MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



503 



many men, and concluded that 

 tliey must have been collected 

 from all the neighbouring garri- 

 sons since we appeared in the 

 harbour. 



We were soon introduced into 

 the tent, on a seat opposite to 

 the entrance of which the Go- 

 vernor had placed himself. He 

 wore a rich silk dress, with a 

 complete suit of armour, and had 

 two sabres under his girdle. A 

 Jong cord of white silk passed 

 over his shoulder ; at one end of 

 this cord was a tassel of the same 

 material, and at the other a steel 

 baton which he held in his hand, 

 and which was doubtless the sym- 

 bol of his authority. His armour- 

 bearers, one holding a spear, 

 another a musket, and a third his 

 helmet, sat behind him on the 

 floor. The helmet resembled that 

 of the second in command, with 

 this difference that instead of the 

 figure of the moon, it bore the 

 image of the sun. This officer 

 now sat on the left of the Go- 

 vernor, on a seat somewhat lower 

 than that of his superior ; he too 

 had his armour-bearers behind 

 him. Four officers were sitting 

 cross legged on the floor on each 

 side of the tent ; they wore black 

 armour, and had each two sabres. 

 On our entrance, the Governor and 

 Lieutenant-Governor both rose 

 up ; we saluted them in our own 

 manner, and they returned the 

 compliment. They invited us to 

 sit down on a bench which was 

 placed directly opposite to them- 

 selves, but we chose to use the 

 seats we had brought with us. 

 Our sailors seated themselves 

 on the bench behind us. After 

 the introductory civilities were 

 concluded, they entertained us 

 with tea without sugar, in cu£)S 



which, according to the Japa- 

 nese fashion, were only half 

 filled ; the cups had no saucers, 

 but were handed to us on small 

 trays made of varnished wood. 

 Betbre they gave us the tea they 

 asked whether we would prefer 

 any thing else. Pipes and tobacco 

 were afterwards brought to us, 

 and the conference commenced. 

 They desired to know our names 

 and rank, the name of our ship, 

 whence we came, whither we 

 were bound, why we had visited 

 them, what had induced Russian 

 ships to attack their villages, and 

 further, whether we knew Resan- 

 otf and where he now was ? Our 

 answers to these questions were 

 conformable to the statements we 

 had previously made, and were 

 written down by the Lieutenant- 

 Governor. We were next told 

 that to enable them to pre- 

 pare the proper quantity of 

 provisions we wanted, it was 

 necessary they should know the 

 exact number of our crew. Ri- 

 diculous as this question was, 

 they had an object in putting 

 it. On our part we thought it 

 advisable to make our force ap- 

 pear more considerable than it 

 was, and therefore doubled it, 

 calling it 102 men. Alexei could 

 neither understand nor express 

 this number ; and 1 was obliged 

 to make an equal number of 

 marks with a black-lead pencil 

 on paper, which the Japanese 

 counted off. We were further 

 asked whether we had any other 

 ships of the size of the Diana in 

 their seas? We answered that 

 we had many in Okotzk, Kamts- 

 chatka and America. Among 

 their questions were several of a 

 very insignificant nature relative 

 to our dress, customs, &c. They 



also 



