“You must know that the dinner-trays (like the breeches) are a mark of rank in Japan; and the rank indicated by the height of the trays, which vary from three to twelve inches in height. Again, if the trays are lackered it diminishes the honor connected with the actual height of the tray, for it indicates that it can be used on another occasion; but if it be made of unpainted cypress wood, the honor is complete, for it says, as plain as words can do, ‘You are so sublime in your rank that no one can dare to eat from a tray that you have used!’ My attention was particularly called both to the height of the trays, and to the flattering fact, that, ‘by a special edict,’ they were made of unvarnished wood. You must know that this same dinner had been the subject of grave discussion, both in Shimoda and in Yedo. They were very anxious that I should eat at the Palace. I replied that I would do so cheerfully, provided a person or persons of suitable rank would eat with me; but said that self-respect would forbid my eating at a table where my host or his representative declined to sit down. When I had admired the very neat arrangement of the banquet, I was again asked to sit down. I then said, ‘Say to his Majesty that I thank him for his offered entertainment.’ At last the whole affair was sent to my quarters, where I distributed it among my Shimoda followers. “After the exhibition of the dinner I was reconducted to the room I first entered, and, after I had drank of the celebrated ‘powdered tea,’ I left, being conducted to the entrance by the two chamberlains, who knocked head with all the force that was due to one who had ‘seen the king, and yet _lived_.’ By the way, I forgot to state that the old formula of an audience, which was ‘kneel down,’ ‘knock head, so that the by-standers can hear your skull crack,’ if it ever did exist at the court at Yedo, was not used in my case. A faint request was made to me, at Shimoda, that I would kneel, but I told them the request was offensive, and must not be repeated. That ended it. “My return to Shimoda was on a steamer presented to the Japanese by the Dutch.” In April, 1858, Mr. Harris returned again to Yedo, and after three months spent in arguing with the Japanese that it would be impossible for them to maintain their policy of isolation, he succeeded in negotiating a new treaty. By this treaty, the port of Kanagawa, present Yokohama, a suburb of Yedo, was substituted for Shimoda as a place for American trade and residence; and in 1860, Hiōgo, the harbor of the most commercial city of Ōsaka, was also to be opened to them. American residents were to enjoy religious freedom, and the privilege of direct trade with the Japanese merchants. The right to have an ambassador resident at Yedo was also included; a position since filled by Mr. Harris himself.