The Mississippi was heeled with her guns, and her shot and shell temporarily transferred to the Susquehanna, to get at her leak. The broad-pennant was transferred from the latter ship to the Powhatan; state-department cherry cordial was freely set out for visiting Japanese officers aboard of the flag-ship; and the Vandalia, with Fleet-Captain Adams, was sent down to Uraga to have an interview with the governor of the place, and to tender a passage up to the squadron, to the high functionary with the imperial answer at that place. This was declined. They said that thus far they had yielded to us, and it was but right that we should do so in some things to them, especially as they had already erected houses for reception and negotiation at Uraga. It was well known that “nulla vestigia retrorsum,” should be the motto in dealing with these people; and the Japanese finding that the American “Mahomet would not come to the mountain,” decided that the “mountain should go to Mahomet,” and so consented to the removal of their buildings higher up the bay. It so happened, that just at the time that the Vandalia appeared in sight on her return with the declension of the Japanese, that the remainder of the squadron had gotten underway to move ten or twelve miles higher up to the more land-locked anchorage off Kana Gawa, or river Kana, and the Japanese believing there to be an immediate concert of action, and our surveying-boats having approached to within a very few miles of their great capital, very readily acquiesced in our requests. On the 22d of February the different ships fired a salute in honor of the day. The atmosphere was the purest, and it was a fit presence in which to honor the memory of George Washington—_Foogee-Yama_, with its mantle of snow, towered upon the sight, its ermine of the elements typifying the purity of his character; and its great height, the eminence which he attained in the eyes of the world. The spot selected for the erection of the buildings for the conferences, was on the beach of the village of Yokohama, or compost town, in the small bight of Kawa-saki, and separated from the city of Kanagawa by the little river Kana. This place was quite sheltered by a projecting bluff below. The Japanese, as could be seen through a glass at two and a half miles distant, set to work in the erection of the buildings on shore, with a Babel-like activity; and the ships of the squadron moved in closer and formed a crescent line in their anchorage, agreeably to buoys previously established.