“ARTICLE XII.—The present convention, having been concluded, and duly signed shall be obligatory, and faithfully observed by the United States of America and Japan, and by the citizens and subjects of each respective power; and it is to be ratified and approved by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, and by the august Sovereign of Japan, and the ratification shall be exchanged within eighteen months from the date of the signature thereof, or sooner if practicable. “In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries of the United States of America and the empire of Japan, aforesaid, have signed and sealed these presents. “Done at Kanagawa[123] this thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and of Kayei the seventh year, third month, and third day.” The day after the signing of the treaty a number of presents were sent on board for the president, the commodore, and other officers of the squadron. In agreeing to negotiate at Yokohama, Commodore Perry had stated his intention to carry the ships, at some future time, close up to Yedo, and to anchor them there, “as well to do honor to his imperial majesty by salutes as to be in full view of the palace, and convenient to be visited by such of the court as may desire to examine the steamers.” Accordingly, on the 8th of April, to the great distress of the Japanese officials, he got under way; but, as the Japanese interpreters threatened to cut themselves open if he proceeded, he presently turned about and took a lower anchorage down the bay. The published official letters of the commander say nothing of this movement; the letters from the fleet, published in the newspapers, do not agree as to how far up the commodore went. According to one letter, Yedo was full in sight. On the 18th of April the fleet sailed for Shimoda, one of the ports granted in the treaty, of which a letter dated on board the “Powhatan,” and published in the New York “Tribune,” gives this account: Shimoda is situated near Cape Fògu [?], sixty miles west from Point Sagami, at the entrance of the bay of Yedo. It is a good, commodious harbor, well sheltered by hills several hundred feet high, with a rock within the entrance which affords a still more protected anchorage. The town, of about one thousand houses, is situated at the northwestern end of the harbor, on the banks of a small stream flowing down through a fertile valley, which is often not more than half a mile wide, but sometimes widens to one and a half miles. Several little brooks offer good watering-places for the ships. The larger Japanese junks mostly anchor at Kakizaki, a village of about three hundred houses, on the northeastern end and opposite Shimoda. There are eight temples, some of which are very large, in the town, and little chapels (_miya_) on almost every eminence, and by the roadsides.