436 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



orders or letters have reached us from court on this matter, nor did the communication you 

 brought us from Uraga contain any reference or exijlanation on these points, which we now learn 

 from yourselves for the first time. Yet, to follow out a course of action ourselves, before receiving 

 any directions from the throne, is a very serious matter, we can assure you ; for the undeviating 

 usage of all our principalities is first to attend to those commands, and can we here be expected 

 to transgress it ? Whether the matter he of great or small moment, if it appertain to the state, 

 it must be referred to the prince, and he makes a clear statement to the Emperor, and acts after 

 he obtains special commands. You yourselves, gentlemen, after all your experience at Yoku- 

 hama and Simoda, cannot but be aware that siich is the usage and law in this country. Yet 

 such articles of provisions as we have here, eggs, fowls, green fish, ducks and other commodi- 

 ties, as well as rambling about the country, going into villages, markets and shops, albeit they 

 are contemptible and dilapidated, mean and rude, quite beneath the slightest regard or care, are 

 temporarily allowed, and that which you require will be furnished." 



After the flag-lieutenant, who had been delegated to receive the above communication, had 

 explained in regard to the "hall" alluded to, that it was only desired by the Commodore to 

 use those parts of the temples usually appropriated to lodgers, as temporary places of resort, 

 and not to take possession of their ecclesiastical establishments, the governor seemed greatly 

 relieved, as he evidently supposed that it was the intention in some way to interfere with their 

 national worship. The governor then having announced that it was the intention of " Matsmai 

 Kangeayou, great officer of the family of the Prince of Matsmai," to call uj)on the Commodore 

 next day, the American officers took their leave. 



After this preliminary negotiation, the officers of the ships began daily to visit the land, and 

 they walked freely through the streets, frequented the shops and temples, and strolled without 

 interference into the neighboring country. Three houses were finally, after several conferences, 

 assigned, one for the accommodation of the Commodore, another for his officers, and a third for 

 the artists, and a bazaar opened daily, where the various articles of Japanese art and manufac- 

 ture could be obtained at fair prices, a dollar, which is equal to about three of their silver coins, 

 called itchaboo, passing current for 4,800 copper cash. With this greater freedom of intercourse 

 on shore, the Americans soon became tolerably acquainted with Hakodadi and its people, and 

 we may here appropriately introduce some description of them, while we intermit for the present 

 the relation of the further progress of the tedious negotiations with the authorities. 



The town of Hakodadi, or Hakodate,* lies on the southern coast of the island of Yesso, in 

 latitude 41° 49' 22" north, and longitude 140° 47' 45" east, being situated on the western bank 

 of a small peninsula, which forms one side of the harbor. The meaning of the Japanese word 

 Hakodadi is " box shop," but what gave rise to the name it is not easy to understand, as some 

 of the best informed inhabitants themselves seem unacquainted with the origin of the term. 

 The appearance of the place on entering the harbor is striking and picturesque. The town 

 stretches for the space of three miles along the base of a lofty promontory, divided into three 

 principal peaks, which reach a height of from six hundred to a thousand feet. Their lofty 

 summits are bare, and often covered with snow ; their upper slopes are but scantily clothed with 

 underwood and some scattered pines, while below, where the mountains begin to rise from the 

 level land, there is a rich profusion of verdant growth, with groves of wide-spreading cypresses, 

 tall forest maples, and fruit-bearing trees, the plum and the peach. This abundant vegetation 



• Golownin, in his " Recollections," calls the town Chakodaile, but erroneously. 



