ot confine Americans, or prevent them from walking around; but we
should like to place a limit to the distance they may walk.

_Perry_. I am prepared to settle that matter now, but they must not be
confined to any particular house or street. Suppose we make the distance
they may walk, the same distance that a man can go and come in a day.
Or, if you choose, the number of _lis_ or _ris_ may be agreed upon.

_Japanese_. We are willing that they shall walk as far as they can go
and come in a day.

_Perry_. There is no probability that sailors would wish to go on shore
more than once from curiosity; besides, they will have their daily
duties to attend to on board ship and will not be able to go on shore.

_Japanese_. We do not wish any women to come and remain at Simoda.

_Perry_. The probability is that few women will go there, and they only
the wives of the officers of the ships.

_Japanese_. When you come back from Matsumai we should like _you_ to
settle the distance that Americans are to walk. It is difficult for _us_
to settle the distance.

_Perry_. Say the distance of seven Japanese miles in any direction from
the centre of the city of Simoda.

_Japanese_. Very well. A few miles will make no difference. You are
requested not to leave agents until after you have experienced that it
is necessary.

_Perry_. I am willing to defer the appointment of a consul or an agent
one year or eighteen months from the date of the signing the treaty; and
then, if my Government think it necessary, it will send one.

In fact, not an article of the treaty was made without the most serious
deliberation by the Japanese. In answer to a question from Captain
Adams, in the very first stages of the negotiation, they replied: "The
Japanese are unlike the Chinese; they are adverse to change; and when
they make a compact of any kind they intend that it shall endure for a
thousand years. For this reason it will be best to deliberate and
examine well the facilities for trade and the suitableness of the port
before any one is determined on." Probably nothing but the exercise of
the most perfect truthfulness and patience would ever have succeeded in
making a treaty with them at all; and from the language of one of their
communications, it is obvious that, with characteristic caution, they
meant that their present action should be but a beginning of
intercourse, which might or might not be afterward made more extensive,
according to the res