The wind blowing very fresh, these officers remained on board some time, when they were entertained in the cabin, and shown over the ship. When they came off they brought with them a present consisting of dried fish, placed on a lacquered tray, and a quantity of sweet potatoes contained in a straw-bag.
The next day the officers of the squadron visited the shore, landing at a neat flight of stone steps, which had been set apart by the authorities for the purpose; no doubt—as things in Japan undergo slight changes in forty years—the same flight that Golownin descended from his captivity. Many desirous of getting some of the _curios_ that the place possessed, indicated a most pressing propensity for purchase, taking the shopkeepers, of a place generally dull, very much by surprise. On this day there was exposed at the shop-fronts some of their swords, an article forbidden to be sold out of the country by Japanese laws; of the purchase of one or two, by some of our officers, the authorities subsequently made complaint to the commodore, as well as of other things not very creditable to our reputation. In doing so, they said: “In general, when upright, cordial propriety marks intercourse, then peace, good feeling, and harmony, are real between the parties; but if harshness, violence, and grasping, characterize it, then hate and distrust, with collision arise, and love will not be found to bring the hearts of the people together. This is a rule of heaven, concerning which, no one can have any doubt.”
“In general,” the terms of this communication are rather extreme, but that “cordial propriety” marked the conduct of some of our officers—conduct which was not at all calculated to make “our name great among the heathen”—it would be untrue to say.
On landing I visited the large temple behind and above the town, having a background of a dense grove of cypress, and very conspicuous from the water. Its front, as we stepped it off, was eightyseven paces. The interior exceeded in gilding, and elaborateness of unpainted carving, anything I had yet seen in Japan. I would have taken it to be a Sintoo temple, from a female image with an aureola, resembling the images in catholic churches with the golden halo encircling the head, but in another corner there was an image of a shaved-head Buddha in wood, and brilliantly lacquered. Resembling very much some images I saw on the British war-steamer Rattler, taken at the capture of Rangoon, I concluded the image must have been brought to this remote point from India, although religion is a matter upon which all persons visiting Japan for a limited period as we did, are liable to fall into the greatest errors.