ated the servitors brought in a rapid
succession of courses, consisting chiefly of thick soups, or rather
stews, in most of which fresh fish was a component part. These were
served in small earthen bowls or cups, and were brought in upon
lacquered stands, about fourteen inches square and ten inches high, and
placed, one before each guest, upon the tables. Together with each dish
was a supply of soy or some other condiment, while throughout there was
an abundant quantity, served in peculiar vessels, of the Japanese
national liquor, the _sake_, a sort of whiskey distilled from rice.
Various sweetened confections and a multiplicity of cakes were liberally
interspersed among the other articles on the tables. Toward the close of
the feast, a plate containing a broiled crawfish, a piece of fried fish
of some kind, two or three boiled shrimps, and a small square pudding
with something of the consistence of blancmange, was placed before each,
with a hint that they were to follow the guests on their return to the
ships, and they were accordingly sent and duly received afterward.

After the feast, which passed pleasantly and convivially, compliments
being freely exchanged, and healths drunk in Liliputian cups of sake,
the commissioners expressed great anxiety about the proposed visit of
the Commodore to Yedo. They earnestly urged him not to take his ships
any farther up the bay, as they said it would lead to trouble by which
the populace might be disturbed and their own lives perhaps jeoparded.
The Commodore argued the matter with them for some time, and, as they
still pertinaciously urged their objections to his visit to the capital,
it was agreed that the subject should be further discussed by an
interchange of notes. The meeting then broke up.

When it was determined by our Government to send an expedition to Japan,
those in authority were not unmindful of the peculiar characteristics of
that singular nation. Unlike all other civilized peoples, it was in a
state of voluntary, long-continued, and determined isolation. It neither
desired nor sought communication with the rest of the world, but, on the
contrary, strove to the uttermost to prevent it. It was comparatively an
easy task to propose, to any Power the ports of which were freely
visited by ships from every part of the world, the terms of a commercial
treaty. But not so when, by any Power, commerce itself was interdicted.
Before general conditions of commerce could be pr