birth. He put an end to feudalism in his country, and ruled with an iron hand. He conceived the idea of using to advantage the terror which prevailed because of the Japanese pirates, and the prestige which their daring acts had acquired. His ambition was as unbounded as his belief in manifest destiny, and his object was the conquest of China. He despatched officers to the king of Loo-Choo, ordering him to declare his kingdom tributary to Japan; and similar pressing invitations were sent to the governors of the Philippine islands, the king of Siam, &c. The sovereign of Loo-Choo temporized, and finally refused to submit, relying on Chinese protection. He informed the emperor of the plans of Taico Sama; a league of all these princes was formed against him, when Taico Sama invaded that fighting-ground between the Chinese and Japanese—the peninsula of Corea. Taico’s main object was attained. He reaped all the benefit proceeding from piracies licensed by him or enlisted in his service, and thus giving it the character of a regular warfare. He smothered civil war in its germ, and sent away his most influential opponents to fight in the Corea, not Crimea. Corea was then the safety-valve for ardent spirits against the government, as France keeps its Algiers, or keeps up a foreign war. Taico “savaad” a great deal.

During the reign of Taico, Loo-Choo suffered severely; trade was brought to a stand still, and, like a more modern nation that Americans wot of, Japan proclaimed herself mistress of the sea. The king of the islands, however, managed to send an embassador to China, who was received with great magnificence by the emperor, both on account of the dangers he had encountered from the voyage in the junk, and the risk incurred of falling into the hands of the pirates who swarmed in those seas.

After the death of Taico, and during the regency of Iyeyas for his son, in 1612, a Loo-Chooan chief, dissatisfied with his king, armed three thousand men in Japan, with whom he returned to his own country and made the kingdom by force tributary to Japan, that is, to the province of Satsuma. He took back the king a prisoner. The fallen sovereign of Loo-Choo behaved with so much dignity, that two years afterward he was generously sent back, and reinstated on his throne, remaining still a true friend to the emperor of China.

Commercial relations, but on a small scale, existed with China and Japan, when, in 1708, all the plagues came down on Loo-Choo: it was desolated by the ravages of terrible typhoons; the crops failed; cattle died; the king’s palace was entirely consumed by fire; and frightful epidemics prevailed among the natives. Cang-hi, the emperor of China, sent them assistance, and his embassador, Supas Kang, in his report, according to the translation in French, says the language of these people is so mixed up of Chinese and Japanese, that it forms almost a distinct language. He finds no wild animals or venomous reptiles or insects, but much fish. Their exports at that time consisted of sulphur, a peculiar red dye stuff, dried fish, saki, and timber, principally cedar-wood.

The prospect, as you approach Great Loo-Choo island, clothed in masses of deep green, is very delightful to the eye, after it has been resting for days on the slate-colored ocean. We reached our anchorage late in the afternoon in the midst of a heavy rain, on the 26th of May. The roadstead off the city of Napa is enclosed by large fields of coral, and the entrances through the reefs are quite narrow. When we had gotten inside, large numbers of the natives appeared on the shore, no doubt greatly astonished at the sight of the two large steamers; and shortly after, the sloop-of-war “Saratoga,” from Hong Kong, also arrived. In a short time a rude dug-out boat came off to our ship, containing some officer, but as the flag-ship had previously made signal forbidding any communication with shore, he was directed to that ship—now the Susquehanna. He wished to know what we wanted in their harbor; the answer to this was, “Ask no questions and I’ll tell you,” &c. He was given to understand that he was rather too “small pigeon” for our commodore to see, and that he must go back and send off their “first chop” mandarin, as we could hold no intercourse with any other. This was trying on the dignitate early, but nothing else will answer in the East; any concession of equality, or manifestation of too great courtesy, would be at once construed by them into an admission of their superiority.

Our stripes and stars were a new sight to them, and the sudden advent of our ships in their waters was more than they could comprehend. At night their chief men took counsel together, and came to the conclusion that we were in want of kam-yum-muru, or something to eat; so the next morning off came, in a string of canoes, bullocks, pigs, chickens, and vegetables, as presents. These were sent back with the information that we could not receive presents. Become quite uneasy about our presence, they consented to their prince regent’s coming off to the flag-ship, which he did at an appointed hour, with a suite in their canoes. He was well received, and given the cheap salute of three guns, which small compliment he would have preferred to dispense with. They were shown over the ship: the engines were moved for their observation, and they evinced immense surprise: some of the attendants, however, when the great pistons moved, bolted up the hatchway and made for their boats. The higher officers were quite dignified in appearance and demeanor, but the lower class showed a simplicity most childish. They giggled at a looking-glass, and continually felt behind it; a sight through a spy-glass was most puzzling; a wine-glass they held tightly with both hands, and elevated to the forehead before tasting contents; a watch was most miraculous, and as they gathered round they were all wonderment, and imitated its “tick tick;” when the works were exposed to them, their exclamation of surprise was more like one of pain. The contents of the purser’s chest when exposed to them they seemed to think quite shiny and pretty, but evidently were unaware of the value or use of eagles, dollar-pieces, &c. On a chart of the world, in the cabin one day, I showed a number of them their country, and then designating my own, traced the track by which we had come to their island, which they appeared to comprehend. It was quite amusing to see the rapidity with which they would let go the polar handles of a small galvanic battery, which much persuasion and the example of some of the men were first required to get them to take hold of, as soon as it was slightly charged by pushing in the needles. They would drop their hands and rub their wrists in amazement.

The dress of the Loo-Chooans consists of a loose gown reaching to the knees, with large sleeves, made of a species of grass-cloth, of their own manufacture, and confined at the waist with a wide sash, pendent from which they wear a tobacco-pouch and small pipe. After the interchange of salutations, the pipe is always produced. On their feet, which are generally bare, they wear a coarse straw sandal, secured by a strap passing through next to the great toe, and one around the instep. Like the Japanese, the better classes carry a fan; but only the high officers wear a hat, made of crape, the first class yellow, and the second red—more particularly as a badge of authority. Their hair is brushed up all around the head, and its ends secured in a knot on the summit of the head, transfixed by silver or brass pins.

We knew that Loo-Choo had been visited in 1846 by a French missionary, Forcade, who had subsequently left, but were rather surprised on anchoring abreast of a tall and singular formation, called in the surveys of the “Alceste and Lyra,” “Capstan rock,” but which more nearly resembles a large old barn, with dark thatched roof, and huge projecting eaves—to see flying from its summit the English flag. We afterward ascertained that it was a flag giving protection to Dr. Bettelheim, a converted Hungarian Jew, who had married an English lady, and had been sent by an English naval mission society, some seven years before, as a missionary to Loo-Choo. He did not appear to be a man whose disposition and temperament were calculated to afford him success in his labors, although he had persevered in his study of their language until he could preach to the natives in it, and had occupied his lonely position for years, with no other Christian faces than those of his wife and three children. The Loo-Chooans had tried every way to get rid of him; they had addressed, through the Chinese, to the English minister, Lord Palmerston, remonstrances against the mission, which invariably closed with the petition that he would remove Bettelheim. They may not have known Vattel, but they urged with much energy his doctrine, that a missionary should leave a country when his presence was not agreeable to its people. But the Dr. held his ground, though he was made to undergo some rather rough treatment. Himself, by his professional skill in the healing art, and his wife, during the prevalence of the smallpox, had been very attentive to the people, which caused the authorities to become quite jealous. They were followed and hooted at in the streets, and finally, Mrs. B. during a walk, was forcibly separated from her husband, and himself beaten. The British war-steamer “Sphynx” happened to pay a visit to Napa not long afterward, when the authorities made ample apology for the offence, and promised better things in future. They removed his servants, or constantly changed them. They erected spy-houses opposite the gate of his residence, which were constantly attended. If he preached to a crowd in the street, or market-place, at a signal from the Japanese police on the island, his auditors all ran away. If he distributed tracts in their language at night, the next morning, the police brought them back to him, carefully tied up.

They were much disturbed by our presence, and if our sails were loosened to dry, they wondered why we did not sail away. We made a reconnoissance of their harbor to ascertain or confirm the accuracy of the surveys of Beechy, and the flag, or station staffs, we erected on shore for this purpose, around which numbers would gather, sorely perplexed them.

The principal town of Napa, containing about twenty thousand inhabitants, is located behind the rising beach, and can not be seen well from the shipping. Its kiang, or river, forms a harbor for junks from China, Japan, and their coasting trade, and small boats only. The houses of the town which are low, are enclosed in walls of cyclopean masonry, built mostly without any cement, of coral rock. Over these the limbs of the banyan project, and they are mostly fringed on top by a growth of cactus. The entrances to their dwellings are from narrow alleys running from the streets, and concealed by an abrupt elbow turn, so unless you notice close, you will scarcely observe the doorway. The streets are narrow, and laid out like those of Peking, and unpaved, and the reception that we met with on walking them, was anything but sociable; not that the mass of the people, who, after getting a little over the trepidation which our unexpected arrival produced, were not inclined to be friendly, but because of the surveillance of their suspicious and jealous officials. On our approach the shops were closed, and the way in front entirely deserted, while as soon as you had passed, there was a great throng gazing at you from the rear. Those weaving in the open air with their rude looms seizing their children did flee. Old women, awfully ugly, with tattoed hands, hair piled on their heads like a greasy mop, invested with a single salt-sack-looking garment of exceeding brevity, if you came upon them would betake themselves to flight, leaving the sharks’ meat, or vegetables, which they might have for sale, in the market-place, or else bury their faces in their dirty bluish tattoed hands, and so remain until you had passed. We were forced to conclude that our presence was as moving as that of Mr. Nicodemus in the Spectre Bridegroom; or else that an American naval officer, if he caused those old sycoraxes to shun him, must be ugly enough to scare a horse from his oats.

The origin of the married women tattoeing their hands, according to Loo-Chooan story literally rendered, is this: A husband going on a journey had an agreement with his wife for three years, but contrary to the agreement, ten years passed before his return. Her parents repeatedly proposed that she should change, and marry again, but she earnestly defended her chastity, saying, “A woman should not marry two husbands!” Still gainsaying, with blows they were forcing her to marry. She invented a stratagem—she painted her fingers with ink; she spoiled her beauty. Hence it must be, they say, that all women on marrying tattoe their hands.

In our walks we always had the unsolicited company of some government deputies. If you motioned them about anything, they were exceedingly addicted to salaaming, by bowing and raising their hands to their heads, but they remained exactly where they were. A rare and beautiful flower attracted your attention, and you wished to look closer at it, your attendant functionary pantomimically trusts that you will not enter, but passing through the gate, or scaling the coral wall, in a few minutes he will present you with one of the novel flowers. Should one of your company accidentally or intentionally slip out of the sight of these impromptu attendants, they appear most mentally troubled till he reappears.

The policy pursued with these people was a mild but firm one. They were asked for a house on shore that might be used as a place for our sick to recruit. They declined; and a few days after one of our officers and some men occupied one of their buildings in the town of Tumai, divided from Napa by a small stream. This building had been used as a kind of town-hall, where the chiefs assembled in council, carried thither in sedan-chairs, encased in ratan lattices, and swung from a pole resting on the shoulders of two serfs. The honesty of the natives was shown in the security of clothes and everything else that might be left out; even a boat’s anchor lost, and found by them, was returned to this place, though they kept a spy upon its American inmates night and day. Here, while dining with the young officer in charge, I “tried on,” with some of the more intelligent natives, sentences in their language, from a vocabulary which had been prepared for him, and with which he had been able to negotiate for his daily supply of chow-chow, and eatables for some of the ships. “Cha tooti kwoo”—tea bring to me; and “Midzoo tooti kwoo”—water bring to me; and similar simple sentences they understood readily; but the attempt at more complicate ones, in which the vowel sound is dropped, rather awoke their risibles.

The authorities sent off protests against the further occupancy of the house at Tumai, and requested that we would vacate it. They stated it was the place they had for assembling; it was the only place they had for meeting together to debate their local affairs, and it was also the place where their young were taught. They also took the opportunity of mentioning that the fertility of their island was not equal to the wants of its population; and that every draft upon them for live-stock, &c., was an oppression. In this there was obvious dissimulation; because they sent away to other countries a good deal of the produce of their land, and a great deal as tribute, while we paid well for whatever we got. The commodore had notified them of his intention of going up to their capital, Sheudi, distant some four miles from the anchorage, to pay his respects to the prince-regent at the palace; they did not covet the honor; they trusted he would not confer it.

Not far from Tumai are a number of the native tombs, beautifully located on green hill-sides. They are large, built in the form of a horse-shoe, with a cemented dome fronted by a little court, into which you descend by a flight of stone steps, and are kept whitened with great assiduity by the surviving relatives. The most attractive and romantic spots are chosen for their location. Their reverence and care for the homes of the dead, may well put to the blush, the wickedness of Christian communities who make streets through graves and graveyards.

In a grove of pines, at Tumai, not far from the landing-place, is a secluded spot, which appears to have been set aside for the interment of foreigners. Our ships buried some of our men and one officer there. As soon as the graves are closed the authorities cause them to be well built over, without charge, in a parallelogram, with coral rock and cement, leaving an inclination toward the feet that the rain may run off. Any inscription that the friends please, may either be imbedded in the masonry or erected at the head, which will be respected and preserved by the natives. On copper plates, tacked on wooden crosses at the end of some of these tombs, I read:—

“Wm. Hares, seaman in his Britannic majesty’s ship, ‘Alceste,’ aged 21 years, lies buried here, October 16th, 1816. This monument was erected by the king and inhabitants of this most hospitable island.”

“Vive Jesus: † vive sa croix: Ci-Git Calland (Pierre Juler), second chirurgien a bord de la corvette de Roi la Victoriense; mort a bord le 16th Septembre, 1846.”

“Ci-Git Le Corps Du R’d Mathieu Adnet, PÊre Miss’re Apostolique, FrÉres du Japon, DecedÉ le hier J’et, 1848.”

The Loo-Chooan manner of making salt is peculiar. They clear acres of ground in the vicinity of the water, and make it as level as possible. During the extreme heat of the day men continue to throw into the air, that it may descend on this level space, ladles full of salt-water. Partial crystallization is thus produced, which unites with the sand under foot, which, being allowed to dry, is piled up aside, and afterward the saline matter is washed from it, filtered through straw into earthen vessels, and then evaporated by heat. On these level places our marine, and boat-howitzer divisions were usually landed for drilling purposes.

You see no wheeled vehicles on the island, and one in the shape of an ambulance-cart which the commodore had built, and once ashore there, is, no doubt, the first that a Loo-Chooan ever looked on. Small horses, with their untrimmed fetlocks, are the only means of conveyance from the junks to the interior, of whatever little merchandise they now consume. The load is placed on a rude saddle secured by girth and a crupper of rope enveloped in bamboo-rollers like strung necklace; and the bridle, with its head-stall of rope, has two small pieces of wood passing on either side of the nostrils of the horse, with a cord through them, by which he is controlled in place of a bit.

On the 6th of June, the commodore, with a suite of officers, determined on paying an official visit to the prince-regent, at his palace at Sheudi—a visit which the authorities had vainly endeavored to get indefinitely postponed. They did not understand these attentions: stretching wide their hands, they said “America was a great nation; while Loo-Choo was no larger than the points of the fingers scarcely separated—what does America want with Loo-Choo?” The escort, when landed and formed at Tumai, consisted of two companies of marines in full dress—to whom, for some purpose or other, six rounds of ball-cartridges had been issued per man—two brass pieces and fixed ammunition, manned by sailors, and two full bands from the Susquehanna and Mississippi, while in front were three tall fellows carrying the American ensign. The rear was brought up by servants carrying some presents consisting of arms and calicoes sewed up in red cloth, and others with chow-chow baskets. The march was over a well-paved and graded road of coral rock. First we passed over a large terrace overhung by enormous banyan-trees, which fronted a very thick arched wall enclosing a temple and the tomb of some of the royal family. A tablet standing on a large pedestal near the step of this terrace, in native characters, warns the peasantry that when the sedan of any high functionary rests here, that the lower classes must take the road to the right. Sometimes we passed sugar-cane growing on one side of the road, and on the other ingeniously-irrigated paddy-fields were waving in green rice. The road then ascended by a grade of about seven degrees, quite a high ridge, from which the extended prospect of cultivation was very fine indeed. The sun came down hot, though at times we walked under the shade of thick and pretty bamboo-hedges. The sight was a rare one to the peasantry; some, attracted by the music and the novelty of uniform, left their work in the fields and ran to the eminences on the roadside, then others were alarmed and bolted; one fellow I saw jump into a muddy stream, swim for it, and not look back until he stood on the other side.

We reached the street leading to the palace-grounds about twelve o’clock. This was a wide one of nicely-rolled gravel, and on either side were walls of much height and thickness, showing smooth and expensive masonry. In marching along this approach, we passed under three roofed and detached gateways, built at intervals across it. They had three distinct entrances, the widest being in the centre, over which a red sign, with Japanese characters in gilt, had this announcement: “This is a small island, but observes the rules of propriety; distinguished persons will pass through the centre opening, others will go through those at the sides.”

On arriving at the main gate of the palace, a number of the chiefs, in their yellow and red caps, were there to receive us. Leaving the escort outside, the commodore and suite of officers entered, and after passing through successive courts, and up stone steps alternately to the right and left, at a considerable elevation from the street, the party was ushered into the hall of audience. Here were a number of yellow and red-capped chiefs assembled. Chairs and tables for each one of the guests were placed, and pipes, tea, and cakes, with lacquered chop-sticks, served. When the regent—quite an old man, with long, white beard—entered, with his councillors, he advanced and saluted the commodore half way, insisting on rank or equality. The interview was a short one; compliments were interchanged through Dr. Bettelheim and Mr. S.W. Williams of Canton, when the regent was invited aboard of the Susquehanna, when she should return to Napa, after a contemplated absence of twelve days. The presents were then left in the middle of the floor, and the visiting party retired. On reaching the street we were conducted to a large hall in another part of the ground, where a feast had been prepared for us, set out upon black lacquered tables. The first course consisted of soups, of which there were nearly a dozen different kinds furnished in succession, in small cup-bowls, with porcelain spoons. There was nearly every kind from egg-soup to “bird’s-nest.” The solids were pleasant to the taste but rather suspicious in appearance, among which were slices of hard-boiled eggs, so colored as to resemble sections of the uncooked tomato. Finding that we were not able to make any progress with the black lacquered chop-sticks which had been distributed at each one’s place, they furnished us with little sharpened pieces of oak, with the aid of which we did full justice to our hosts.

After strange-looking cakes had been brought, tea removed, and pipes handed, very small porcelain cups were placed, and our honorable red-cap attendants, who according to their custom, wait themselves upon their guests, kept them continually filled with SAKI from silver vessels shaped like tea-pots. This was the first taste we had of this colorless, celebrated Japanese national beverage. It was pleasant to the taste, and yet the after-math was not; it had some of the goÛt of champagne, and then it was turnipy. Buckingham might be on the seas, and then the seas might be on him; but a man could scarcely be considered “in his cups” though a hundred cups were in him of saki. Nor could he exclaim with Falstaff that the villain had put lime in his “sack,” (did Shakespeare know Japanese?)—because the thimble-sized tankard would not admit of it.

The commodore, through the interpreter, toasted the queen and young prince, and hoped Loo-Chooan man and American man would always be friends. The chiefs of course salaamed considerably to this sentiment, but I am quite dubious whether they did not regard it as an indication of closer proximity with these Americans, who might disturb at a future day the nolli me tangere doctrines of their country.

The feast over, the column of escort was again formed, and making the march down to Tumai, in less time than up to Sheudi, by four o’clock, all were aboard of their respective ships.

No more beautiful place than Sheudi, so far as verdure, elevated situation, and attractive foliage, is concerned. Our officers took many a tramp up there, and always with pleasure. At cool springs well cared for they could slake their thirst; under enormous trees they could pic-nic or siesta if they chose, and afterward bathe in a walled lake all covered over with trees. What would the palace-grounds, the Komooe of Sheudi, be worth in this country?—no more baronial domain in England. Should you have gone unprovided with chow-chow on these excursions, stop at a roadside Kunkwa, usually adjoining some place of worship, and the occupants will promptly give you tea and cakes, and the examination of your strange costume, and sage queries about your ship, is their reward for their entertainment. If it should rain during your walk, request one of your unbidden native officer associates to procure a papyrus parasol.

There are many things to interest an antiquarian taste, and provoke conjecture, about Loo-Choo. At Napa there are stone-statues, eight feet high, quite well executed, of their “far-seeing God”—there are causeways of stone, breakwaters, forts constructed with good engineering, and well designed and located for defence, though now entirely disarmed; and you pass over well-arched bridges, with neatly-cut stone balustrading, and in fine state of preservation. The palace at Sheudi is a perfect fortress in wall and situation, and in determined hands would laugh at a siege of many days. When were these built?—when were these forts disarmed? As Basil Hall told Napoleon at St. Helena, in speaking of this island, there are point de fusils there now. The invocation of the Ethiopic song, “Rise, old Napa, rise!” would be now of no avail.

Although a line of steamers from our Pacific coast to Shanghae, China, on the arc of a great circle, would come nowhere nigh the group known as the Bonin islands to the northeast of Loo-Choo, yet the commodore still deemed it best to make a hasty reconnoissance of the harbor of Port Lloyd, which had been surveyed some years ago by the English, who claim sovereignty over Peel island by right of possession, though it can be proven that it was first permanently settled by an American, or one owing allegiance to our country; but as the whole policy of our government has been opposed to foreign colonial possession, there is scarcely any chance of there being any dispute about it. Mr. English, under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, may make himself comfortable.

On the 9th of June the Susquehanna, with the sloop-of-war Saratoga in tow, took their departure, leaving the Mississippi, and storeship Supply in the harbor. A few days afterward the Plymouth arrived from north China, bringing us papers containing an account of the presidential inauguration.

The Susquehanna and the Saratoga reached Peel island, after a pleasant passage, on the 14th. After a stay there of four days, during which the commodore sent parties of officers to explore the island, put a quantity of live stock ashore in the custody of some American residents at Port Lloyd, and also purchased an eligible lot for the government, should it ever hereafter be required, for a coal depot, the ships returned to Napa, bringing with them fish and turtle. They ascertained that some twenty whalers had stopped at the island during the year for refreshments. A parcel of long-nosed porkers turned loose by ships passing, can only be reached by the aid of the rifle; but some of the officers who took a crack at them, facetiously spoke in their letters to the United States of their hunting the wild boar.

Von Siebold, in his history of the discoveries in the Japan seas, says the Bonin islands were first put down on a map published by the Dutch hydrographer, Ortelius, in 1570, and are reported as having been discovered in 1543, by Bernardo de Torres, who named them Malonbrigo de los Hermanos. They were visited in 1595 by Captain Linschaten, of the Dutch East India Company, and are on the map by Hondries in 1634. A few years after they were visited by Captains Quast and Tasman of the same company, who were in search of the Gen and Ken, or Gold and Silver islands. These navigators determined their position with admirable accuracy. Mention is made of them by Vris and Schaef, of the Dutch East India Company in 1643. In 1650 on the map of Jansomous, and in 1680 by Van Kenlen. By later authorities they are omitted, and reappear on charts in the following century as discovered by the Spanish Admiral Cabrera Bueno, and are called Islas del Arzobispo.

The Japanese history in the book San-kok-tou-ran-to-sito, mentions these islands as discovered between 1592 and 1595. In 1675 a Japan exploring expedition, specially authorized by the emperor, sailed from Simoda, then an imperial and customhouse port, for the Bonin islands. They were named by the Japanese the Munin Sima, and reported as fit to be settled, and the importance of doing so was urged. The Japanese counted more than eighty small rock islands. In 1826 they were visited by an American whaler, Captain Coffin; in 1827, by the Russian admiral, Lutke; and in 1828, by Capt. Beechy of the English navy. The inhabitants at Port Lloyd, on Peel island, are about forty in number; on the Bailey or Coffin group, there are living two families. Nearly all these people are runaway sailors from whale-ships, who have obtained wives from the Kanakas of the Sandwich islands, and so far as their nationality is concerned, the Americans predominate. The oldest settler at Port Lloyd is Nathaniel Savary, who acts as mayor of the place, and carries out their self-made laws and regulations with the assistance of two elders elected by a majority.

As long as the Dutch held their fort Zeelandia, on Formosa, its position and possession gave them great advantages in the eyes of the Japanese, but its capture, after a prolonged siege, by the Chinese pirate chief Coshinga, had a very injurious effect with the Japanese, diminishing their prestige and weakening belief in their naval supremacy. It is quite desirable to know the future prospects of the Bonin islands. The adventitious aid of their possession would prove of great advantage in a trade with Japan, being only a distance of two days’ steaming from Yedo.

On the 2d of July the squadron got under way for the bay of Yedo, Japan, the “Susquehanna” towing the “Saratoga,” and the “Mississippi” towing the “Plymouth.” The storeship “Supply” was left at the anchorage, no doubt greatly to the regret of the natives, who, gazing from the beach on our departure, hoped that they would not see us again.

We rounded the southern end of the island with a heavy swell on, the southwest monsoon prevailing at the time, and were soon heading up the Pacific.

Our patriotic remembrance of the return of our great national anniversary was ahead of the people of our own native land; or is it the “Fourth of July” to an American, until the sun of that day has illumined forest, stream, and home, in his own country? At mid-day then of our “Fourth,” when it was yet but eleven o’clock at night of the third, in the United States the large old steamers, and the sailing-vessels in their tow, going dead to windward, dressed with our national ensigns, in latitude 28° 36' north, and longitude 130° 42' east, running nearly abreast, fired seventeen guns each, in honor of the day; and the “main-brace” being ordered to be spliced, “Jack” had the opportunity of remembering it in a tot of grog.

The next day, by signal from flag-ship, anchor-buoys were ordered to be made of empty casks, the men were exercised with small arms at target-firing, and ship’s company exercised at general and fire quarters, previous to arriving at our port of destination.

A believer in omens would have had an opportunity of indulging his credulity, and interpreting, if he could, the meaning of a remarkable meteor which shot athwart the sky on the morning of the 6th of July, and was visible from the decks of the ships, when in two days’ run of the bay of Yedo. It appeared as large in circumference as the crown of a man’s hat. Its body was of the brilliancy and color of molten iron, and glowed as if heated by incandescence, emitting all the while sparks which trailed backward in its passage, like barbs of arrows. Its tail was of a bluish transparency, which extended into an emerald-green hue, terminating in a fiery, smoky bulb, resembling the flame of burning tar. When first noticed, it seemed to shoot upward from a line on a level with our quarter-hammock netting, in the southwest, and so near did it appear to the ship, that for an instant it was imagined to be a rocket from the sloop-of-war Plymouth—at the time in tow of us—and designed to attract our attention. In its passage through the heavens, which occupied the time in which one might count thirty, it described a parabolic curve, illuminating as it went our hurricane-deck and wheel-houses with astonishing clearness, and on reaching a point nearly due north, occupied by a bank of dull roseate cloud, it burst like a rocket and disappeared, leaving those who had the good fortune to see it uttering exclamations of admiration and wonderment, and a rather credulous corporal of marines who happened to be going his rounds at the time, willing to take his “corporal” oath that the brilliant body started within a few yards of our rail. The heat of the day preceding was very great.

Next day, being near the insular empire, target practice was continued; old cartridges drawn, guns loaded and shotted, and preparations made for removing the forward-rail for the clear working of our bow-guns.