After a monotonous run of four days, Foogee, like a colossal cenotaph to dead beauty, showed far up before us, and in three hours we were again at anchor in Simoda harbor. We learned, that the commissioners of the treaty were there awaiting the return of the commodore; that Simoda by imperial edict had been declared an imperial city; that Mimasaka-no-kami, prince of Mimasaka, had been appointed first, and Tsusuki Suruga-no-kami, prince of Suruga, had been appointed second governor of the place; also that the last-named, and Takeiro Utsi Seitaro, imperial financier and member of the board of revenue, had been added to the number of commissioners.

Conferences with those functionaries were held in the temple ashore, and the following articles as additional to those of the treaty of the 31st of March were agreed to:—

The question of port regulations and pilotage was also mooted and a paper prepared and agreed to certifying:—

As the Japanese in all their interviews, and in their last stipulations, had manifested a preference for articles of compact to be in the Dutch language for a mutually clear understanding, rather than in their own, or the Chinese, the above was also prepared in Dutch by the consent of the American opperbevelhebber:—

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.

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.

But little is known of the metaliferous history of Japan, further than its territory, in many places, is very auriferous, and that the mining of gold is an imperial monopoly. The Japanese founded their valuation by the price of bullion as regulated by their law or imperial decree, being assured that as long as Japan was excluded from all social and commercial intercourse with other nations, and formed a little world of its own, that a system of this kind might be carried on, without prejudice to the rights of any; the Japanese government by putting a fictitious value on their coin, or adopting the system of seignorage, no doubt did so to take away the motive and inducement for the exportation of their specie for purposes of profit. Their great philosopher, Arai Trikayo-no-kami, compared the mineral production of a country to its frame and bones, and the products of the soil to the flesh of the body, which should always be in due proportion. The bones, he said, once removed, could not be replaced. In addition to an adherence to this doctrine, it has been a belief among the Japanese ever since their intercourse with the Portuguese, who showed particular avidity for the procurement of their bullion, that it was the policy of foreigners to drain Japan of this resource, that it might fall an easier prey to conquest when thus impoverished.

The monetary system of Japan will require such almost radical alteration, that it forms their objection, and presents the greatest hinderance to commercial intercourse with others. The non-exportation of bullion, must render trade a very difficult thing, and would have the effect, as at Nangasaki with the Dutch and Chinese, of making the government banker for both parties to a bargain, in buying and selling, and all payments and receipts to pass through the hands of its officers.

The government of Japan is now one of progress; and they admit their willingness to make improvements in it; but these improvements must not be hurried ones, but with due foresight and proper precaution—slowly and gradually; fearing, to use their simile, that unaccustomed to light, too much of its glare at one time, would dazzle and produce blindness.

After the survey of the harbor of Simoda, buoys were placed upon the rocks discovered, surmounted with poles from which waved little flags that we had made; and on one side of the entrance to the harbor had been placed a large sign to indicate the locality of a dangerous rock that lies in mid-channel of the entrance. The Japanese objected to the presence of these flags, put there by us, on the grounds that it looked as if we had taken possession of the place, and on their promising to keep their places filled with their little customhouse-flag, they were permitted to remove ours.

They furnished a sample of their coal, which was brought aboard in hampers. It was from the interior, and mere surface coal, they not having any knowledge of how it should be mined. They might be able to furnish it at thirty dollars per ton: it could be landed there from the United States or England for twenty-five dollars. When they acquire the knowledge of working their mines, and have the roads to convey it to the seaboard, it may be different.

Here, as at Hakodadi, after paying for them, stones of the requisite size were procured for the Washington monument. Two of their long, sharp, copper-fastened pine-boats, with their peculiar sculls, ordered to be made previously, being completed, were hoisted on board of the storeship Southampton to be sent to the United States. Our band performed in the large temple-yard ashore. The governor of the place allowed the poorer classes to come within the enclosure, and the attention and delight with which they listened, and their asking permission to present the musicians with fruit, showed that they were both fonder and had more appreciation of pleasant strains than the stolid Chinaman, who acknowledges no music save his horrible nasal screech, or stupid tom-tom.

A theatrical performance was given on board which was attended by the commissioners. The body of the marine, Williams, was brought from Yokohama in a Japanese boat in charge of some of his messmates, and re-interred near the poor fellow killed on the Powhatan, in the spot set apart in the Kakizaki temple ground, for an American cemetery.

On the longest day in the year, the 21st of June, the bazar so long looked for, was announced ready. The articles were arranged in the temple Leosenthsi, money changing in a temple being a small thing with the Japanese. The quantity of articles exposed, were not at all proportioned to the number who wished to purchase, and there was much disappointment. The Japanese made the excuse that they had not sufficient time allowed them for the making of articles. The commodore first visited the place, and found the articles ticketed with excessive prices; particularly when seventeen cents per day may be regarded as the average price of Japanese labor. He intimated to the commissioners his displeasure at this, but these functionaries, who had no doubt thus fixed things, very adroitly gave it to be understood that the reduction of the prices of things at the vendue was a matter rather below their position. The method in the madness of these official gentry was no doubt this: there were a number of articles in this bazar similar to those presented by their government to ours at Yokohama, and by affixing these high prices they thought to give increased value to the others, in our eyes.

It was determined to dispose of the articles by lottery, so that all might procure something. They were principally crapes and silks, and specimens of porcelain and lacquered ware. The first-named fabrics, I shrewdly suspect, may not have been of Japanese manufacture, but probably were sent from Chapoo in China, by the junks to Loo-Choo, and thence in their own to Japan. The amount of silks and crapes of the finest texture made in their own country is not very great, and no doubt entirely consumed by the higher castes. Siebold says, that their most beautiful silks are woven by high-born criminals, who are confined upon a small, rocky, unproductive island, deprived of their property, and obliged to pay for the provisions with which they are supplied by sea, with the produce of their manual labor; and that the exportation of these silks is prohibited.

The Japanese porcelain is of the purest, and surpasses in delicacy and transparency any that France and England can offer. The finest, with little raised images upon it, it is said, is made of a peculiar clay, found in the vicinity of Meaco, and which is now nearly exhausted. Out of little cups made of this ware, the saki is drunk.

The specimens of lacquered ware, consisting of cabinets, bowls, cups, trays, and despatch boxes, of different hues, were of great beauty, and put many of us out of conceit with our purchases of similar things of the Chinese. A most delicate-hued red appeared to be most prized by the Japanese, but the American taste was for the black and a rich maroon color.

The process of lacquering is represented as being a slow and tedious one. The workmen engaged over the lacquer in a boiling state, have their nostrils protected from its fumes. The varnish is the resinous product of a shrub called verosino-ki, or varnish-plant, and requires a tedious preparation to fit it for use. The coloring matter is mixed with it, by a long-continued rubbing on a copper plate; and the operation of lacquering is as tedious as the preliminaries. Five different coats, and sometimes more, are put on the article, suffered to dry, and then finely pummiced, until the lacquer acquires the requisite softness and brilliancy. Mother-of-pearl shells are inlaid and subjected to the same polishing process. The lacquering once thoroughly dry, it is impervious to the action of liquid heat, and although not a very pleasant idea to us, who are accustomed to the use of china-ware, the Japanese partake of hot soups and other dishes from vessels thus made. Boiling water may be poured upon the Japanese lacquer with impunity.

The tea of Japan has been represented by some writers as being superior to that of China, but what we saw at the entertainment, was not at all comparable to that of Cathay. Before the warm water is poured on them, the leaves have a very coarse appearance, and from the tea when made there arises not that delightful aroma that salutes the nostrils when you drink the fine beverage at Acow’s in Canton; indeed, they are no doubt indebted to China for the finest teas they drink, and perhaps the finest silks they wear.

One does not observe, in going about in Japan, the propensity for street-gambling which marks the towns of China—from the juvenile pig-tail playing with the vendor for the fifth of an orange, upward. The Japanese appear more elevated than this. When you notice playing it is generally in the house, and not gaming, but with a board and pieces resembling our chess. It was difficult to acquire much knowledge of the contest by overlooking; indeed, the contestants generally desisted very perversely during our presence. Our fleet-surgeon, Dr. Daniel S. Green, however, with his taste for chess, and an obstinacy of study which marks his investigation of every subject which he undertakes, deciphered the game of the Japanese, and this is the doctor’s account of it, from the best information he could obtain:—

“The Japanese game of Sho-ho-ye corresponds to our game of chess. This game is played by two persons, with forty pieces (twenty on either side), and upon a chequer-board of eighty-one squares-nine on each side. The board is of one uniform color, though the square might be colored, as with us, for the sake of convenience. The pieces are also of one uniform color, as they are used (at pleasure) by either party, as his own, after being captured from the adversary. They are of various sizes, are long and wedge-shaped, being at the same time sharpened from side to side, in front, and the name of each piece is inscribed upon it—both the original and the one assumed upon being reversed—(as below). Each player distinguishes his men, or pieces by always having the pointed and thin end forward. But they would be more readily known if the back parts of all were painted with some decided and striking color, as that part of his own men is seen by each player only, and if the fronts of all the men were painted of some other color, as that part of the adversary’s piece is seen by either player only. They are laid flat upon the board (front forward), and thus their names are plainly visible. They capture, as in chess, by occupying the places of the captured pieces. The king, Oho-shio, being the chief piece, can not remain in check—and when check-mated the game is lost.

“The pieces are named, and are placed upon the board as follows:—

“Oho-shio (king)—centre square, first row.

“Kin-shio (gold), or chief counseller—upon first row, and on either side of Oho-shio.

“Gin-shio (silver, or sub-counseller)—upon first row, and one on each square next outside Kin-shio.

“Kiema (flying-horse)—upon first row, and one on each square next outside Gin-shio.

“Kioshia (fragrant chariot)—one upon each corner square, first row.

“Hishia (flying chariot)—on second square, second row, right side of the board.

“Kakuko (the horn)—on second square, second row, left side of the board.

“Ho-hei (the soldiery)—on all the nine squares of the third row.

“The moves and powers of the pieces are as below, only noting that in capturing there is no deviation from them, as with us in the case of pawns.

“Oho-shio moves and takes on one square in any direction.

“Kin-shio as the Oho-shio, except that he can not move diagonally backward.

“Neither of the above are ever reversed or acquire different powers; but all the pieces below may be reversed (at the option of the player) when they move to and from any square in any of the adversary’s first three rows, and they do thereby acquire different powers, as well as different names.

“Gin-shio moves and takes as the Oho-shio, except that he can not move directly to either side, or directly backward. When he is reversed, or turned over, he becomes a Gin-Nari-Kin, and acquires all the powers (and those alone) of the Kin-shio.

“Kiema has the move of our knight, except that he is strictly confined to two squares forward and one laterally, and can in no case make more than four moves. When he is reversed he becomes a Kiema-Nari-Kin, with all the powers (and those alone) of the Kin-shio.

“Kioshia moves directly forward only, but that may be any number of steps. He may be reversed up on either of the first three rows of the adversary, and then becomes a Kioshia-Nari-Kin, with all the powers (and those alone) of the Kin-shio.

“Hishia has the entire power of our castle, and when he is reversed he assumes the name of Rioho (the dragon), and acquires, in addition to his former moves, all those of the Oho-shio.

“Kakuko has the entire powers of our bishop, and when reversed, assumes the-name of Riome (the dragoness), and acquires, in addition to his former moves, all those of the Oho-shio.

“Ho moves forward one step only at a time, and may be reversed upon either of the first three rows of the adversary; when so reversed, he becomes a Ho-Nari-Kin, and acquires all the powers of the Kin-shio.

“Besides the preceding moves and powers, any piece which has been captured may be replaced upon the board, at the discretion of the player—as follows, viz.: when it is his move, instead of moving one of his men he can replace any one of the captured pieces upon any unoccupied square whatever, observing to keep that side up which it was entitled to originally; but it may be reversed at any move thereafter if to or from any square in the before-mentioned first three rows of the adversary—and observing, further, that he can not replace a Ho (or pawn) on any column upon which there is already one of his own, i.e., he can not double a Ho (or pawn).

“It may be further stated, that no piece can pass over the head of any other piece in its move, except the Kiema.”

Preparations were made for taking what was then thought to be our final departure from the Japanese empire. The commodore had transferred his flag from the Powhatan to the Mississippi, like Byron, not precisely because he ever could write an address to the ocean, upon whose bosom his stereotyped speeches say he has wasted the dearest action of “some forty years of my life,” but because Byron had a weakness at Pisa for some mastiffs, cats, pea-fowls, &c.; and when the American opperbevelhebber again had his broad pennant floating over the Mississippi, her decks were ornamented with Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart, in the shape of Japanese dogs, presented him, with pug-nosed, billiard-balled heads, and eyes so projecting and divided, that some unfortunate estrangement seemed to have taken place between them. The poop-deck was ornamented with no-tailed Japanese cats, or their spinal columns extending to the point which would have pleased Lord Monboddo, while under the break of the poop, in cages, swung beautiful pheasants, mandarin ducks, and some graceful singing-birds.

Agreeably to instructions from the government to make inquiries as to some of our unfortunate countrymen who were supposed either to have been lost at sea, or to be held in captivity on the island of Formosa, it was ordered that the Macedonian should be sent to the harbor of Keelong for that purpose, accompanied by the Supply; also to ascertain the probability of the procurement of coal in that vicinity, and its proximity to the seashore. This done, the Macedonian was to proceed to Manilla, to leave there the three “Sally Baboo” men picked up by the “Southampton” at sea, with the American consul, that they might be sent back to their native land, which, by the chart, was not very far distant from Luzon.

On the 23d of June the Mississippi was gotten under way, and ran out to anchor in what might be waggishly termed the “outer harbor” of Simoda, a miserable roadstead off which a low rock island can not keep the sea, where all next day we rolled and wallowed.

On Sunday (we left Japan each time on Sunday) the 25th of June, signal was made for the ships to weigh anchor. The Powhatan took the Southampton in tow, and ran out of the port of Simoda. The Macedonian and Supply endeavored to do the same, but the wind proving baffling, they did not succeed. A long string of Japanese boats made fast to the former and tried to tow her out, but were as successful as a June-bug tied by a thread would be in trying to move the boy who held the other end, so the noble razee had to let go her anchor to avoid going on the rocks that encase the narrow entrance of the port of Simoda. The Supply did the same. The Mississippi, after some delay, and a number of gyrations, took her departure accompanied by the Powhatan with the storeship.

During the day, we were running down the westward side of the chain of naked islands that extend to Loo-Choo. At four o’clock, Foogee Yama, from his cloudy eyry, was seen like an angel’s wing, and then withdrawn. Well, good-by, Foogee; admiration continued, is the most tiresome of things, and one can tire of the brilliancy of Burke, with his—“Around whose base things may moulder, but upon whose summit eternity must play.”

On the fourth day of the run, after those charming incidents of sea-life—sky overhead and water all around—we were abreast of the island of Oo, which the severe gale encountered in July, 1853, on our return from our first visit to Japan, prevented an examination of, that the correctness of a harbor laid down on a French chart, might be ascertained. The ships laid off for three hours, during which time Lieutenants Maury and Webb went ashore, taking with them bags of pork and bread. The people on shore at first appeared quite alarmed at their approach. Their dress was the same as those of the Loo-Chooans. Some fowls and potatoes were obtained from them by giving them some pork and bread in exchange; they refused money. It is supposed that we are the first Christian people that ever had communication with these people; rather an absurd supposition, considering the charts and surveys that have been made in those seas by other nations, before we had either the opportunity or desire to know anything about them.

The next day, off the Great Loo-Choo island, the Southampton was cast off, and proceeded to Hong Kong. That afternoon we saw quite a large ship ahead. She was coming down before the wind with studding-sails set. It was thought desirable to speak her, having had no mail intelligence since March, in the bay of Yedo. Our colors were hoisted, and the commodore directed a forward-gun to be fired, to attract attention. The stranger, however, without appearing to notice it, changed his course and then changed it again, declining to raise his ensign, and keeping his nation to himself. Another gun was fired, still no colors did he show. By this time the two steamers having come up with him he lay to, and hoisted English colors. Upon sending a boat to know what he meant by such conduct, it appeared that he feared meeting the Russian squadron in that vicinity, and took us for Russian steamers, and even after seeing the American ensign, thought it might be designed to entrap him. The captain expressed regret for the detention he had occasioned, and by newspapers from him we had the first intelligence of England and France having united in hostilities for the sultan. The ship was the Great Britain, from Shanghae, with a valuable cargo of teas and silks, for London. She would have proved a precious prize for Pontiatine.

The next day we anchored in the roadstead of Napa, Loo-Choo. The first intelligence from Captain Glasson, of the Lexington, was that a seaman from his ship had been found in the waters of Junk harbor dead, and expressed the belief that the man had come to his death by violence. An investigation of the matter showed that the man had not only been killed by the natives, but that he deserved to have been killed. The poor Loo-Chooans being very much frightened about the occurrence, and the local officers of Napa regarding the offence of the man as a mortifying disgrace to their country, did not make a true report of the circumstances to the prince-regent, and that high functionary, upon a demand being made upon him by the commodore, himself misled, reported that the man had fallen into the water when drunk and been drowned. The commodore demanded a full investigation according to their laws, though satisfied at the time that the man Board had been guilty of a most heinous offence. From this it appeared that the man had been first stoned by the crowd and badly wounded, and then fell into the water and was drowned; after the commission of an offence—to use the prince-regent’s language—that “All men detest and are angry at, and would, without thinking, strike and wound the one guilty of it.” The sentences adjudged by the Loo-Chooan tribunal, were to deprive the mayor of Napa of his rank, and the deputy-magistrates of their offices, for having made erroneous reports to the regent; Tokisi, the leader of the mob who stoned, was banished to Pachung Sang for life, while five others were banished to Taiping San for eight years.

The severity of this punishment was very great, and it is to be regretted that during the session of the tribunal that decreed it, the commodore resorted to the menace of sending marine-officers ashore to examine their forts, and then took possession, with some marines—the United States bullying Loo-Choo! as Wise said to Bynum, “bullying a fly!” The poor prince-regent was frightened nearly out of his senses; he came off himself to the Mississippi with the poor devil Tokisi, with a halter about his neck, offering to give him up to American custody, prostrating himself before the commodore in his cabin—a pitiable spectacle. He is next addressed by the American “Opperbevelhebber,” in a communication commencing “Your Highness.”

We ascertained from the master’s-mate who had been left in charge of the invalids and coal-shed ashore in February, that a few days after our departure for Japan, the Russian admiral Pontiatine, with the frigate Diana (since lost by an earthquake at Simoda), a corvette, and the steamer Vostock, visited Napa roads, staying some days, during which time he drilled his men ashore, and grazed his cattle. He had not then certain intelligence of England and France having gone to war with his country, but notwithstanding his assurance of the proximity of such a thing, as also of superior English and French naval forces, he generously assisted the English ship Robena (which had been there to bring the successor of Dr. Bettelheim) to get off the reef, taking the while, her cargo of coolies aboard of his own ship.

On Sunday, the Rev. E.H. Moreton, the successor of Dr. Bettelheim, a pleasant-voiced little preacher, with mild face and cockney aspiration of the letter h, read the English church-service, and delivered a discourse on board of the Mississippi. He had come with his wife and child from England to dwell in Napa, as spiritual teacher to a people who are about as well prepared to receive Christianity, as they were when his predecessor, six years before, went among them. The men and officers of the squadron raised an amount of money for him before leaving.

The next Sunday on board, a sermon, blasphemous in character, was preached by a missionary, in which the American commodore was likened to another Jesus Christ, and a parallel deliberately instituted between our Savior’s mission on earth and Commodore Perry’s mission to Japan. That functionary sat on the quarter-deck, meanwhile listening to all this without evincing, so far as any one could perceive, the slightest displeasure.

The steamers were coaled from shore by Loo-Chooan junks, during our stay; the gunner of the Mississippi was sent to an island, called Reef island, in a boat, to see whether it was used as a female penal settlement as had been stated; and we saw the Japanese junks departing, bearing away the rice of the island, some to Japan, some to Chapoo in China, where the sons of the wealthy in Loo-Choo are educated without cost.

The American opperbevelhebber seems to have had a “would be a nun, and a wouldn’t be a nun” idea of the status of Loo-Choo: In a letter to the secretary of the navy, as found in Senate-Document, No. 34 of the XXXIIId Congress, he first says: “I am constantly obtaining information confirmatory of the opinion that Loo-Choo, Meyaco-Sima, and the Oho-Sima islands, are all dependencies of Japan.”

On the 18th of June, 1854, he writes: “The opinions expressed in my despatch, No. 41, have been confirmed by subsequent observations, and Loo-Choo, it appears, is in a measure an independent sovereignty, holding only slight allegiance either to Japan or China, but preferring rather its relationship to the latter empire; that the islands stretching from Formosa to Kiusiu are all under its sovereignty, and are in such intercourse with the parent island, Great Loo-Choo, as the imperfect character of their means of navigation will allow.”

In this despatch “No. 41,” he says—like Cowper’s bird perched upon the church-steeple, “What says he?” “—— and are moreover told that Loo-Choo is a royal fief of the empire of Japan, though it is asserted by some writers, that it owes fealty only to the prince of Satsuma.”

How does this “confirm” the statements contained in the despatch of 18th of June, 1854?

In the Pickwickian Gazette, published in the English colony of Hong Kong, y’clept “The China Mail,” of the 27th of July, 1854, the demi-official announcement—of course in accordance with Secretary Kennedy’s order—says:—

“Having been assured by the commissioners at Yokohama, that Japan exercised no jurisdiction whatever over Loo-Choo, the commodore proposed making a treaty with the regent and drew up a sketch of what he thought it desirable should be established by official sanction: with some unimportant modifications, this was accepted.”

According to Meylan, who was the Dutch opperhoofd, the president of the factory at Desima, in his semi-annual audiences with the governor of Nangasaki, among other things also takes upon himself an obligation to respect all vessels “belonging to the Loo-Choo islands, they being subject to Japan.”

The American opperbevelhebber, however, after undergoing this pleasing state of uncertainty, thought he would “make assurance doubly sure, and take a bond” of the Loo-Chooans; so the following compact was agreed to, very much on the part of the effeminate islanders, like the compact of the poor chicken with the horse in the stable: that if he didn’t tread on his toes, he wouldn’t tread on his toes:—

On landing to sign this rather singular document, the customary quantity of “boom-a-laddying” was indulged in, as per following order:—

Our government should pay a little attention to the fantastic tricks, which its commodorial gentry cut up in such countries, as Loo-Choo: “fixed ammunition,” “cutlasses,” and “ball-cartridges,” taken ashore among a people whose forts are disarmed; among whom not one offensive weapon was noticed after months of intercourse; and whose nation, in its present condition, reversing the remark of Chatham, might be driven with a crutch.

And then too, two orderlies with muskets escorting “the broad pennant”—a kind of an ark of the covenant carried before, and the American “ensign” playing second fiddle behind!—just imagine such a procession? It is equal to the swallow-tailed yellow flag, that I saw one day carried behind a high functionary, as I passed his procession coming down from Sheudi.

If a broad pennant means anything, it means this: a piece of bunting to designate an admiral’s ship or boat in squadron sailing, or in harbor: a cynosure for all the other vessels, because from the ship that wears it, orders are signaled and dispositions directed; but when it is taken from a main-truck, or from the commander-in-chief’s boat, to be boom-a-laddyed on shore in a procession, it becomes meaningless, if not ridiculous; a land officer in the field had better fly a distinct flag over his marquee; and an American commodore, who leaves his ship to land in an enemy’s or friend’s country, had better be provided by the navy department with a kind of “white plume,” like that of “Harry of Navarre,” or “the broad pennant” had better be declared an oriflamme; but all true Americans have a weakness, which runs in this wise: that the stars and stripes, are oriflamme enough.

But it may be, that the commodore may be allowed to explain—to give some reason for boom-a-laddying ashore with his broad pennant, and having a sword-bearer to walk behind with his trusty blade in the streets of Simoda. In his notes to the secretary of the navy, of his second visit to Japan he says:—

“I have adopted the two extremes—by an exhibition of great pomp, when it could be properly displayed, and by avoiding it, when such pomp would be inconsistent with the spirit of our institutions.”

This pompatic paragraph appears rather a non sequitur; unless it can be shown when an exhibition of great pomp is consistent with the spirit of our institutions.

The entente cordiale being established with the “kingdom of Loo-Choo,” presents of agricultural implements and a hand cotton-gin, were made to the authorities, who returned air-plants and birds. A stone from the island was also procured for the Washington monument.

The commodore having entertained the regent and the authorities on board the flag-ship Mississippi with a supper and Ethiopian performance, the Lexington sailed for Hong Kong on the 15th, and two days after—the anniversary of our first departure from Japan—we bid good-by to the Loo-Chooans, as much, no doubt, to their delight as our own.

In getting off the Amakarimas, the Powhatan parted company with us, bound for Amoy and Ningpo, and in four days we had a Chinese pilot on board, and the next dropped anchor in the harbor of Hong Kong, China, from whose mail facilities we had been absent over half a year.