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CHAPTER XVII.
AN OBJECT LESSON IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
A VICTORY of peace celebrated with the splen-
-L\. dors of war ! Many a time in Japan's history
has this happened. The pageantry of arms has been
summoned to celebrate the return of peace after
long battle and bloodshed. The glory of costume,
the long procession of warriors with weapons and
armor, and the massing of fleets have mingled with
the imagery and symbolism of peace. Such festi-
vals have been celebrated at famous places and in
great cities, by Yoritomo and Taiko and lye'yasii;
but the spectacle of the ninth day of the third moon
of Ansel (March 8, 1854) was at a place almost unknown
to the Japanese, except to the farmers and
fishermen whose thatched cottages stood there. In
this tableau the old and the new mingled their
glories. The obscure place, now made the scene
of splendor and destined to become a mighty city
and the school of a new civilization, was Yokohama.
Land and water were combined to make the thea-
ter. Out in the bay, yet but a few hundred yards
from the strand, were ranged broadside to the shore
the ten war-vessels flying "the flag of the flowery
field." The steam frigates, three of the squadron,
the Susquehanna, Powhatan, and Mississippi,
were