The 10th of April, being the birthday of the commodore, I suppose he wished to signalize it by a nearer approach to the city of Yedo, and accordingly early in the morning a signal was thrown out for the squadron to get under way, which was done, the Mississippi leading up the bay, and the Powhatan and the sailing ships following, with the exception of the Lexington, which got aground just as her anchor was away. This movement being perceived from shore, the Japanese interpreters Moriyama Yenoske, Hernyama, Gohara, and Namura Gohachiro, third interpreter, at once rowed off under much excitement. The latter came aboard of the Mississippi, the others went on board of the flag-ship; where they ascertained the commodore’s intention of going higher up the bay, Yenoske objected most strenuously, urging that the lives of each of the commissioners, and himself, were in danger for not preventing (?) it, or remonstrating against it; or previously advising their government; they said they could not tell but it was not possible to calculate the consequences. In reply, the commodore said that his instructions from the president were to go up to Yedo, and that he would have done so, but for the feelings of friendship that he entertained for the commissioners who preferred Yokohama for holding the conferences. They gave it to be understood that the anchoring of the ships off Yedo, would at once require of them the performance of the “Hari Kari,” or happy despatch—that they would be necessitated to this, according to a custom which it was no use to argue against, to save themselves and those related to them from dishonor; and that such was the case with each of the commissioners. _Hari Kari_, meaning “happy despatch,” is the act of disembowelling one’s self with a sword, among the Japanese. The young man, of any family pretensions, is early indoctrinated in the art of self-destruction. He is also instructed as to the occasions and circumstances when this form of suicide is appropriate for a gentleman, either to preserve himself or those connected with him from dishonor. It is given him strictly in charge, to remember that the wearing of the badge of his position—two swords—is also typical of his courage; perhaps as Napoleon said, that he who cares nothing for his own life is master of that of others; and that one of these swords, like the dagger of Brutus, is for himself, when his country shall need his death. He desires that it shall be said of him, what Malcolm says of Cawdor:— “Nothing in his life Became him like the leaving it: he died As one that had been studied in his death, To throw away the dearest thing he owed, As ’twere a careless trifle.” Or as Decitas said of Anthony:- “He is dead, By that self hand, Which writ his honor in the acts it did.” [Illustration: _LITH. OF SARONY & Co. NEW YORK._ NEAR YEDO.]