to foreign affairs. He was received December 7,
1857, by the shogun with the ceremony due to his new rank of
plenipotentiary which he had then received.(276) In a despatch, dated July
8, 1858, he tells of a severe illness which he had suffered; how the
shogun sent two physicians to attend him, and when a bulletin was sent to
Yedo that his case was hopeless, the physicians "received peremptory
orders to cure me, and if I died they would themselves be in peril."

The principal effort of Mr. Harris was the negotiation of a commercial
treaty which should make provision for the maintenance of trade in
specified ports of Japan. The treaties already made by Japan with foreign
nations only provided for furnishing vessels with needed supplies, and for
the protection of vessels driven by stress of weather and of persons
shipwrecked on the Japanese islands. It remained to agree upon terms,
which should be mutually advantageous, for the regular opening of the
ports for trade and for the residence at these ports of the merchants
engaged in trade.

The excitement occasioned by the steps already taken rendered the shogun's
government exceedingly reluctant to proceed further in this direction. It
was only after much persuasion, and with a desire to avoid appearing to
yield to the appearance of force(277) with which the English were about to
urge the negotiation of a commercial treaty, that at last, on the 17th of
June, 1857, a treaty "for the purpose of further regulating the
intercourse of American citizens within the empire of Japan" was duly
concluded. The port of Nagasaki was to be opened in addition to those
already stipulated. American citizens were to be permitted to reside at
Shimoda and Hakodate for the purpose of supplying the wants of the vessels
which visited there.

This does not seem to have been adequate, for only about a year later a
further treaty, revoking that of June, 1857, was arranged. It was signed
at Yedo on the 29th of July, 1858. Equivalent treaties were negotiated by
other nations, and it is under the terms of these that the intercourse
between Japan and the nations of Europe and America is still conducted.
They provided for the opening of the ports of Ni-igata and Hyogo, and for
the closing of Shimoda, which had been found unsuitable, and the opening
in its place of Kanagawa.(278) They fixed dates for the opening of the
cities of Yedo and Osaka, and provided for the setting apart of suitable
concessions i