When in sight of the consummation of his literary enterprise, February 2d 1857, Perry wrote, “I have been drawn into much expense not to be put into a public bill,” . . . “The greater portion of the labor has been performed by myself and those employed under my direction.” He sought help outside of the navy only when it was impossible to do otherwise. The completed work was therefore a true product of the navy. Dr. Francis L. Hawkes wrote the preface, added a few footnotes and here and there a sentence, and Dr. Robert Tomes prepared the introduction, but the narrative was of Perry’s own writing. Nathaniel Hawthorne or some other master of letters might have made a better product as literature, but for history it is well that Perry told his own story. A set of six superbly drawn and colored pictures of the most striking scenes of the Japan Expedition was prepared for the government archives and for sending abroad for foreign rulers and cabinets. They were drawn by the eye-witnesses Brown and Heine,[42] and were executed in lithograph by Brown and Lewis of Albany. Three hundred copies of the set were printed, and the plates then destroyed. Each set was in a portfolio. Eighteen thousand copies of the Japan Expedition were published, at a total cost of $360,000. Fifteen thousand copies were given to members of Congress, two thousand to the Navy Department chiefly for distribution among the officers, and one thousand to the Commodore of the Expedition. Of this thousand, Perry gave five hundred copies to Dr. Hawkes. This was the reward of a grateful republic! During the Commodore’s absence in Japan, his family had lived at No. 260 Fourth avenue, New York City. He now took steps to secure a permanent home and so purchased the house at No. 38 West 32d street. The forty years growth of the metropolis was vividly brought before his mind when on first looking out of the window of his new home, the old in Bloomingdale, from which he took his bride, was in sight. His new home stood on what was part of the lawn of the old Slidell homestead.