rose, advanced, and bowed as before. The dignitaries did not seem quite at ease, probably on account of our having stolen a march upon them, in entering the castle.

The interview had lasted nearly an hour, when the Regent rose and proposed that the Commodore should pay him a visit at his official residence. The procession was thereupon formed in the same order, and returned to the street, where we had been invited to enter, on our arrival. The Regent's house was in this street, a short distance from the main avenue. The seamen, marines, and musicians remained behind, in charge of a few officers. The Commodore and his suite were conducted into the house, which was rather larger than usual, but not distinguished by any appearance of wealth, or insignia of office. It consisted of a central hall with wings, open toward the court-yard, from which it was only separated by a narrow verandah, approached by a flight of stone steps. The building was of wood, and the pillars supporting it, with the beams of the ceilings, were painted of a dark-red colour. The floor was covered with thick, fine matting, each mat being rigorously made according to the legal dimensions.

Four tables were set in the central apartment, and three in each of the wings, and already covered with a profuse collation. Immediately on entering we were requested to seat ourselves. The Commodore, with Commanders Buchanan and Adams, took the highest table on the right hand, and the Regent and his associates the one opposite on the left. At each corner of the tables lay a pair of chop-sticks. In the centre stood an earthen pot filled with sackee, surrounded with four acorn-cups, four large cups of coarse china, with clumsy spoons of the same material, and four tea-cups. From this centre radiated a collection of dishes of very different shapes and sizes, and still more different contents. There were nineteen on the table at which I sat, but I can only enumerate a few of them: Eggs, dyed crimson and sliced; fish made into rolls and boiled in fat; cold pieces of baked fish; slices of hog's liver; sugar-candy; cucumbers; mustard; salted radish tops; curds made of bean flour; fragments of fried lean pork, and several nondescripts, the composition of which it was impossible to tell.

The repast began with cups of tea, which were handed around, followed by tiny cups of sackee, which was of much superior quality to any we had yet tasted on the island. It was old and mellow, with a sharp, sweet, unctuous flavour, somewhat like French liqueur. Small bamboo sticks, sharpened at one end, were then presented to us. We at first imagined them to be toothpicks, but soon found that they were designed to stick in the balls of meat and dough, which floated in the cups of soup, constituting the first course. Six or eight cups of different kinds of soup followed, and the attendants, meanwhile, assiduously filled up the

little cups of sackee. We had a handsome, bright-eyed youth as our Ganymede, and the smile with which he pressed us to eat and drink, was irresistible. The abundance of soup reminded me of a Chinese repast. Of the twelve courses-the number appropriated to a royal dinner-which were served to us, eight were soups, and many of them so similar in composition as not to be distinguished by a palate unpractised in Loo-Choo delicacies. The other four were gingerbread, a salad made of bean-sprouts and tender onion-tops, a basket of what appeared to be a dark-red fruit about the size of a peach, but proved to be balls composed of a thin rind of unbaked dough, covering a sugary pulp and a delicious mixture of beaten eggs, and the aromatic, fibrous roots of the ginger-plant. The gingerbread had a true home flavour, and was not to be despised. The officers did their best to do honour to the repast, but, owing to the number of dishes, could do little more than taste the courses as they were served up. Although we left at the end of the twelfth course, we were told that twelve more were in readiness to follow.

After the eighth or ninth course, the Commodore rose and proposed as a toast, the health of the Queen Mother and the young Viceroy, adding, "Prosperity to the Loo-Chooans, and may they and the Americans always be friends!" This toast, having been translated to the Regent, appeared to gratify him highly, and it was drunk standing, with Loo-Choo honours, which consists in draining the teaspoonful of sackee at one gulp, and turning the cup bottom upwards. The Commodore afterwards proposed the health of the Regent and his associates, which the latter returned by giving that of the Commodore and the officers of the squadron. By this time the anxiety and embarrassment of the Chiefs had entirely worn off, and the entertainment wound up with the best possible feeling. How much of the anxiety was assumed, or what was its cause, we had no means of ascertaining; but, from what little I have seen of the Loo-Chooans, I am satisfied that there is a strong basis of cunning in their character. The interpreter on the part of the Regent was a very intelligent young native, named Ichirazichi, who had been educated at Pekin, where he remained three years. He spoke a little English, and had some knowledge of geography. He had a more swarthy complexion than is usually found among the educated Loo Chooans, a keen black eye, and a shrewd, cunning expression of countenance.

The Commodore left the Regent's house about one o'clock, when the procession formed in the same order as before. The subordi nate officials accompanied us to the gate, and the old Pe-ching again took his station in advance. On starting down the hill, the four ponies, which had gone up with us without finding riders, were again led to the rear. Several of us profited by this neglect, to

mount for a ride down, and try the temper of the Loo-Choo horses. The ponies were very small animals, of a bay colour, but rather active and spirited. They were accoutred like the Chinese horses, with saddles of Turkish fashion, and enormous iron stirrups, curved backwards, so as to admit not only the foot but part of the leg. They were led by grooms, and we could not succeed in bringing them into line behind the rear company of marines, on account of their jealousy of each other. The little chargers kicked and plunged several times with great vivacity.

The sun, shining full in the face of the hill, made our descent a sultry one; but as we came upon the wooded slopes a sea-breeze met us, and groups of the boats' crews who had come off to convey us back to the vessels, were seen under the trees, watching our approach. Several hundreds of the natives followed us, and as we drew near the shore, they were seen scampering over the ricefields in every direction, to get a final view of our array. Fifteen boats lay in the mouth of the creek. The Commodore and suite immediately embarked, and the wind being fair, the cutters hoisted sail, and dashed away over the bright blue waves, passing the slow white launches, with their loads of marines and artillerymen. All were on board by half-past two, without any untoward incident having occurred to mar the successful issue of the trip.

CHAPTER XVIII.

VOYAGE TO THE BONIN AND PEEL ISLANDS.

On the 9th of June, Commodore Perry left the harbour of Napa in the Susquehanna, for a visit to the Bonin or Arzobispo Isles, which lie in lat. 27° N., long. 140° 30' E., or between eight and nine hundred miles from Loo-Choo. We took the sloop-of-war Saratoga in tow, leaving the Mississippi behind, as we did not expect to be absent more than two weeks.

The Bonin Islands have scarcely been heard of in the United States, except through an occasional whaling vessel, some of which are in the habit of touching there, in order to procure fresh provisions. They are about 500 miles in a southerly direction from the Bay of Yedo, and are called by the Japanese Mo or Mou nin sima, signifying "uninhabited islands," whence the English term, Bonin. In Kömpfer's work on Japan, there is an account of their discovery, by the Japanese, two-and-a-half centuries ago, and the same, with a more minute description of their appearance and productions, is to be found in Klaproth's translation of a Japanese work on the three tributary Kingdoms of Corea, Loo-Choo, and Jeso. They were also discovered by a Spanish Admiral, and

named the "Islas del Arzobispo," long prior to Captain Beechey's visit and survey in 1827. To the latter navigator, however, we are indebted for the first accurate account of their location and extent.

We were favoured by the south-west monsoon, and had a delightful run of five days, with nothing to interrupt the uniformity of sea life, except frequent calls to general quarters," and the death of Mr. Williams's Chinese secretary, who fell a victim to the practice of smoking opium. On the morning of the 12th, we passed a Peruvian bark, with a cargo of coolies, bound for the guano islands. She was steering nearly the same course as ourselves, under a cloud of canvas, with studding-sails and royals set, but we did not pass within hail. The sight of a leviathan steamer-the first that ever ploughed those seastowing a large vessel after her, must have greatly astonished the Peruvians.

At sunrise, on the 14th, we saw the Bonin Islands before us, with the Bailly Islands about fifteen miles distant, in a southeasterly direction, and Parry's Group barely visible in the north-east. The three islands of the Bonin Group, Peel, Buckland, and Stapleton, lie close together, within an extent, collectively, of ten miles from north to south. We made for the harbour of Port Lloyd, on the western side of Peel Island, where the only inhabitants a small community of Kanakas, with some runaway English and American sailors have taken up their abode. On approaching the entrance to the harbour a gun was fired for a pilot, which, it appeared, was the first intimation the residents had of our arrival. In a short time, two canoes appeared, and we were boarded by two natives, who attracted considerable attention, as being the vagabond inhabitants of that remote corner of the world. One of them appeared to be a cross between Portuguese and Kanaka. He wore a tattered straw hat, blue cotton jacket, and pantaloons, and was bare-footed. The other was a youth about twenty years old, lithe and graceful in his form, and with a quick, bright eye, and rather intelligent_face. He was the only native of the island, and the son of a Portuguese named John Bravo.

Their sailing directions were of little use, but the entrance to the port was broad and deep, and we moved on slowly and securely to an anchorage in twenty-one fathoms, abreast a dense grove of trees, bordering a beach on the northern shore. Nearly east of us rose the high twin peaks, named "The Paps" by Captain Beechey; a little farther to the south, beyond a rocky islet named "Castle Rock," was a narrow beach, at the foot of a ravine, down which flowed a stream, the usual watering-place of the whalers. With the exception of three or four similar beaches, the shores were bold and precipitous, and the mountains behind,

rising in steep, picturesque outlines, were covered to their very summits with the richest tropical vegetation.

Towards evening I went ashore. Near the northern beach there is a bank of coral, dropping suddenly into a track of deep water, which forms what is called "Ten Fathom Hole." This extends so far up the bay, that vessels of the largest size may lie within a hundred feet of the shore, in a position completely landlocked, and sheltered from every wind. The trees which lined the beach were entirely new to me. They had heavy, crooked trunks and boughs, and large ovate leaves of a bright-green colour. The settlers called them tamanas. Two immense turtles, which had been caught the night before, lay sprawling upon their backs in the shade, and a white man, who described himself as an Englishman named Webb, with two Kanakas, were sitting lazily upon an inverted canoe, made of the hollowed trunk of a tree. The shells of other turtles were lying on the sand, and exhaled not the freshest of odours. An opening through the trees showed us a neat cabin behind, surrounded with a low paling.

The Englishman, who was civil and respectful, though silent, rarely speaking unless in answer to our questions, led the way, and opened the door. The interior was small, but exceedingly neat and tasteful. The frame of the hut, and the ridge-poles and rafters were all of equal size, and painted a light blue colour. The thatch was of leaves of the fan-palm, and impervious to rain. There was an outer room, with a table and a few chairs, and two sleeping apartments in the rear, which were kept carefully closed during the day, on account of the abundance of mosquitos. The walls were covered with Chinese matting, and a row of gaudilycoloured French lithographs of female figures hung across the partition. Within the paled enclosure were two other low, rude structures of palm leaves, one of which served as a kitchen, while the other was appropriated to the Kanakas, a well, and three flourishing papaya trees. Behind the house was a narrow and beautiful plain, covered with sweet potatoes, melons, and sugarcane, with the palm forests of the mountains in the background. The line of trees along the beach was narrow, and merely left to protect the garden-land in the rear from the violence of sudden squalls, which sometimes prevail in the summer.

The Englishman stated that he had been seven years on the island. There was a kind of hesitation in his manner of speaking, which I fancied arose from an absence of intercourse with civilised society, as he seemed to be a man of average intelligence. There was, apparently, little association among the settlers. So far as I could learn, there are no rules of government accepted by them; each lives upon his own soil, by virtue of the right of pre-emption, and interferes as little as possible in the affairs of his neighbours. The oldest inhabitant, who probably exercises a sort of authority