The officers were permitted to go into the country any distance they wished, and the country people were found pleasant and sociable; but upon this second visit the advantages of Shimoda as a place of trade, or the prospects of traffic under the treaty, do not seem to have struck the visitors very favorably. “The harbor,” writes an officer of the “Susquehanna” to the “Tribune,” “is a small indentation of land, running northeast and southwest, about a half-mile in extent, and is capable of holding five or six vessels of ordinary size. It is, however, entirely unprotected from the southwest winds, which bring with them a heavy sea, and which renders the anchorage very unsafe. With the wind from the north and the east, the vessel rides at her ease at her anchorage. Good wood and sweet water, as well as a few provisions, were obtained from the authorities, for the use of the ships, at the most extravagant prices. Numerous articles, such as lackered and China ware, of a very fine and delicate quality, and far superior to that manufactured in China, were purchased by the officers; but every article had to pass through the hands of the Japanese officers, and the amount due the merchants had to be paid, not to them but to the Japanese officials who had been appointed for that very purpose by the mayor of the city and the governor of the province. This article of the treaty will be most scrupulously enforced; and this is decidedly its worst feature.” “Shimoda,” writes another officer, “does not appear well calculated, upon the whole, for a place of trade, and it can never become an active commercial town. Neither is it a manufacturing town. This, added to the fact that the harbor is a bad one, will make it appear evident that the Japanese commissioners got the better of us in the treaty, as far as this place is concerned. “The surrounding country (wherever nature will permit it) is highly cultivated. The valley of the creek is broad and well tilled, yielding rice, millet, Egyptian corn and maize.[129] The ears produced by the last are very small, being not more than from two to four inches in length. Sweet potatoes and the eggplant are also raised in great abundance. There are no horses about Shimoda, and bullocks are made to supply their places. Provisions, with the exception of eggs and vegetables, cannot be obtained here. The shark and bonito are the only large fish found in the harbor. Small fish are plentiful, and they seem to form almost the only article of food of the inhabitants, besides rice.” The following description of the houses at Shimoda, by Mr. S. Wells Williams, will serve to illustrate the descriptions of Japanese houses already given from Kämpfer and Thunberg, and will show how little, as to that matter, Japan has altered since their time: