ASCENT OF THE BAY OF YEDO. 265 



ricliest verdure with numerous villages at their base, as the squadron moved along in a 

 diagonal line. 



As the land on the west was approached to within three miles, it was seen to rise gradually 

 from the undulating slopes, near the waters of the hay, to steep mountains in the distance. 

 Fertile fields, expanding parks, bounded with plantations, and varied here and there with 

 carefully arranged clumps of trees of advanced but vigorous growth, terraces lifting their 

 smooth surfaces one above the other, in the richest and greenest of verdure, and retired 

 groves of deep shade, showed upon the acclivities of tlie nearer range of hills all the marks 

 of a long and most perfect cultivation, and presented a beauty of landscape unrivalled even 

 by the garden-like scenery of England when clothed in the fresh charms of a verdant spring. 

 The distant hills were rugged and bare, and apparently witliout cultivation, but gave, by their 

 contrasting barrenness and rudeness of aspect, a heightened beauty to the rich culture of the 

 land which gradually undulated from their base to the waters of the bay. As the squadron 

 advanced toward the north the shore became more level, and a stretch of sand was observed 

 to extend for three or four miles into the bay, and to arise near its termination into two 

 considerable elevations, upon which forts with ten guns each were erected, and there the Japanese 

 troops had been seen to gather. 



The ships now directed their course toward the proposed place for anchoring, which had 

 been surveyed by Lieutenant Bent on the previous surveying expedition. Keeping in view a 

 bold headland, which bounded the upper part of the bay, to which the squadron was tending, 

 the ships steered toward the western shore, and finally dropjwd their anchors in the afternoon 

 in a place which the Commodore then named the American Anchorage. This was about ten 

 miles distant from the first anchorage off Uraga, and a mile and a half from the shore, in a 

 depth of water which gave full thirteen fathoms. Within the bay in which the ships were 

 anchored were two beautiful islands, covered with a green growtli of herbage and scattered 

 groves. The coast which bounded the anchorage was composed of a succession of steep 

 cliffs of white rock, the summits of which were covered with a fertile soil, which produced 

 a rich vegetation that hung over from above in heavy festoons of green shrubbery and 

 trailing vines and plants, while the sea had washed the base of the cliffs here and there into 

 caverns where the water flowed in and out. The headland at the north was about six miles 

 distant and descended in green sloj^es to the bay, and from the thick growth of trees which 

 covered them a white smoke was observed to wind through the close foliage, and was supposed 

 to indicate the presence of some encampment. A great number of the usual government boats, 

 distinguished by red banners, lined a long stretch of the shore of nearly a mile in length, and 

 the fortresses had extended their usual cotton cloth batteries or screens, which were now, on 

 longer experience, supposed to be rather military emblems, like the flag and banners, than 

 sham exhibitions of force and intended evidences of hostility. 



Immediately on anchoring the Commodore ordered the boats out upon a surveying 

 expedition, and although this seemed to bring out the soldiers in numbers about the battery 

 which lay opposite to the ships, as well as some of the government boats which were moored 

 along the shore, there was no direct interference with the surveying party. The Japanese 

 boats, however, moved backward and forward, as if watching the movement of the ship's 

 cutters, but seemed indisposed to do more than show themselves in force and on the alert. 

 Soon, however, Tezaimen, with his interpreters, were seen to approach the Susquehanna, in 

 their usual boat, which the Japanese oajsmen were sculling with all their might, and at once 

 34 J 



