230 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



The Susquehanna and the accompanying ships were prohahly the first either of European or 

 American vessels that ever passed along the entire extent of the northern group. Von Siebold 

 asserts that Broughton saw the northeast point, and that Captain Gruerin, of the French corvette 

 Sabine, traced the western shore in 1848. It was probably Oho-sima, the principal island of the 

 group, that was seen by Commander Glynn in 184:8, and which he supposed to be a new 

 discovery. The islets which he sperks of having seen, bearing N.N.W., were the Cleopatra 

 islands, examined two years before by one of the vessels of Admiral Cecille's squadron. 



Von Siebold's charts, appended to his great work on Japan, and compiled by him, show these 

 islands pretty accurately laid down, and it was found that the observations made on board the 

 Susquehanna gave such bearings of the principal headlands of Oho-sima as correspond tolerably 

 well with the position as given by Von Siebold. A current is said to be continually setting 

 from these islands to the northward and eastward; or, as the islanders say, it always goes to 

 Japan and never comes back. This was, however, found to be of no great strength during the 

 passage of the Susquehanna, although it must be acknowledged to be a matter of difficulty to 

 estimate in a steamer the rapidity and direction of currents, as they are generally over-logged, 

 or in other words, siirpassed in speed by the rate of going of the vessel. There is, moreover, 

 another difficulty in consequence of the backward movement given to the water by the evolution 

 of the paddle-wheels of a steamship. 



The third day of the voyage, being the fourth day of July, 1853, brought with it a lively remem- 

 brance of home, as it was the seventy-seventh anniversary of our national holiday. The day 

 opened fresh and pleasant, and the men were prepared to get up some amateur theatricals, and 

 otherwise to celebrate the occasion ; but the weather becoming unfavorable, and other circum- 

 stances interfering, it was deemed advisable, much to the disappointment of the sailors, to 

 dispense with the show by which they had intended to give exhibition to their patriotism. The 

 occasion, however, was duly honored by the firing of a salute of seventeen guns from each vessel 

 of the squadron, and by the serving of an additional ration of grog to Jack, while the officers 

 brought to bear also the resources of their various messes, to give due enjoyment and impres- 

 siveness to the day. All on board were allowed to feel that it was a holiday, in a respite from 

 the usual muster at general quarters and exercises at the great guns and small arms, which had 

 been kept up during the passage with great strictness and regularity, in order that the squadron 

 might be prepared for any event on its arrival at Japan. 



The weather, although generally warm, varied, and thus, while some days were excessively 

 hot and oppressive, others were tolerably cool and pleasant. The winds occasionally blew with 

 considerable freshness, and mostly from the east, but frequently there was hardly a breath of air 

 to be felt, and, consequently, with a temperature which reached 88° in the coolest place on deck, 

 all on board sufi'ered greatly from the intense heat. And, indeed, the still heat and clear 

 atmosphere which were experienced, even on a close approach to the shores of Japan, did not 

 seem to confirm what has been said, and what was expected, of the cool and foggy climate of 

 that country. 



At sunset on Thursday, the 7th of July, the squadron was, according to observation, about 

 forty miles from Cape Negatsuo, or Idsu, as it is otherwise called. In consequence of this 

 proximity, the heads of the ships were put off shore from midnight until four o'clock next 

 morning, when, not only the cape was seen from the masthead, but several of the islands to 

 the eastward, called by Von Siebold Goebroken Eilander, (the Broken islands,) as well as the 



