The island of Great Loo-Choo appeared in sight after a run of three
days from China. Previous to reaching there, the commodore issued a
general order, requiring look-outs to be kept in port as at sea, during
the stay of the squadron among the Japanese islands, and all movements
of vessels or collections of boats were to be reported to the officer
of the deck, and by him to his superiors; sentinels with loaded musket
and six rounds of ball-cartridges; general and division exercises of
great guns and small arms, with artillery and infantry drills, were
to be prosecuted with increased diligence; and in navigating those
seas attention was to be given more to precautionary measures to
secure safety than to accomplish quick passages. Another general order
stated that the countries which our ships were then about to visit
were inhabited by a singular people, whose policy it had been, during
more than two centuries, to decline all intercourse with strangers, to
which end they had resorted to acts at variance and irreconcilable with
the practices of civilized nations; that one of the duties enjoined
upon the commodore, was to endeavor to overcome these prejudices by a
course of friendly and conciliatory measures, and to strive to convince
the Japanese that we went among them as friends, though assuring them
of our determination never to submit to insult or wrong, or desist
from claiming and securing those rights of hospitality justly due
from one nation to another. In pursuance of these objects, every
individual under his command should exercise the greatest prudence,
forbearance, and discretion, in their intercourse with all with whom
they came in contact. While distrustful of their apparent friendship
and sincerity, and guarding against treachery, they would extend toward
those oppressed and misgoverned people every kindness and protection,
and would be careful not to molest, injure, or maltreat them in any
manner; that it would be in time to resort to extreme measures when
every friendly demonstration should have been exhausted. The commodore
also stated that his instructions directed him to forbid in the most
positive manner the acceptance of presents or supplies, unless those
who proffered them, were prepared to receive adequate returns.
That we might be the better prepared, in addition to the great-gun
exercises, drill, &c., when “friendly demonstrations should have been
exhausted,” the commander-in-chief provided himself with an octagonal
marquee made of red, white, and blue, caused ambulances to be made in
the different ships, and directed that all boats of the squadron when
prepared for distant or active service, were to be armed and provided,
so as to be ready at a sudden call, with anchor and cable, two spare
oars, masts, sails, and rigging, spun-yarn and seizing stuff, four
battle-axes, a hand-saw for each division, one wood-axe, spikes, bag
with hatchet, sheet-lead and nails, spy-glass for commanding officer
of division, musket, pistol, and cutlass for each man, cartouch-box
filled, screw-driver and nipple-wrench, cleaning rags and oil for each
boat, a crow-bar, two blue-lights, two rockets, candles primed, and
match-ropes in tin-box, lantern and materials for getting light, boat’s
colors and signals, compass, bread, water and provisions, oar-muffles,
bandages and laudanum for wounded, lead-lines, small cooking apparatus
for largest boat, flash-pans, and awnings.
On getting to our anchorage we felt as if we had arrived at the outer
door of the hermetic empire that we had come so far to deal with, we
being then only about eight or nine days’ sail from the bay of Yedo. As
Loo-Choo had no doubt been selected as the base of operation, upon the
principle of reaching the old hen by first going at the chickens, it
will be as well to give an outline of its history.
The Loo-Choo islands—pronounced in Japanese Lu Kiu—are a dependency
of the Japanese prince of Satsuma. There are thirty-six islands in all,
which are divided in three groups: the Northern or Sanbok, the Middle
or Tchusan, and the Southern or Sannan group. According to the belief
of the inhabitants, the origin of the people of these islands, like
that of nearly all the orientals, is divine, and nowise of the Lord
Monboddo theory. Their annals always commence with a series of gods,
then follow a race of demi-gods, and at last come human beings. To
their great veneration for their ancestors, may probably be ascribed
these conceits. A son reveres his father beyond everything else; this
father likewise revered his progenitor. So the grandfather gets all the
love of his son, with a large share of that of the grandson through the
grandson’s father. A thousand years in Loo-Choo chronology is a small
matter: they note the existence of their islands for seventeen thousand
years, that is agreeably to what the Chinaman would call their “fash;”
so compound interest for a thousand years in filial veneration gives
divinity of origin to their nation.
The Chinese emperor, Kang-hy, in 1719, sent a man of great attainments
to Loo-Choo. The report of this learned pig-tail, upon what he saw
in the country, was translated by Father Gaubil of the French Jesuit
mission in China, whose records probably contain more data relative
to the ancient history of the East, than is to be found in any other
mission.
The Chinese histories first make mention of Loo-Choo in the year 605.
In that year a party of Chinese visited the islands, and on their
return brought with them some of the natives, who were taken to Pekin.
Here they were recognised as Loo-Chooans by the Japanese embassador at
that court. They are described as being very ignorant and very poor.
The emperor Yang-ti, however, sent embassadors and interpreters to
claim sovereignty over the islands, but the king of Loo-Choo rejected
all proposals of the kind, whereupon the emperor sent ten thousand
men from Fokien to invade the islands. They landed on the island of
Great Loo-Choo, and were bravely met by the king at the head of his
army. A pitched battle was fought, in which the king was slain, when
the Chinese triumphed, taking five thousand prisoners, and sacking the
cities of Sheudi and Napa. The Chinese chronicle the fact that the
Loo-Chooans were so lamentably destitute that they did not even know
the use of “chop-sticks!” and also state that they sometimes sacrificed
human beings at their religious festival, which barbarous custom was at
once abolished.
The Chinese emperors of the Ting dynasty, and also those of the
succeeding Song dynasty, did not exercise sovereign rights over the
islands. A trade had sprung up between the two countries, and all went
as well as a junk could sail, until 1291, when the emperor Chit-su,
of the Eeven dynasty, resolved upon their conquest. He fitted out
and despatched an armed expedition for this purpose, but the Tartars
and Chinese, both disgusted and disheartened by the recollection of
their terrible failure in a similar attempt on Japan, after a short
absence returned to the port of Fokien, not having gone in sight of
the islands. The history of the islands speaks of constant civil war,
and bloody battles. In 1372 the largest island was divided into three
kingdoms. Hong-u, the first of the Ming dynasty, sent an embassador
to Loo-Choo, whose diplomacy was such as to induce T’say-too, one
of the kings who resided at Sheudi, to declare himself tributary to
China. His example was followed by the two other kings, and peace was
restored. Thirty-six Chinese families, by order or with the consent
of the emperor, emigrated to the island, who received their “quarter
sections” from the king, and from that time dates the commencement
of civilization and Chinese influence. Young men from Loo-Choo were
annually sent to Nanking, to learn the Chinese language at the expense
of the emperor; and presents were exchanged by the sovereigns. At the
death of T’say-too the emperor sent his son to preside over the realm.
Loo-Choo then became prosperous, trade sprang up; and during the reign
of Chang-pat-shi, the great grandson of T’say-too, the three kingdoms
of the islands were re-united, and the royal family assumed the title
of Chang.
Revolutions and civil wars raged from time to time, and a feudal
system was established. Commerce with China increased, and the Chinese
complained of the scarcity of silver and copper coin in the provinces
Tshe-kiang and Fokien, on account of the exportation of it to Loo-Choo.
In 1500, the Loo-Choo people sent a trading junk to Malacca, many
to the island of Formosa, and a great many to the southern ports of
Japan. During the reign of Chang-tching, Loo-Choo became the market
where Japanese and Chinese merchants met to exchange their goods.
Commerce became brisk, and the constant quarrels between the Chinese
and Japanese gave the king an opportunity to extend his influence. The
extensive piratical operations of the Japanese, about the year 1525,
having their headquarters at Ke-long-chan, on the island of Formosa,
compelled the emperor of China to have recourse to the king of Loo-Choo
as mediator between him and the emperor of Japan. The mediation did not
suppress the piracy complained of, though backed by large squadrons
sent to sea by the celestial emperor, to destroy the pirates, over whom
his imperial confrere of Japan professed to have no control; indeed,
the Japan monarch alleged that there were many Chinese among these
outlaws.
The ascent of the throne of Japan by Taico Sama, proved an event of
great importance. He was a man of great ability and shrewdness, and
attained his high position by his own exertions, and not by birth.
He put an end to feudalism in his country, and ruled with an iron
hand. He conceived the idea of using to advantage the terror which
prevailed because of the Japanese pirates, and the prestige which
their daring acts had acquired. His ambition was as unbounded as his
belief in manifest destiny, and his object was the conquest of China.
He despatched officers to the king of Loo-Choo, ordering him to declare
his kingdom tributary to Japan; and similar pressing invitations were
sent to the governors of the Philippine islands, the king of Siam, &c.
The sovereign of Loo-Choo temporized, and finally refused to submit,
relying on Chinese protection. He informed the emperor of the plans
of Taico Sama; a league of all these princes was formed against him,
when Taico Sama invaded that fighting-ground between the Chinese and
Japanese—the peninsula of Corea. Taico’s main object was attained.
He reaped all the benefit proceeding from piracies licensed by him or
enlisted in his service, and thus giving it the character of a regular
warfare. He smothered civil war in its germ, and sent away his most
influential opponents to fight in the Corea, not Crimea. Corea was then
the safety-valve for ardent spirits against the government, as France
keeps its Algiers, or keeps up a foreign war. Taico “savaad” a great
deal.
During the reign of Taico, Loo-Choo suffered severely; trade was
brought to a stand still, and, like a more modern nation that Americans
wot of, Japan proclaimed herself mistress of the sea. The king of the
islands, however, managed to send an embassador to China, who was
received with great magnificence by the emperor, both on account of the
dangers he had encountered from the voyage in the junk, and the risk
incurred of falling into the hands of the pirates who swarmed in those
seas.
After the death of Taico, and during the regency of Iyeyas for his son,
in 1612, a Loo-Chooan chief, dissatisfied with his king, armed three
thousand men in Japan, with whom he returned to his own country and
made the kingdom by force tributary to Japan, that is, to the province
of Satsuma. He took back the king a prisoner. The fallen sovereign of
Loo-Choo behaved with so much dignity, that two years afterward he was
generously sent back, and reinstated on his throne, remaining still a
true friend to the emperor of China.
Commercial relations, but on a small scale, existed with China and
Japan, when, in 1708, all the plagues came down on Loo-Choo: it was
desolated by the ravages of terrible typhoons; the crops failed; cattle
died; the king’s palace was entirely consumed by fire; and frightful
epidemics prevailed among the natives. Cang-hi, the emperor of China,
sent them assistance, and his embassador, Supas Kang, in his report,
according to the translation in French, says the language of these
people is so mixed up of Chinese and Japanese, that it forms almost
a distinct language. He finds no wild animals or venomous reptiles
or insects, but much fish. Their exports at that time consisted of
sulphur, a peculiar red dye stuff, dried fish, saki, and timber,
principally cedar-wood.
The prospect, as you approach Great Loo-Choo island, clothed in masses
of deep green, is very delightful to the eye, after it has been resting
for days on the slate-colored ocean. We reached our anchorage late in
the afternoon in the midst of a heavy rain, on the 26th of May. The
roadstead off the city of Napa is enclosed by large fields of coral,
and the entrances through the reefs are quite narrow. When we had
gotten inside, large numbers of the natives appeared on the shore,
no doubt greatly astonished at the sight of the two large steamers;
and shortly after, the sloop-of-war “Saratoga,” from Hong Kong, also
arrived. In a short time a rude dug-out boat came off to our ship,
containing some officer, but as the flag-ship had previously made
signal forbidding any communication with shore, he was directed to that
ship—now the Susquehanna. He wished to know what we wanted in their
harbor; the answer to this was, “Ask no questions and I’ll tell you,”
&c. He was given to understand that he was rather too “small pigeon”
for our commodore to see, and that he must go back and send off their
“first chop” mandarin, as we could hold no intercourse with any other.
This was trying on the _dignitate_ early, but nothing else will answer
in the East; any concession of equality, or manifestation of too great
courtesy, would be at once construed by them into an admission of their
superiority.
Our stripes and stars were a new sight to them, and the sudden advent
of our ships in their waters was more than they could comprehend.
At night their chief men took counsel together, and came to the
conclusion that we were in want of _kam-yum-muru_, or something to eat;
so the next morning off came, in a string of canoes, bullocks, pigs,
chickens, and vegetables, as presents. These were sent back with the
information that we could not receive presents. Become quite uneasy
about our presence, they consented to their prince regent’s coming off
to the flag-ship, which he did at an appointed hour, with a _suite_
in their canoes. He was well received, and given the cheap salute of
three guns, which small compliment he would have preferred to dispense
with. They were shown over the ship: the engines were moved for their
observation, and they evinced immense surprise: some of the attendants,
however, when the great pistons moved, bolted up the hatchway and made
for their boats. The higher officers were quite dignified in appearance
and demeanor, but the lower class showed a simplicity most childish.
They giggled at a looking-glass, and continually felt behind it; a
sight through a spy-glass was most puzzling; a wine-glass they held
tightly with both hands, and elevated to the forehead before tasting
contents; a watch was most miraculous, and as they gathered round they
were all wonderment, and imitated its “tick tick;” when the works were
exposed to them, their exclamation of surprise was more like one of
pain. The contents of the purser’s chest when exposed to them they
seemed to think quite shiny and pretty, but evidently were unaware of
the value or use of eagles, dollar-pieces, &c. On a chart of the world,
in the cabin one day, I showed a number of them their country, and then
designating my own, traced the track by which we had come to their
island, which they appeared to comprehend. It was quite amusing to see
the rapidity with which they would let go the polar handles of a small
galvanic battery, which much persuasion and the example of some of the
men were first required to get them to take hold of, as soon as it was
slightly charged by pushing in the needles. They would drop their hands
and rub their wrists in amazement.
The dress of the Loo-Chooans consists of a loose gown reaching to
the knees, with large sleeves, made of a species of grass-cloth, of
their own manufacture, and confined at the waist with a wide sash,
pendent from which they wear a tobacco-pouch and small pipe. After the
interchange of salutations, the pipe is always produced. On their feet,
which are generally bare, they wear a coarse straw sandal, secured by a
strap passing through next to the great toe, and one around the instep.
Like the Japanese, the better classes carry a fan; but only the high
officers wear a hat, made of crape, the first class yellow, and the
second red—more particularly as a badge of authority. Their hair is
brushed up all around the head, and its ends secured in a knot on the
summit of the head, transfixed by silver or brass pins.
[Illustration: _LITH. OF SARONY & Co. NEW YORK._
LOO CHOO.]
We knew that Loo-Choo had been visited in 1846 by a French missionary,
Forcade, who had subsequently left, but were rather surprised on
anchoring abreast of a tall and singular formation, called in the
surveys of the “Alceste and Lyra,” “Capstan rock,” but which more
nearly resembles a large old barn, with dark thatched roof, and huge
projecting eaves—to see flying from its summit the English flag. We
afterward ascertained that it was a flag giving protection to Dr.
Bettelheim, a converted Hungarian Jew, who had married an English
lady, and had been sent by an English naval mission society, some
seven years before, as a missionary to Loo-Choo. He did not appear to
be a man whose disposition and temperament were calculated to afford
him success in his labors, although he had persevered in his study of
their language until he could preach to the natives in it, and had
occupied his lonely position for years, with no other Christian faces
than those of his wife and three children. The Loo-Chooans had tried
every way to get rid of him; they had addressed, through the Chinese,
to the English minister, Lord Palmerston, remonstrances against the
mission, which invariably closed with the petition that he would remove
Bettelheim. They may not have known Vattel, but they urged with much
energy his doctrine, that a missionary should leave a country when
his presence was not agreeable to its people. But the Dr. held his
ground, though he was made to undergo some rather rough treatment.
Himself, by his professional skill in the healing art, and his wife,
during the prevalence of the smallpox, had been very attentive to the
people, which caused the authorities to become quite jealous. They were
followed and hooted at in the streets, and finally, Mrs. B. during a
walk, was forcibly separated from her husband, and himself beaten. The
British war-steamer “Sphynx” happened to pay a visit to Napa not long
afterward, when the authorities made ample apology for the offence,
and promised better things in future. They removed his servants, or
constantly changed them. They erected spy-houses opposite the gate of
his residence, which were constantly attended. If he preached to a
crowd in the street, or market-place, at a signal from the Japanese
police on the island, his auditors all ran away. If he distributed
tracts in their language at night, the next morning, the police brought
them back to him, carefully tied up.
They were much disturbed by our presence, and if our sails were
loosened to dry, they wondered why we did not sail away. We made a
reconnoissance of their harbor to ascertain or confirm the accuracy
of the surveys of Beechy, and the flag, or station staffs, we erected
on shore for this purpose, around which numbers would gather, sorely
perplexed them.
The principal town of Napa, containing about twenty thousand
inhabitants, is located behind the rising beach, and can not be seen
well from the shipping. Its _kiang_, or river, forms a harbor for junks
from China, Japan, and their coasting trade, and small boats only. The
houses of the town which are low, are enclosed in walls of cyclopean
masonry, built mostly without any cement, of coral rock. Over these
the limbs of the banyan project, and they are mostly fringed on top by
a growth of cactus. The entrances to their dwellings are from narrow
alleys running from the streets, and concealed by an abrupt elbow turn,
so unless you notice close, you will scarcely observe the doorway. The
streets are narrow, and laid out like those of Peking, and unpaved,
and the reception that we met with on walking them, was anything
but sociable; not that the mass of the people, who, after getting a
little over the trepidation which our unexpected arrival produced,
were not inclined to be friendly, but because of the surveillance of
their suspicious and jealous officials. On our approach the shops were
closed, and the way in front entirely deserted, while as soon as you
had passed, there was a great throng gazing at you from the rear. Those
weaving in the open air with their rude looms seizing their children
did flee. Old women, awfully ugly, with tattoed hands, hair piled on
their heads like a greasy mop, invested with a single salt-sack-looking
garment of exceeding brevity, if you came upon them would betake
themselves to flight, leaving the sharks’ meat, or vegetables, which
they might have for sale, in the market-place, or else bury their
faces in their dirty bluish tattoed hands, and so remain until you had
passed. We were forced to conclude that our presence was as moving
as that of Mr. Nicodemus in the Spectre Bridegroom; or else that an
American naval officer, if he caused those old sycoraxes to shun him,
must be ugly enough to scare a horse from his oats.
The origin of the married women tattoeing their hands, according to
Loo-Chooan story literally rendered, is this: A husband going on a
journey had an agreement with his wife for three years, but contrary
to the agreement, ten years passed before his return. Her parents
repeatedly proposed that she should change, and marry again, but she
earnestly defended her chastity, saying, “A woman should not marry two
husbands!” Still gainsaying, with blows they were forcing her to marry.
She invented a stratagem—she painted her fingers with ink; she spoiled
her beauty. Hence it must be, they say, that all women on marrying
tattoe their hands.
In our walks we always had the unsolicited company of some government
deputies. If you motioned them about anything, they were exceedingly
addicted to salaaming, by bowing and raising their hands to their
heads, but they remained exactly where they were. A rare and beautiful
flower attracted your attention, and you wished to look closer at it,
your attendant functionary pantomimically trusts that you will not
enter, but passing through the gate, or scaling the coral wall, in a
few minutes he will present you with one of the novel flowers. Should
one of your company accidentally or intentionally slip out of the
sight of these impromptu attendants, they appear most mentally troubled
till he reappears.
The policy pursued with these people was a mild but firm one. They were
asked for a house on shore that might be used as a place for our sick
to recruit. They declined; and a few days after one of our officers and
some men occupied one of their buildings in the town of Tumai, divided
from Napa by a small stream. This building had been used as a kind of
town-hall, where the chiefs assembled in council, carried thither in
sedan-chairs, encased in ratan lattices, and swung from a pole resting
on the shoulders of two serfs. The honesty of the natives was shown in
the security of clothes and everything else that might be left out;
even a boat’s anchor lost, and found by them, was returned to this
place, though they kept a spy upon its American inmates night and day.
Here, while dining with the young officer in charge, I “tried on,” with
some of the more intelligent natives, sentences in their language, from
a vocabulary which had been prepared for him, and with which he had
been able to negotiate for his daily supply of chow-chow, and eatables
for some of the ships. “Cha tooti kwoo”—tea bring to me; and “Midzoo
tooti kwoo”—water bring to me; and similar simple sentences they
understood readily; but the attempt at more complicate ones, in which
the vowel sound is dropped, rather awoke their risibles.
The authorities sent off protests against the further occupancy of the
house at Tumai, and requested that we would vacate it. They stated it
was the place they had for assembling; it was the only place they had
for meeting together to debate their local affairs, and it was also the
place where their young were taught. They also took the opportunity
of mentioning that the fertility of their island was not equal to the
wants of its population; and that every draft upon them for live-stock,
&c., was an oppression. In this there was obvious dissimulation;
because they sent away to other countries a good deal of the produce
of their land, and a great deal as tribute, while we paid well for
whatever we got. The commodore had notified them of his intention of
going up to their capital, Sheudi, distant some four miles from the
anchorage, to pay his respects to the prince-regent at the palace; they
did not covet the honor; they trusted he would not confer it.
Not far from Tumai are a number of the native tombs, beautifully
located on green hill-sides. They are large, built in the form of a
horse-shoe, with a cemented dome fronted by a little court, into which
you descend by a flight of stone steps, and are kept whitened with
great assiduity by the surviving relatives. The most attractive and
romantic spots are chosen for their location. Their reverence and care
for the homes of the dead, may well put to the blush, the wickedness
of Christian communities who make streets through graves and graveyards.
In a grove of pines, at Tumai, not far from the landing-place, is a
secluded spot, which appears to have been set aside for the interment
of foreigners. Our ships buried some of our men and one officer there.
As soon as the graves are closed the authorities cause them to be well
built over, without charge, in a parallelogram, with coral rock and
cement, leaving an inclination toward the feet that the rain may run
off. Any inscription that the friends please, may either be imbedded
in the masonry or erected at the head, which will be respected and
preserved by the natives. On copper plates, tacked on wooden crosses at
the end of some of these tombs, I read:—
“Wm. Hares, seaman in his Britannic majesty’s ship, ‘Alceste,’ aged 21
years, lies buried here, October 16th, 1816. This monument was erected
by the king and inhabitants of this most hospitable island.”
“Vive Jesus: † vive sa croix: Ci-Git Calland (Pierre Juler), second
chirurgien a bord de la corvette de Roi la _Victoriense_; mort a bord
le 16th Septembre, 1846.”
“Ci-Git Le Corps Du R’d Mathieu Adnet, Pêre Miss’re Apostolique, Fréres
du Japon, Decedé le hier J’et, 1848.”
The Loo-Chooan manner of making salt is peculiar. They clear acres of
ground in the vicinity of the water, and make it as level as possible.
During the extreme heat of the day men continue to throw into the air,
that it may descend on this level space, ladles full of salt-water.
Partial crystallization is thus produced, which unites with the sand
under foot, which, being allowed to dry, is piled up aside, and
afterward the saline matter is washed from it, filtered through straw
into earthen vessels, and then evaporated by heat. On these level
places our marine, and boat-howitzer divisions were usually landed for
drilling purposes.
You see no wheeled vehicles on the island, and one in the shape of an
ambulance-cart which the commodore had built, and once ashore there,
is, no doubt, the first that a Loo-Chooan ever looked on. Small horses,
with their untrimmed fetlocks, are the only means of conveyance from
the junks to the interior, of whatever little merchandise they now
consume. The load is placed on a rude saddle secured by girth and a
crupper of rope enveloped in bamboo-rollers like strung necklace;
and the bridle, with its head-stall of rope, has two small pieces of
wood passing on either side of the nostrils of the horse, with a cord
through them, by which he is controlled in place of a bit.
On the 6th of June, the commodore, with a suite of officers, determined
on paying an official visit to the prince-regent, at his palace at
Sheudi—a visit which the authorities had vainly endeavored to get
indefinitely postponed. They did not understand these attentions:
stretching wide their hands, they said “America was a great nation;
while Loo-Choo was no larger than the points of the fingers scarcely
separated—what does America want with Loo-Choo?” The escort, when
landed and formed at Tumai, consisted of two companies of marines
in full dress—to whom, for some purpose or other, six rounds of
ball-cartridges had been issued per man—two brass pieces and fixed
ammunition, manned by sailors, and two full bands from the Susquehanna
and Mississippi, while in front were three tall fellows carrying
the American ensign. The rear was brought up by servants carrying
some presents consisting of arms and calicoes sewed up in red cloth,
and others with chow-chow baskets. The march was over a well-paved
and graded road of coral rock. First we passed over a large terrace
overhung by enormous banyan-trees, which fronted a very thick arched
wall enclosing a temple and the tomb of some of the royal family. A
tablet standing on a large pedestal near the step of this terrace,
in native characters, warns the peasantry that when the sedan of any
high functionary rests here, that the lower classes must take the road
to the right. Sometimes we passed sugar-cane growing on one side of
the road, and on the other ingeniously-irrigated paddy-fields were
waving in green rice. The road then ascended by a grade of about seven
degrees, quite a high ridge, from which the extended prospect of
cultivation was very fine indeed. The sun came down hot, though at
times we walked under the shade of thick and pretty bamboo-hedges. The
sight was a rare one to the peasantry; some, attracted by the music and
the novelty of uniform, left their work in the fields and ran to the
eminences on the roadside, then others were alarmed and bolted; one
fellow I saw jump into a muddy stream, swim for it, and not look back
until he stood on the other side.
We reached the street leading to the palace-grounds about twelve
o’clock. This was a wide one of nicely-rolled gravel, and on either
side were walls of much height and thickness, showing smooth and
expensive masonry. In marching along this approach, we passed under
three roofed and detached gateways, built at intervals across it.
They had three distinct entrances, the widest being in the centre,
over which a red sign, with Japanese characters in gilt, had this
announcement: “This is a small island, but observes the rules of
propriety; distinguished persons will pass through the centre opening,
others will go through those at the sides.”
On arriving at the main gate of the palace, a number of the chiefs,
in their yellow and red caps, were there to receive us. Leaving the
escort outside, the commodore and suite of officers entered, and after
passing through successive courts, and up stone steps alternately to
the right and left, at a considerable elevation from the street, the
party was ushered into the hall of audience. Here were a number of
yellow and red-capped chiefs assembled. Chairs and tables for each one
of the guests were placed, and pipes, tea, and cakes, with lacquered
chop-sticks, served. When the regent—quite an old man, with long,
white beard—entered, with his councillors, he advanced and saluted the
commodore half way, insisting on rank or equality. The interview was
a short one; compliments were interchanged through Dr. Bettelheim and
Mr. S. W. Williams of Canton, when the regent was invited aboard of
the Susquehanna, when she should return to Napa, after a contemplated
absence of twelve days. The presents were then left in the middle of
the floor, and the visiting party retired. On reaching the street we
were conducted to a large hall in another part of the ground, where a
feast had been prepared for us, set out upon black lacquered tables.
The first course consisted of soups, of which there were nearly a
dozen different kinds furnished in succession, in small cup-bowls,
with porcelain spoons. There was nearly every kind from egg-soup
to “bird’s-nest.” The solids were pleasant to the taste but rather
suspicious in appearance, among which were slices of hard-boiled eggs,
so colored as to resemble sections of the uncooked tomato. Finding
that we were not able to make any progress with the black lacquered
chop-sticks which had been distributed at each one’s place, they
furnished us with little sharpened pieces of oak, with the aid of which
we did full justice to our hosts.
After strange-looking cakes had been brought, tea removed, and pipes
handed, very small porcelain cups were placed, and our honorable
red-cap attendants, who according to their custom, wait themselves
upon their guests, kept them continually filled with SAKI from silver
vessels shaped like tea-pots. This was the first taste we had of this
colorless, celebrated Japanese national beverage. It was pleasant to
the taste, and yet the after-math was not; it had some of the _goût_
of champagne, and then it was turnipy. Buckingham might be on the
seas, and then the seas might be on him; but a man could scarcely be
considered “in his cups” though a hundred cups were in him of _saki_.
Nor could he exclaim with Falstaff that the villain had put lime in his
“sack,” (did Shakespeare know Japanese?)—because the thimble-sized
tankard would not admit of it.
The commodore, through the interpreter, toasted the queen and young
prince, and hoped Loo-Chooan man and American man would always be
friends. The chiefs of course salaamed considerably to this sentiment,
but I am quite dubious whether they did not regard it as an indication
of closer proximity with these Americans, who might disturb at a future
day the _nolli me tangere_ doctrines of their country.
The feast over, the column of escort was again formed, and making the
march down to Tumai, in less time than up to Sheudi, by four o’clock,
all were aboard of their respective ships.
No more beautiful place than Sheudi, so far as verdure, elevated
situation, and attractive foliage, is concerned. Our officers took many
a tramp up there, and always with pleasure. At cool springs well cared
for they could slake their thirst; under enormous trees they could
pic-nic or _siesta_ if they chose, and afterward bathe in a walled
lake all covered over with trees. What would the palace-grounds, the
Komooe of Sheudi, be worth in this country?—no more baronial domain
in England. Should you have gone unprovided with chow-chow on these
excursions, stop at a roadside _Kunkwa_, usually adjoining some place
of worship, and the occupants will promptly give you tea and cakes, and
the examination of your strange costume, and sage queries about your
ship, is their reward for their entertainment. If it should rain during
your walk, request one of your unbidden native officer associates to
procure a papyrus parasol.
There are many things to interest an antiquarian taste, and provoke
conjecture, about Loo-Choo. At Napa there are stone-statues, eight
feet high, quite well executed, of their “far-seeing God”—there
are causeways of stone, breakwaters, forts constructed with good
engineering, and well designed and located for defence, though now
entirely disarmed; and you pass over well-arched bridges, with
neatly-cut stone balustrading, and in fine state of preservation. The
palace at Sheudi is a perfect fortress in wall and situation, and in
determined hands would laugh at a siege of many days. When were these
built?—when were these forts disarmed? As Basil Hall told Napoleon at
St. Helena, in speaking of this island, there are _point de fusils_
there now. The invocation of the Ethiopic song, “Rise, old _Napa_,
rise!” would be now of no avail.
Although a line of steamers from our Pacific coast to Shanghae, China,
on the arc of a great circle, would come nowhere nigh the group known
as the Bonin islands to the northeast of Loo-Choo, yet the commodore
still deemed it best to make a hasty reconnoissance of the harbor of
Port Lloyd, which had been surveyed some years ago by the English, who
claim sovereignty over Peel island by right of possession, though it
can be proven that it was first permanently settled by an American,
or one owing allegiance to our country; but as the whole policy of
our government has been opposed to foreign colonial possession, there
is scarcely any chance of there being any dispute about it. Mr.
English, under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, may make himself
comfortable.
On the 9th of June the Susquehanna, with the sloop-of-war Saratoga
in tow, took their departure, leaving the Mississippi, and storeship
Supply in the harbor. A few days afterward the Plymouth arrived
from north China, bringing us papers containing an account of the
presidential inauguration.
The Susquehanna and the Saratoga reached Peel island, after a pleasant
passage, on the 14th. After a stay there of four days, during which
the commodore sent parties of officers to explore the island, put a
quantity of live stock ashore in the custody of some American residents
at Port Lloyd, and also purchased an eligible lot for the government,
should it ever hereafter be required, for a coal depot, the ships
returned to Napa, bringing with them fish and turtle. They ascertained
that some twenty whalers had stopped at the island during the year for
refreshments. A parcel of long-nosed porkers turned loose by ships
passing, can only be reached by the aid of the rifle; but some of the
officers who took a crack at them, facetiously spoke in their letters
to the United States of their hunting the _wild boar_.
Von Siebold, in his history of the discoveries in the Japan seas,
says the Bonin islands were first put down on a map published by the
Dutch hydrographer, Ortelius, in 1570, and are reported as having been
discovered in 1543, by Bernardo de Torres, who named them Malonbrigo
de los Hermanos. They were visited in 1595 by Captain Linschaten, of
the Dutch East India Company, and are on the map by Hondries in 1634. A
few years after they were visited by Captains Quast and Tasman of the
same company, who were in search of the Gen and Ken, or Gold and Silver
islands. These navigators determined their position with admirable
accuracy. Mention is made of them by Vris and Schaef, of the Dutch
East India Company in 1643. In 1650 on the map of Jansomous, and in
1680 by Van Kenlen. By later authorities they are omitted, and reappear
on charts in the following century as discovered by the Spanish Admiral
Cabrera Bueno, and are called Islas del Arzobispo.
The Japanese history in the book San-kok-tou-ran-to-sito, mentions
these islands as discovered between 1592 and 1595. In 1675 a Japan
exploring expedition, specially authorized by the emperor, sailed
from Simoda, then an imperial and customhouse port, for the Bonin
islands. They were named by the Japanese the Munin Sima, and reported
as fit to be settled, and the importance of doing so was urged. The
Japanese counted more than eighty small rock islands. In 1826 they
were visited by an American whaler, Captain Coffin; in 1827, by the
Russian admiral, Lutke; and in 1828, by Capt. Beechy of the English
navy. The inhabitants at Port Lloyd, on Peel island, are about forty in
number; on the Bailey or Coffin group, there are living two families.
Nearly all these people are runaway sailors from whale-ships, who have
obtained wives from the Kanakas of the Sandwich islands, and so far as
their nationality is concerned, the Americans predominate. The oldest
settler at Port Lloyd is Nathaniel Savary, who acts as mayor of the
place, and carries out their self-made laws and regulations with the
assistance of two elders elected by a majority.
As long as the Dutch held their fort Zeelandia, on Formosa, its
position and possession gave them great advantages in the eyes of the
Japanese, but its capture, after a prolonged siege, by the Chinese
pirate chief Coshinga, had a very injurious effect with the Japanese,
diminishing their prestige and weakening belief in their naval
supremacy. It is quite desirable to know the future prospects of the
Bonin islands. The adventitious aid of their possession would prove of
great advantage in a trade with Japan, being only a distance of two
days’ steaming from Yedo.
On the 2d of July the squadron got under way for the bay of Yedo,
Japan, the “Susquehanna” towing the “Saratoga,” and the “Mississippi”
towing the “Plymouth.” The storeship “Supply” was left at the
anchorage, no doubt greatly to the regret of the natives, who, gazing
from the beach on our departure, hoped that they would not see us again.
We rounded the southern end of the island with a heavy swell on, the
southwest monsoon prevailing at the time, and were soon heading up the
Pacific.
Our patriotic remembrance of the return of our great national
anniversary was ahead of the people of our own native land; or is it
the “Fourth of July” to an American, until the sun of that day has
illumined forest, stream, and home, in his own country? At mid-day
then of our “Fourth,” when it was yet but eleven o’clock at night
of the third, in the United States the large old steamers, and the
sailing-vessels in their tow, going dead to windward, dressed with our
national ensigns, in latitude 28° 36′ north, and longitude 130° 42′
east, running nearly abreast, fired seventeen guns each, in honor of
the day; and the “main-brace” being ordered to be spliced, “Jack” had
the opportunity of remembering it in a tot of grog.
The next day, by signal from flag-ship, anchor-buoys were ordered
to be made of empty casks, the men were exercised with small arms
at target-firing, and ship’s company exercised at general and fire
quarters, previous to arriving at our port of destination.
A believer in omens would have had an opportunity of indulging his
credulity, and interpreting, if he could, the meaning of a remarkable
meteor which shot athwart the sky on the morning of the 6th of July,
and was visible from the decks of the ships, when in two days’ run of
the bay of Yedo. It appeared as large in circumference as the crown of
a man’s hat. Its body was of the brilliancy and color of molten iron,
and glowed as if heated by incandescence, emitting all the while sparks
which trailed backward in its passage, like barbs of arrows. Its tail
was of a bluish transparency, which extended into an emerald-green hue,
terminating in a fiery, smoky bulb, resembling the flame of burning
tar. When first noticed, it seemed to shoot upward from a line on a
level with our quarter-hammock netting, in the southwest, and so near
did it appear to the ship, that for an instant it was imagined to be a
rocket from the sloop-of-war Plymouth—at the time in tow of us—and
designed to attract our attention. In its passage through the heavens,
which occupied the time in which one might count thirty, it described
a parabolic curve, illuminating as it went our hurricane-deck and
wheel-houses with astonishing clearness, and on reaching a point nearly
due north, occupied by a bank of dull roseate cloud, it burst like a
rocket and disappeared, leaving those who had the good fortune to see
it uttering exclamations of admiration and wonderment, and a rather
credulous corporal of marines who happened to be going his rounds at
the time, willing to take his “corporal” oath that the brilliant body
started within a few yards of our rail. The heat of the day preceding
was very great.
Next day, being near the insular empire, target practice was continued;
old cartridges drawn, guns loaded and shotted, and preparations made
for removing the forward-rail for the clear working of our bow-guns.