Eighteen days after, they had a second examination, on which occasion a letter, of which the Japanese wanted an interpretation, was delivered to them. It had been sent on shore from their ship along with their baggage, expressing a determination to return to Okhotsk for reinforcements, and never to quit the coast of Japan till the prisoners were rescued. This reexamination was continued for two days, in which many inquiries were made about Chwostoff, and the papers he had left behind him, one of which was produced. The Russian prisoners tried to make out that the proceedings of Chwostoff were without authority from the Russian government; but the Japanese evidently did not believe them. After one or two more examinations they were removed to Matsumae, guarded, as before, by soldiers, but furnished with horses, as well as litters or kagos, on or in which the prisoners were suffered to ride, the Japanese, however, retaining the end of a rope by which they were still bound. Near Matsumae, they were shown a battery on a high hill, intended to command the harbor, but ill adapted for that purpose. It had three or four small brass pieces on carriages, and an eighteen or a twenty-four pounder, apparently cast in Europe, mounted on cross-beams. Matsumae lies on a large, open bay, with four fathoms of water at low tide; and according to the Japanese, is about two hundred of their leagues (five hundred miles) from Yedo, the land journey thither, after crossing the strait, being made in twenty-three days. A great crowd collected to see them enter the town, ropes being stretched to keep the passage clear. Confined in a prison much like the one at Hakodate, and close under the ramparts of the castle, they underwent many more examinations before the bugiō or governor of Matsumae. The inquisitiveness of their questioners, which seemed to be without limit, proved a great torment to the Russians, and sometimes put them into a passion; but the Japanese were always cool and polite. They were supplied with much better food than at Hakodate, fresh and salt fish, boiled or fried in poppy-seed oil, with soy for sauce. They also had, after the winter set in, flesh of sea-dogs, hares, and bears, and attempts were even made to cook for them after the Russian fashion. For drink they had tea[95] and warm sake. They were furnished with warm clothing, both their own which had been sent on shore for them; and Japanese gowns, for which a tailor was sent to measure them; and, when the weather grew colder, they had hearths, after the Japanese fashion, made in the prison, at a little distance from each cage, on which charcoal fires were kept burning. A physician visited them daily to look after their health, and if anything serious appeared he brought a consulting physician with him.