As soon as the steamers dropped their anchors, they were approached by two boats, containing their former visitors, the first and second officers of the town, with the interpreters, very richly dressed in silk brocade, bordered with velvet, and having on their garments of ceremony. The steamers lay with their broadsides to the shore, ready for action in case of treachery. Fifteen launches and cutters were got ready, from which three hundred and twenty persons, officers, seamen, marines, and musicians, were landed on an extemporaneous jetty which the Japanese had formed of bags of sand. Last of all the commodore landed with due formality, when the whole body, preceded by the Japanese officers and interpreters, marched to the house of reception, carrying with them the president’s letter, the box which held it wrapped in scarlet cloth, as was also that containing the letter of credence. In front of the houses prepared for the interview were two old brass four-pounders, apparently Spanish, and on each side a company of soldiers, those on one side armed with matchlocks, those on the other with old Tower muskets, with flint locks and bayonets. The reception building was a temporary structure, evidently put up for the occasion. The first apartment, about forty feet square, was of canvas. The floor was covered with white cotton cloth, with a pathway of red felt leading across to a raised inner apartment, wholly carpeted with the same red felt. This apartment, of which the front was entirely open, was hung with fine cloth, stamped with the imperial symbols in white on a ground of violet. On the right was a row of arm-chairs for the commodore and his staff. On the opposite side sat the two commissioners appointed to receive the letters, and who were announced by the interpreters as the princes of Izu and Iwami [Toda Izu-no-kami, and Ido Iwami-no-kami, Bugiōs of Uraga]. The former was a man about fifty, with a very pleasing and intelligent face. The latter was older by fifteen years or so, wrinkled with age, and of looks much less prepossessing. Both were splendidly dressed, in heavy robes of silk tissue, elaborately ornamented with threads of gold and silver. As the commodore entered, both rose and bowed gravely, but immediately resumed their seats and remained silent and passive as statues.