There being no treaty of commerce with the Japanese, preparatory to such a result hereafter, a number of our coins had been delivered to them before leaving the bay of Yedo, that they, might be assayed at the capital, and the relative value, with their own, established. In the meantime, it was no doubt intended, or thought on our side, that as the people in the stores were willing to sell, and our officers were continually offering to purchase little curiosities and other articles of their handicraft that were to be found in their shops, that in this way, things would find their level, and an impromptu trade, as it were, spring up. This notion proved a mistaken one; things were purchased, but they were paid for in silver dollars at the rate of twelve hundred cash each, and not directly to the seller, but through a government officer called _gayoshio_. In strolling the streets of Simoda you see old crones, arranging, in the open air, their warp for weaving. The personal pulchritude of the cadaverous-complexioned Japanese women, is not much under the best circumstances, but when it is remembered that on marrying, they shave off their eyebrows, and blacken their teeth with some iron rust and acid, as a badge of the marital state, their appearance becomes most repulsive. The younger women, with their elaborate arrangement of hair, who have not yet undergone this process of disfigurement, though rather ungainly in gait, owing to the use of clogs, and wearing about the hips an awkward compressing scarf, are quite good-looking and with lighter complexions, have also much better-shaped eyes than the Chinese. The only wheeled vehicle you may see is a rude hand-cart, the wheels without tires. Should you meet a man on the back of an ox bringing to town bundles of wood, the sight of your barbarian garments are very apt to incense him greatly; and the rider, disturbed by his movements dismounts, takes him by the tether, and leads him aside.