398 APPENDIX. 



Next day a present came off to the steamer, consisting of one boat of turnips, twenty fowls, 

 five hundred eggs, several boxes of oranges, and several piculs of onions. These things were 

 received, and corresponding presents were returned, after which it was proposed to commence 

 the negotiations. On this the commissioners sent for instructions to the capital, and received 

 orders to erect a building on shore, where they should received the visitors. This was soon 

 done, and a fine building it was, hung round with silk, screened of^from the public gaze by elegant 



curtains, the floor being laid with mats and carpets. Lin was the chief commissioner 



on the Japanese side, and on the American side was Matthew C. Perry, commander-in-chief of 

 the United States naval forces in the East India, China, and Japan seas — with him was Dr. 

 Williams, interpreter for the United States. For every officer present at the interview there 

 was placed an entertainment on a small table, but it consisted merely of fresh fish, oysters, and 

 other shell-fish, fowls' eggs, turnips, and a yellow looking wine. The Japanese, indeed, do 

 not keep sheep, nor oxen, nor pigs, nor do they kill animals to entertain visitors with. I saw 

 that many even of the fowls, which they do breed, obtained a most venerable age. If we look 

 only at the diet of the peojfle, it is immeasurably inferior to that of the Chinese. 



The commissioner having received the articles of the treaty as proposed by the Americans, 

 returned a communication after five days, and from that time, every day, there were officers 

 coming to the ships, and supplies were sent of fuel, water, eggs, and fish. Among those who 

 came to our vessel was a gentleman, named Ping-san-heen-urh-lang, of an ingenious nature 

 and great learning, who asked me about the troubles which are at present distracting my native 

 country. I showed him an account of the insurrection which I had drawn up, and a volume of 

 essays on the principles of good government. These he borrowed of me the next day, in a 

 polite manner, and returned them before long with the following letter : 



" I trust that since I saw you, you have been well, and pursuing with pleasure your literary 

 avocations. I have read carefully the record concerning the affairs at Nanking, and the volume 

 of essays, with the perusal of which you favored me. I have learned two things from them, for, 

 in the first, place they have made me acquainted with the causes of the present confusion in 

 China, and, in the next, they display your own learning and worth. In times of disorder and 

 difficulty, you have not forgotten the regard for your sovereign and interest in your country, 

 which every good man ought to cherish. As I have shut up your volumes, my feelings have 

 found vent in sighs. 



" The common people are oppressed and miserable, and the rulers pay no attention to their 

 feelings. They who should be the pastors of the nation fail to dischage their duties ; bribery 

 and venality widely prevail ; such it seems is the condition of China, from antiquity to the 

 present time — the common diseases of a decaying empire. The essential evil of such a state 

 may be described in a single phrase — it is the desire of gain. Now, the desire of gain is com- 

 mon to all men, and is the pregnant womb of all evil. Confucius seldom spoke of gain, wishing 

 to check the lust of it in its source. This, also, was the reason why my ancestors cut off all 

 intercourse of foreign nations with Japan, because the desire of gain led astray the ignorant 

 people, and wonderful arts in the investigation of principles deceived the perverse,* so that 

 they got striving together, seeking gain and hurrying after what was wonderful, till filial duty, 

 modesty, and the sense of shame were all forgotten. To a man who has reached this stage of 

 evil, neither his father nor his sovereign is anything. 



* The Japanese gentleman writes Chinese with great freedom. Few, if any, Sinologues from the west could compete with 

 him. Yet his composition might be plainer in some parts than it is. It is not easy to make out his meaning here, where he is 

 touching on an interesting topic — the reason which induced the exclusion of foreigners from Japan. 





