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.
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