Japan and the Japanese

SIMODA. 537
with a small wooden hammer ; and, as the bells were of different
tones, the effect was by no means unpleasant."
" There are a number of temples near Simoda," write? an officer
of the Susquehanna, " and attached to each is a grave-yard. At
one of these, situated near a village, there is a place set apart for
Americans. Here Dr. Hamilton was buried, being laid by the side
of two others who had died on the second visit of the ships. Each
grave has its appropriate stone, as with us, and by many of them
are evergreens set in vases, or joints of bamboo, containing water.
Cups of fresh water are also set by the graves, and to these, birds
of dazzling plumage and delightful song come and diink. The
graves of the Americans \vere not forgotten."
The officers were permitted to go into the country any distance
they wished, and the country people were found pleasant and socia-
ble; but upon this second visit, the advantages of Simoda as a
place of trade, or the prospects of traffic under the treaty, do not
seem to have struck the visitors very favorably.
" The harbor,"
writes an officer of the Susquehanna to the Tribune, " is a small
indentation of land, running north-east and south-west, about a
half-mile in extent, and is capable of holding five or six vessels of
from the south-
ordinary size. It is, however, entirely unprotected
west winds, which bring with them a heavy sea, and which renders
the anchorage very unsafe. With the wind from the north and the
east, the vessel rides at her ease at her anchorage. Good wood
and sweet water, as well as a few provisions, were obtained from
the authorities, for the use of the ship,
at the most extravagant
prices. Numerous articles, such as lackered and China ware, of a
very fine and delicate quality, and far superior to that manufac-
tured in China, were purchased by the officers ; but every article
had to pass through the hands of the Japanese officers, and the
amount due the merchants had to be paid, not to them, but to the
Japanese officials who had been appointed for that very purpose
by the mayor of the city and the governor of the province. This
article of the treaty will be most scrupulously enforced ; and this
is decidedly its worst feature."
" Simoda," writes another officer, "does not appear well calcu-
lated, upon the whole, for a place of trade, and it can never become
au active commercial town. Neither is it a manufacturing town.