They are
all fond of a glass; and there is no danger in the harbor of Hakodate."

So that night the crew of the Diana enjoyed a genuine sailors' holiday,
with a plentiful supply of saki and Japanese tobacco.

_THE OPENING OF JAPAN._

On the 8th of July, 1853, the Japanese were treated to a genuine
surprise. Off Cape Idsu, the outer extremity of the Bay of Yedo,
appeared a squadron of war-vessels bound inward under full sail, in bold
disregard of the lines of prohibition which Japan had drawn across the
entrance of all her ports. Rounding the high mountains of the promontory
of Idsu, by noon the fleet reached Cape Sagami, which forms the dividing
line between the outer and inner sections of the Bay of Yedo. Here the
shores rose in abrupt bluffs, furrowed by green dells, while in the
distance could be seen groves and cultivated fields. From the cape a
number of vessels put out to intercept the squadron, but, heedless of
these, it kept on through the narrow part of the bay--from five to eight
miles wide--and entered the inner bay, which expands to a width of more
than fifteen miles. Here the ships dropped anchor within full view of
the town of Uragawa, having broken through the invisible bonds which
Japan had so long drawn around her coasts.

During the period between the release of the Russian captives and the
date of this visit various foreign vessels had appeared on the coast of
Japan, each with some special excuse for its presence, yet each
arbitrarily ordered to leave. One of these, an American trading vessel,
the Morrison, had been driven off with musketry and artillery, although
she had come to return a number of shipwrecked Japanese. Some naval
vessels had entered the Bay of Yedo, but had been met with such vigorous
opposition that they made their visits very short, and as late as 1850
the Japanese notified foreign nations that they proposed to maintain
their rigorous system of exclusion. No dream came to them of the
remarkable change in their policy which a few decades were to bring
forth.

They did not know that they were seeking to maintain an impossible
situation. China had adopted a similar policy, but already the
cannon-balls of foreign powers had produced a change of view. If Japan
had not peaceably yielded, the hard hand of war must soon have broken
down her bars. For in addition to Russia there was now another civilized
power with ports on the Pacific, the United States. And the fleets of
the