The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-01-14

SATURDAY MORNIN0......JAN II, lsoo.
Men and TAinss In Japan.
We publish the following interesting CORES
pondence of the N. Y. Jowraat Of Commerce,
dated Ieddo, Japan, Oct TO- 1850;
While our noble old ship, the Powhatan.
was lying in the Woosung River, eight or ten
miles below Shanghai. Commodore Tatnaii
received orders from the Secretary of the
Navy to take the TIVE Japanese Ministers
been appointed for this service, having been
ont beyond her time, and being NJ once order
I'd home Oar cruise will be considerably
prolonged by this arrangement since we must
wait TIL February I'D for the Japanese Min.
listers, while, besides this, the passage round
the Horn 10 about two months longer than by
the Cape OF Good Hope.
1t was necessary for our Commodore to run
mp to Jeddo at once 70 ascertain whether the
Minister'S would 60 As had been stipulated, as
rumors were current and credited generally,
that the whole long. talked of affair would be
. failure and farce. Accordingly, Sept. 18th,
leaving the Woosung, our course was laid
for Nagasaki, which we reached in three days.
Many faces were bright with smiles, while
the courteous and graceful obeisance-a low
bow with the hands touching the knees-was
a salutation as sincere Us universal. But
how changed all around! Fifteen foreign
vessels weIe anchored in the harbor, and
usually there are twenty, while the "Stars
and s ripes'' fi0ated from the flag -staf OF al
American Consul! Leaving Nagasaki once
more near sunset, Sept l2d, we had smooth
sea and the most agreeable weather, and
passing Cosima, or the Birds Islands, smok-
ing volcano, and gazing once more on the
grand mountain Fusi-ama, on the main land,
as it broke upon our view, we entered the Bay
of Jeddo, and about noon, Oct. Sd, cast anchor
near Yokohama, which is only three miles
south Of Kanagawa, and seventeen miles from
Jeddo.
Hon Mr.. Ward accepted Commodore Tat
nails invitation to accompany him to Jeddo.
Wednesday, Oct. 5, leaving Yoke hama, and
rounding long point which separates JeddO
from Kanagawa, this great city for the first
time broke upon our vision, and anchoring a.
3 O'Clock p. NJ. about miles from the shore
every one was impatient TO put his foot upon
the soil, and explore, examine, and see clearly
what now, through the fogs, and clouds, and
trees he saw darkly.
Mr.. Ward had made his arrangements TO call
at once upon Mr.. Harris, our first Minister TO
Japan, whose labors have been SO honorable
to his country, and useful to Japan and the
civilized world. 1t was fitting, however, that
he should not leave the ship as Il private indi-
vidual He was the American Minister 10
China, and as such should be honored in the
sight Of the Japanese Government and people.
Accordingly, when he left the ship the yards
were all manned, and seventeen reports from
the heavy guns of the Powhatan rolling over
these smooth and quiet waters, and dying away
among the groves and hills which give to the
city the air of a forest, must have awakened
memories of the old vocanoes for which this
country is noted.
Before leaving the ship, let us look around
The Bay OF Jeddo is about 20 miles wide by ~
long. and is entered by a Strait miles wide
and ten long, called the Straits OF Uraga, from q
large town situated at the entrance. The shores
are low with few exceptions, and no nous
tains line the coast or are near it. The form
of the city, as 1t touches and stretches along
the Bay, is that OF crescent, the distance be-
tween the points of whose horns Is said to be-
above ftcenfy nties-all one continuous street
line of unbroken blocks of houses and shops
crowded with the teeming population.
A mile before the town was a line of five
forts, built upon sand bar, on which a sixth,
as observed, was i'll a process OF cons truction.
They are large and well constructed as gen.
tlemen Of the military profession assure me,
the walls being of brown granite, without &C.
ment, IL or Is feet high. Some pieces of can
non we're seen without covering, and others
were protected and screened by small houses,
under which they are placed, while not Il SOL
der to be seen, and the green grass luxu-
Rating from side to side over the entire plat
form, which contained acres in each fort, re-
IN nds me of Pan rather than of The god of war; |
They were beautiful, rather than terrible;
like little Islands OF this inland sea thrown up |
by the Creator for the happiness of life and |
the adornment of this fair portion of our earth;
not for the work of misery and destruction |
Then turn We to the shipping. Jeddo is not |
vet opened to commerce, and therefore no for. |
eign merchant vessels are to be seen there; but |
l counted nine at Yokohama, and among them |
an american, as that is an opened port, as Jed
do will be i'll 1863, the japanese government
having wisely decided that it would be peril
Gus and injurious to open all tue ports at once.
Where an en- tire change in the policy of a ma
ton is con templated, and the non in tercouse
of ages is to be exchanged for free intercourse
and unrestricted commerce, evidently. there
IN ust be Il training OF numerous officials as
interpreters and custom house officers, and
others, well as of the people themselves.
In this we see the good common sense OF the
Japanese, who persistentIy refused larger con-
Cessions at the time, though coaXed and urged
by newly-arrived outsiders; while in the same
fact is seen the assurance of future prudence
and Justice. Two small steamers, armed with
eight or ten guns, were lying in port, differed
and manned entirely by japanese, though not
built by them, one being a present from the
Queen OF England and the other built in Hol-
land by order of the japanese Government
Three sloops were anchored near them, built
after European models, and unarmed so far as
,ould be seen, while about 100 large junks, with
single mast OF great size, resembling the trunk
>t forest tree cut of thirty feet above its roots,
we're anchored in different parts of the bar
Dor, and probably above five hundred fishing
boats, of different sizes, spreading their white
aiis, or propelled by oars. were scattered over
his part of the bay, giving toits natural beau
" the addition Of that OF art, and the interest
,rea ted by the presence of human Intelligence
md activity Probably thousand of the
lshing boats are scattered over this inland
heet of water.
The next cay after anchoring, the Commo- |
lore went on shore with his flag Lieutenant
md your correspondent, amidst a drenching |
aim which continued for three DAYS and |
tights without cessation and almost without |
A solid wall is built up about
light feet high along the beach in front of the
ity, and close up to the long street which
Winds for twenty miles along the crescent |
hore, but without wharyes or jetties, flights
4 stone steps being constructed in several
,laces for ascent and descent, while often Il
flank lowered down into boat is the only
nd uncomfortable substitute The good con.
lition Of this wall is admirable; in its whole
xtent not one break is to be seen; not one |
tone is displaced. The impression made by |
he forts and the wall along this great beach |
# more than twenty miles in extent without
my sight of the city, is that Of high civiliZa-
ion aud art.
nUnlike to Pekin, Jeddo is not surrounded by
Valls; no magnificent gateways open their
massive doors; no nine-story towers rise and
rown above them and no bastions and par |
pets upon the walls with cannon peering
through the embrasure. or mounted above
hem, remind the stranger as he approaches |
he city that its happy people ever unders TODD
he art OF war, or that he lives in a world |
where it was ever known. Ascending the
light Of steps, and standing in the front street. |
Ind gazing upon what meets the eye rs it turns |
n different directions, the first feeling is that
4 disappointment-the houses are so unlike in
Ire and elegance TO what he had expected to |
Ind them, and the second feeling is that of Ut
er beWitderment, as he sees everywhere tail |
ress and groves and thick undergrowth.
while b lis rise here and there of considerable
ize and elevation, all shrouded in a mass of
axariant vegetation-hilis as rural and rough
3 any to be seen in country town in New
England and New York, which the human foot
Gems never ~ have approached, or the hand
70 have touched.
l was in the midst Of a city larger
u territory and population than Lon
lon, and yet seemed to be in a forest
That feeling is the one first awakened.
ma wander where one will, and as long as he
VIII 1t Is only deepened; aud, in my case at
least made the more delicious. 1t is a law. or
amounts to the same thing
With the Japanese-that every man is bound to