In the interview, the subject of supplying us with coal was broached, which they gave a favorable response to, and promised to have some specimen, of what coal they had, ready for inspection in a short time. This contrasted strongly with the dissimulation practised by them during the stay of the “Preble” at Nangasaki in 1849. Then, those Japanese who came on board, affected the greatest curiosity in looking at the coal in the armorer’s forge; they were much surprised at the heated rocks, and one of them asked permission to take ashore a piece of the coal, which he carefully wrapped in paper. The next day Japanese officials were aboard of the Mississippi, and held interviews there with the captain of the fleet, with regard to furnishing fresh provisions to the ships. During the forenoon, the mayor of Uraga, and the interpreter and other officials came aboard, and accompanied the men sent to dig the grave for the man who had died, to point out the spot on shore. The burial, which took place some hours after, with the consent of the authorities who were standing by, and in the presence of thousands of the population, accompanied with the religious service of Christians, was an event of much significance, when the inscription that was put by the Japanese over the massacred Christians at Simabara is recollected: “So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan; and let all know that the king of Spain himself, or the Christian’s God, or the great God of all, if he violates this command, shall pay for it with his head.” The settled oppugnation to Christianity, of more than two hundred years, was broken through with this burial from an American man-of-war. Not having been present at the interment, I am indebted, for an account of it, to the chaplain of the Mississippi—a man of great energy of character, and who, in addition to his clerical duties on board ship, occupied himself with literary labor, and with an indomitable perseverance and love for scientific discovery, during the whole cruise, at every hour of the night, addressed himself to the task of observing the various phases of what has been called the zodiacal light; and to his midnight labor and zeal, the astronomical world may yet be indebted for a solution of the vexed question about this light. “Our preparations were for an interment exactly after our usual method upon the occasion of the burial of a marine. A great many of the officers would have liked to have gone, and some applied for permission; but it was thought best to give the occasion no unusual eclat, while at the same time nothing was to be omitted.