“The business was carried on in the Dutch language, through interpreters, of whom they have several who speak very well, and two or three who speak a little English. They were on their knees, between the commissioners and the commodore. Our interpreter was seated by the side of the latter. It was curious to see the intolerable ceremony observed by them, quite humiliating to a democratic republican. A question proposed had to pass first through the interpreters, and then through several officers ascending in rank, before it could reach the commissioners, every one bowing his forehead to the floor before he addressed his superior. Refreshments were served in elegantly lackered dishes; first of all, tea, which, as in China, is the constant beverage; then different kinds of candy and sponge cake (they are excellent confectioners, and very fond of sugar); lastly, oranges and a palatable liquor distilled from rice, called sake. A flimsy banquet like this was not very agreeable to such hungry individuals as we, and we were the more disappointed, for, the Japanese using only chopsticks, we had, previously to coming ashore, taken the precaution, as we shrewdly thought, to provide ourselves with knives and forks. Imagine, then, our chagrin when finding nothing substantial upon which to employ them. What was left on our plates was wrapped in paper, and given to us to carry away, according to the usual custom in Japan. “The commissioners were intelligent-looking men, richly dressed in gay silk petticoat pantaloons, and upper garments resembling in shape ladies’ short gowns. Dark-colored stockings, and two elegant swords pushed through a twisted silk girdle, finished the costume. Straw sandals are worn, but are always slipped off upon entering a house. They do not cover the head, the top and front part of which is shaved, and the back and side hair, being brought up, is tied so as to form a tail, three or four inches long, that extends forward upon the bald pate, terminating about half way between the apex and the forehead. It is a very comfortable fashion, and, were it not for the quantity of grease used in dressing it, would be a very cleanly one.