Japan and the Japanese

THE DIANA Al HAKODADE. 479
of our telescopes, we observed six of \\ese screens of cloth, probably
intended to conceal fortifications. There were, beside, five new for-
tifications 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.* 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 Doseene
(soldiers), who were stationed in the watch-boats, continually called
to them to keep at a further distance ; but so great was the confu-
sion that, though the people generally showed great respect to the
soldiers, their orders were on this occasion disregarded. The mili-
tary, therefore, were under the necessity of using the iron batons
which they wear fastened to their girdles by long silken strings.
They neither spared 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."
Kachi 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 Matsmai but ; Captain llikord 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
* There has been a great alteration in the last twenty years. Siehold
states that sixty-eight square-rigged vessels mostly no doubt Anieri an
vbalers bad been counted by the Japanese as passing Matsmai and Hakodade
in one year. According to a memorandum furnished to Commodore
Perry during his recent visit to Hakodade (May 3d, 1854), there had been,
in the years 1847 1851, no less than five foreign vessels wrecked in that
yicinity.