Japan and the Japanese

526 JAPAN. A. D. 18171854.
In agreeing to negotiate at Yokohama, Commodore Perry had
stated his iiiUntion to carry the ships, at some future time, close
up to Jedo, anl to anchor them there, "as well to do honor to his
imperial majesty by salutes as to be in full view of the palace, and
convenient to be visited by such of the court as may desire to ex-
amine the steamers." Accordingly, on the 8th of April,
to the
great distress of the Japanese officials, he got under way ; but, as
the Japanese interpreters threatened to cut themselves open if
he proceeded, he presently turned about and took a lower anchor-
age down the bay. The published official letters of the commander
say nothing of this movement; the letters from the fleet, published
in the newspapers, do not agree as to how far up the commodore
went. According to one letter, Jcdo was full in
sight.
On the 18th of April the fleet sailed for Simoda, one of the ports
granted in the treaty, of which a letter dated on board the Pow-
this account :
hatan, and published in the New York Tribune, gives
"Simoda is situated near Cape Fogu, sixty miles west from Point
Sagami, at the entrance of the bay of Yedo. It is a good, commodious
harbor, well sheltered by hills several hundred feet high, with
a rock within the entrance which affords a still more protected
anchorage. The town, of about one thousand houses, is situated at
the north-western end of the harbor, on the banks of a small stream
flowing down through a fertile valley, which is often not more than
half a mile wide, but sometimes widens to one and a half miles.
Several little brooks offer good watering-places for the ships. The
larger Japanese junks mostly anchor at Kakizaki, a village of about
three hundred houses, on the north-eastern end and opposite Simoda.
There are eight temples, some of which are very large, in the town,
and little chapels (mia) on almost every eminence, and by the road-
sides.
" The country is exceedingly picturesque, and resembles very
much the lower ranges of the Alps. Along the little river of
Simoda are many villages, and numbers of rice-mills stamp and
grind along its banks. About six miles above the bay this river
separates into several branches. Following either of them, you pass
through numerous gorges and glens, and finally reach the barren
tops of mountains, some three thousand feet high. Their summits
tnd the narrow tabl ) lands are covered with bushy grass, among