Such is the intense curiosity of the Japanese character, and the great rush to gratify it, that at one time, before the signing of the treaty, there was as many as seventy thousand people from all parts of the country, congregated in Kanagawa and its immediate vicinity, eager to get a look at our ships, and endeavoring to get aboard. To furnish a pretext for their assemblage near the place of negotiations, many resorted to the ruse of offering their services to the authorities, in the event of the negotiations with the Americans, taking a hostile turn. Many of the princes of the empire, anxious to see the ships and not being able to get permission or authority to do so, resorted to the plan of getting on board by going disguised in the suite of Moriyama Yenoske, the chief interpreter. On one occasion—April 4th—a number of Japanese gentlemen of rank, having obtained permission to visit the ships, it was surmised, and upon very good authority, that the young emperor himself had been aboard. His features would probably not be known to one of his subjects outside of his immediate attendants or council. The boldness and tact with which they manage _nayboen_ matters is remarkable. The interpreters were always very cautious, and never committed themselves by giving information. A great many of the better class Japanese, who came aboard, were able to write, and sometimes speak a little Dutch (Holland), and generally expressed themselves with much correctness. The next morning, after anchoring off _Nati Sima_, the Macedonian was despatched to the Bonin islands with some agricultural implements, and to look after some men, with orders to join us at Simoda. While our surveying boats were running their line of soundings, and triangulating in the vicinity of the anchorage, some of the officers, in other boats, paid visits to Webster island, which afforded a fine opportunity for exercise, besides being a very pretty view. Before returning to the ships, we pulled into a number of little inlets and small bays near by. The hill-sides were well wooded, and the deep green of the thorough cultivation on terraces and steppes was delightful to the eye. In some obscure coves, were built stone piers for landing, and a number of junks had been beached, and their owners were preparing them, or firing their bottoms, that the sea slime might be removed and their speed increased. In others, the fronts of large quarries of sandstone, and what appeared to be fuller’s earth, approach the edge of the water. The latter was cut away in square blocks, leaving the face of the hills like the smooth masonry of a curtain-wall and bastion.