BEVTEWS — AMERICAN EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 523 



REVIEWS. 



Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the Chinese 

 Seas and Japan, performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, 

 under the command of Commodore M. C. Perry, TJ. S. Navy, by or- 

 der of the Government of the United States. Compiled from the 

 original notes and Journals of Commodore Perry and his Officers, 

 at his request and under his supervision. By Francis L. Hawks, 

 D.D., LL. D. Washington : A. 0. P. Nicholas, Printer, 1856. 



When Columbus set sail, in 1492, on his memorable voyage of dis- 

 covery, he was specially stimulated and encouraged in his venturous 

 expedition by the conviction that the Asiatic continent stretched 

 away so far eastward from Europe into the unexplored ocean, that 

 it could be most easily reached by sailing westward, and so, as it were, 

 meeting it on the way. The special points, accordingly, towards 

 which the great discoverer of this New World aimed were Cathay and 

 the Island of Cipango : in other words, China and Japan. It is need- 

 less to say that an authentic knowledge of these countries is of an 

 older date than the recent expeditions of England and the United 

 States : known as they have undoubtedly been, by means of the nar- 

 ratives and travellers' tales of such old authors as Marco Polo, the 

 Venetian, our English Mandeville, and Mendez Pinto. With the 

 last of these travelled for a time the catholic Xavier ; though such 

 good company has not saved that gasconading Portuguese from the 

 title of " Prince of liars!" Nevertheless, the narrative compiled by 

 Dr. Hawks from the intelligent notes and observations of the Amer- 

 ican officers, lifts the veil from scenes hitherto altogether hid from 

 European or American eyes. Dutch, English, Russian, and Ameri- 

 can adventurers have attempted to penetrate the mystery by turns ; 

 but at best, it has been but a mariner's glimpse we have had of the 

 " Golden Zipango" of Marco Polo. Nor does even this American ex- 

 pedition reveal to us greatly more than the all-important fact that 

 the gates have at length been opened, and that this strange scene of 

 an old civilization, in some respects more remarkable than even that 

 of China, is about to disclose all its quaint and picturesque inner life 

 to the outer barbarian world. 



Europeans have learned to look without surprise, on the evidences 

 of a civilization far older than their own, which China can boast of; 

 on gun-powder, the compass, with its magnetic needle, wood-engrav- 

 ing, and above all, the printing press, only re-discovered for Europe, 

 if not derived from the older use in Cathay. But in the Japanese we 

 see an eastern people, not only similarly gifted, and working out a 



