368 



EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



With the usual order and neatness which seem almost instinctive with the Japanese, the 

 various presents had heen arranged in lots, and classified in accordance with the rank of those 

 for whom they were respectively intended. The commissioners took their position at the further 

 end of the room, and when the Commodore and his suite entered, the ordinary compliments 

 having hfeen interchanged, the Prince Hayashi read aloud, in Japanese, the list of presents, and 

 the names of the persons to whom they were to be given. This was then translated by Tenoske 

 into Dutch, and by Mr. Portman into English. This ceremony being over, the Commodore 

 was invited by the commissioners into the inner room, where he was presented with two 

 complete sets of Japanese coins, three matchlocks, and two swords. These gifts, 'though of no 

 great intrinsic value, were very significant evidences of the desire of the Jajjanese to express 

 their respect for the representative of the United States. The mere bestowal of the coins^ in 

 direct opposition to the Japanese laws, which forbid, absolutely, all issue of their money beyond 

 the Kingdom, was an act of marked favor. 



Japanese Match-lock. 



As the Commodore prepared to depart, the commissioners said that there was one article 

 intended for the President which had not yet been exhibited. They accordingly conducted the 

 Commodore and his officers to the beach, where one or two hundred sacks of rice were pointed 

 out, heaped up in readiness to be sent on board the ships. As that immense supply of 

 substantial food seemed to excite some wonder on the part of the Americans, Yenoske, the 

 interpreter, remarked that it was always customary with the Japanese, when bestowing royal 

 presents, to include a certain quantity of rice, although he did not say whether that quantity 

 always amounted, as on the present occasion, to hundreds of immense sacks.* 



*The Commodore, upon subsequent inquiry, learned that there are three articles which, in Japan, as he understood, alway^ 

 form part of an Imperial present. These are rice, dried fish, and dogs. 



Fish Present of Japan. 

 [What is Boeti protruding at eitlier end of the paper cover is a Fpecics of dried sea-weed, used a? food. Tiie hah 



in placpd upiiU it, and covered by the paper] 



