On his reaching the deck of the flagship the Americans found they were dealing with the Vice-Governor of the district. He said the Japanese law provided for communicating with foreigners at Nagasaki only, where the Dutch came to trade. The American representative (Lieutenant John Contee) informed him that the Americans considered any such proposition to be in the highest degree disrespectful. Further, they had come to Japan with a message from their President to the ruler of Japan, and that that message should be delivered only to a prince of the highest rank, who especially represented the Japanese ruler. Moreover, it would be delivered only on the shores of the bay where the squadron was now lying, and at a point very near the capital. Then pointing to the armed boats that swarmed around the _Susquehanna_, Lieutenant Contee, in an indignant manner, informed the official that the presence of those boats was an insult, and that if the boats did not go away quickly the insult would be resented with violence--even with the cannon. At that the official ordered the boats away, and the upshot of the visit was that the governor himself came next day on board to negotiate. He was received by two captains--Buchanan and Adams--with Lieutenant Contee, but he was informed that no third-rank official like himself could see the American commodore. After some little palaver the governor conceded that the Americans might deliver their message there, but insisted that the answer of the Emperor must be sent to Nagasaki. Immediately the watchful Americans noted, although they did not understand the language, that the governor used one term when he spoke of the Emperor and a different one when he spoke of the American President. Assuming that he was less respectful in speaking of the President, they demanded that he use the same term for each ruler, and he apologized. Then they told him that the answer to the message would be received only where the message was delivered. Finding the Americans fully determined, the governor said he would have to appeal to the throne for instructions. This seemed reasonable, but when he said it would take four days to get his instructions back, although the capital was but a few hours away, the Americans said that if the Emperor did not send the order in three days the ships would steam up to the capital to learn the cause of the delay, and in that event the American commodore would go ashore and himself call for the answer to the President’s message to the Emperor. “I will wait until Tuesday, the 12th day of July, and no longer,” was the emphatic message which Commodore Perry sent to the governor, and that brought the governor to the American terms. [Illustration: Commodore Perry’s First Landing at Gorahama. _From a lithograph in Perry’s “Narrative.”_]