Japan and the Japanese

PERRY'S SECOND VISIT.
their gardens. To the place where the steamers lay the same 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 light-house.
Three or four miles beyond was a crowd of shipping, supposed to be
the anchorage of Sinagawa, the southern suburb of Jedo. At
the .point where the steamer put about, she had twenty fathoms of
water. On Saturday, the IGth, the vessels moved to a new anchor-
age, 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, how-
ever, 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.*
Commodore Perry spent the remainder of the year on the coast
of China, keeping one vessel, however, at Lew Chew, and prosecuting
the survey of the Bonin Islands. Shortly after his visit, the
Siogun died, and an attempt was made to take advantage of that
circumstance to delay or prevent the return of the American ships.
A communication, forwarded to Batavia by the Dutch ship that
left Nagasaki in November, and communicated by the Dutch governor-general
at Batavia to the commodore, represented that the
necessary mourning for the deceased sovereign, and other arrangements
consequent on his death, as well as the necessity of consulting
* The account of this visit is drawn partly from Commodore Perry's officia
report, and partly from
lished in the newspapers.
the letters.of Lieutenant Contee and others, pub