340 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



The surveying boats had been kept busy during the progress of all this negotiation, and 

 immediately after the Commodore had signified his intention of accepting the proposition of the 

 Japanese oifering Yoku-hama as the place of meeting, the party of surveyors returned to the 

 Powhatan, and reported that they had found six fathoms of water within four or five miles of 

 Yedo. This near approach to their capital was supposed to be the clue to the sudden change in 

 the policy of the Japanese, as they doubtless feared that the Commodore would proceed at once 

 to execute his threat of moving his squadron to Yedo, if the authorities still persisted in their 

 demands for him to return to Uraga. 



The Japanese now commenced constructing at once a wooden building for the proposed 

 conference, and great numbers of workmen were seen busily engaged in bringing materials and 

 putting them together in the form of a large and irregular structure. The ship's boats were 

 sent out to examine the anchorage opposite the place, and the Commodore, after receiving a 

 favorable report, directed (February 27) the squadron to be moored in a line abreast, and within 

 a mile of Yoku-hama, covering with their guns an extent of shore of five miles. Captains 

 Buchanan and Adams went ashore, soon after the anchoring of the ships, to see the buildings 

 in progress of erection, and to instruct the Japanese workmen how to make the wharf for the 

 landing of the Commodore and his party. Accordingly, when Yezaiman came on board the 

 Powhatan, on March 3d, he alluded with some expression of anxiety to the fact of some of 

 the Americans having landed, fearing, he said, lest some trouble might ensue, if this should be 

 continued, between our peojile and the natives. As soon, however"^ as he was told the purpose 

 of the visit, and of the Commodore's order that no one of his men should be allowed to land, 

 he seemed satisfied. 



Captain Adams now gave the governor of Uraga a letter which had been written to his 

 friends by a Japanese who belonged to the squadron, and was generally known among the 

 sailors by the soubriquet of Sam Patch. Sam was one of the crew, consisting of sixteen men, 

 of a Japanese junk which had been driven off in a storm from the coast of Japan. An American 

 merchant vessel, having fallen in with the junk, took the Japanese on board and conveyed 

 them to San Francisco, where they were removed to a revenue cutter. They remained on board 

 the cutter twelve months, when they were taken by the United States sloop-of-war St. Mary's to 

 China, and there transferred to the Susquehanna. "When this steamer joined Commodore 

 Perry's squadron, bound to Japan, the Jaj^anese all preferred to remain in China, lest if they 

 returned home they should lose their lives, with the exception of Sam Patch, who remained 

 on board, and being regularly shipped as one of the crew, was with the squadron on the first, 

 as he was now on the second, visit to Japan. Upon his letter being presented to Yezaiman 

 he was requested to deliver it in accordance with the direction, which he promised to do, but 

 the Japanese seemed very much surprised at the fact of one of their countrymen being among 

 the crew, and expressed an earnest desire to see him. Yezaiman was accordingly promised 

 that his request should be complied with in the course of a few days. 



Yezaiman and his interpreters, to whom there was now added a new one, of the name of 

 Moryama Yenoske, who spoke a little English, which he was said to have acquired from an 

 American sailor who had been a captive in Japan, and was one of those taken away by the 

 Preble, came oif daily to the ships. As the building on shore was in progress, the details of its 

 erection, and the prospective interview ashore, were naturally daily topics of conversation. The 

 coming ceremonies were spoken of, and the rank and number of those who were to participate 



