The negotiations, which were interrupted by the equinoctial gale, were resumed on the 17th of March. The commodore wished them to give us three or four ports; his squadron was a powerful one; but if he carried back an unsatisfactory answer to his government it would send another and a larger one for a different purpose. The Japanese were willing to give us one port then, and another in five years; they said they could not grant a port in the island of Yezo—hitherto called Matsmai—without consulting the prince of that department. To this, it was replied, “Give the port in the island of Niphon, and the squadron would go to see the prince of Matsmai.”
On the 19th of March the squadron was increased by the arrival of the storeship Supply, from China. She brought us the intelligence of a naval engagement between the Russians and the Turks; but the disappointment of many in not getting letters was great, and they thought
Oh the troubles that do espan, The man who _will go_ to Japan!
The Japanese having offered the harbor of Simoda, in the province of Idzoo, as one of the ports for American ships to visit, the Vandalia and Southampton were sent down to that place, to make a reconnoissance, and to report upon its facilities of entrance, and capacity. The weather was raw, rough, squally, and rainy. Agreeably to instructions from the government, received before leaving China—a wise thing, as naval commanders are always very chary, and not at all disposed to render any more facilities to the foreign diplomatic agents of the country, than they can help, on the 25th of the month, the steam-frigate Susquehanna left Japan for Hong Kong, to convey the new American commissioner to such of the Cinque ports as he desired to visit.
On the same day there was a landing, not for purposes of negotiation, but for the reception of the presents from the Japanese, which consisted of lacquered cabinets, desks, some silks, bags of rice, &c., not very numerous or at all comparable in use or value to those given them. On this occasion there was quite a number of officials present, who were compelled to manifest curiosity, when they saw the beautiful little locomotive, with its highly-finished rosewood car, complete in all the customary furniture, driven by a charcoal-fire alone, at a rate of a mile in three minutes, around a circular track of three hundred feet. The Americans were entertained with the contests in the ring of some Japanese athletes. These men were of great stature and much obesity, but their limbs displayed none of the angular muscularity, of a Monsieur Paul, lifting his cannon or resisting the draught of horses, or the pugilistic activity of the American Tom Hyers and Sullivans, who could no doubt whale them with little difficulty. These men are in the pay of princes, and have such designations as “Giant of the North,” &c. Their hair is gathered upon their head, as others of their country, though not shorn, perhaps to prevent their Samsonian qualities being affected. In front of their persons, which is otherwise unclothed, they wear a scarf, with the insignia of the prince they serve upon it. They commence with an exhibition of their strength, such as throwing with each hand over the shoulder, or lying on the ground, and somerseting with large straw-bags containing two hundred pounds of rice each. Then came the trial of the ring, not more than eight feet in diameter, and made of rice straw. Before commencing the combatants squatted and rubbed their knees, as if to assure themselves of their strength, and then rubbed a little dust under each arm, something like an infuriated cow, when she throws it on her back, and then with a grunt they closed, and though the claret was occasionally drawn, and great welts were raised upon the shoulders, yet there did not appear much of that belicosity, descriptions of which have graced some of the columns of the papers of our own country, since the infusion into it of Bill Poole blackguardism. The effort was rather to get one another out of the ring, when the effort ends. After being sufficiently amused at this _intellectual_ display, the commodore and party returned aboard.