TREATY WITH JAPAN. 



591 



July, the precipitous southern coast of Niphon — the largest 

 island of the Japanese group — loomed up through the fog. 



JAPANESE VESSEL. 



The American steamers entered the Bay of Jeddo, eight miles 

 wide at the mouth but spreading to a width of twelve beyond. 

 They were now land-bound, with the shores of an empire 

 almost fabulous enclosing them on every side. Though 

 peremptorily forbidden to anchor, though surrounded by 

 myriads of boats filled with men eager for a conflict, though 

 menaced by forts which seemed formidable till examined 

 through the glass, the fleet kept on, and finally, by dint of 

 persistence and several salutary displays of power, the commo- 

 dore, having at his disposal the national steamers Susquehanna, 

 Mississippi, and Powhatan, the frigate Saratoga, and the ships 

 Macedonian, Vandalia, Lexington, and Southampton, wrung 

 from the sullen monopolists a treaty opening to American trade 

 the port of Simoda, in Niphon, and that of Hakodadi, in Jesso. 

 It now remains for the Americans to lead the Japanese, by 



