330 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



tlie President's letter was received at Gorahama, near Uraga, wliy are you not willing to receive 

 the answer there?" Captain Adams answered that he did not know precisely all the Commo- 

 dore's reasons, hut the principal one was that the anchorage was very unsafe. 



The Japanese now seemed somewhat trouhled, as if they feared that the Americans were 

 disposed to assume a hostile attitude, and asked, with some anxiety, whether the Commodore was 

 actuated hy the same friendly feelings as the Japanese government. Captain Adams did all in 

 his power to reassure them, and declared that the Americans were actuated by no other motives 

 than those of friendship, and that their greatest desire was to he in relations of jjeace and amity 

 with Japan, and that their chief object in refusing their assent to the Jaj3anese proi)ositions was 

 the fear of endangering the lives of the oificers and crews and the safety of the ships hy resorting 

 to an insecure place. The Japanese reiterated, several times, that a high officer woidd come to 

 arrange all business with the Commodore, but that he could not arrive for several days. Ui)on 

 its being proposed that he should come on board the ships, the Jajmnese declared that that was 

 quite impossible ; and then Captain A. suggested that, as it was the custom to transact all 

 public business at the metropolis, the Commodore should go to Yedo. The last suggestion was 

 opposed by the very emphatic remark : " You cannot be received at Yedo." 



The Japanese now requested that the boats of the squadron should be prohibited from landing 

 or surveying the harbor, and were told that could not be promised, but that the Commodore 

 should be informed of the request. After the usual refreshments — tea, wine, cakes, and segars — • 

 of which the Japanese always freely partook, and the ordinary interchange of compliments, they 

 prepared to take their departure, saying, as they left, that it would take some sis or seven days 

 before they could bring any decision from the high officer in regard to the place of meeting, but 

 promising the earliest dispatch. 



A surveying party had been organized on the second day of the arrival of the squadron, under 

 the command of Lieutenant Maury, and ordered to commence operations, which were effectively 

 carried out. There were no positive interruptions on the part of the Japanese authorities, but 

 they evidently looked upon the proceeding with jealous anxiety ; and that the subject was 

 uppermost in their mind is clear, from the constant allusion to it in their various conferences with 

 the American officers.^ The Commodore, however, fully alive to the importance of thoroughly 

 surveying the bay, not only for the convenience of the immediate purposes of the expedition but 

 for the future interests of the United States, and, we may add, those of the whole civilized world, 

 was resolved to omit no opportunity of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the navigation of the 

 bay, and thus complete the hydrographical reports and charts, which are now among the by no 

 means least valuable results of the expedition. The surveying boats were accordingly kept 

 busy day after day, and the protestations of the Japanese authorities, though courteously 

 listened to, were always met with the assertion of the resolute determination of the Commodore 

 to prosecute what he believed so essential to the full development of the objects of his mission. 

 It was now the fourteenth of February, a day which was recorded in the logs as cold and 

 blustering, but with an atmosphere perfectly clear. The land just off the ships, the promon- 

 tories to the north and south, and the opposite shore^ showed a clear and distinct wintry aspect, 

 and the view could be readily extended for a circuit of many miles, far back to the snowy 

 summits of the mountains, which traced their irregular outlines upon the cold grey sky. 



Notwithstanding that the Japanese officials had declared that it would require several days 

 before they could bring any answer to the Commodore's protest against moving his squadron 



