After strange-looking cakes had been brought, tea removed, and pipes handed, very small porcelain cups were placed, and our honorable red-cap attendants, who according to their custom, wait themselves upon their guests, kept them continually filled with SAKI from silver vessels shaped like tea-pots. This was the first taste we had of this colorless, celebrated Japanese national beverage. It was pleasant to the taste, and yet the after-math was not; it had some of the _goût_ of champagne, and then it was turnipy. Buckingham might be on the seas, and then the seas might be on him; but a man could scarcely be considered “in his cups” though a hundred cups were in him of _saki_. Nor could he exclaim with Falstaff that the villain had put lime in his “sack,” (did Shakespeare know Japanese?)—because the thimble-sized tankard would not admit of it. The commodore, through the interpreter, toasted the queen and young prince, and hoped Loo-Chooan man and American man would always be friends. The chiefs of course salaamed considerably to this sentiment, but I am quite dubious whether they did not regard it as an indication of closer proximity with these Americans, who might disturb at a future day the _nolli me tangere_ doctrines of their country. The feast over, the column of escort was again formed, and making the march down to Tumai, in less time than up to Sheudi, by four o’clock, all were aboard of their respective ships. No more beautiful place than Sheudi, so far as verdure, elevated situation, and attractive foliage, is concerned. Our officers took many a tramp up there, and always with pleasure. At cool springs well cared for they could slake their thirst; under enormous trees they could pic-nic or _siesta_ if they chose, and afterward bathe in a walled lake all covered over with trees. What would the palace-grounds, the Komooe of Sheudi, be worth in this country?—no more baronial domain in England. Should you have gone unprovided with chow-chow on these excursions, stop at a roadside _Kunkwa_, usually adjoining some place of worship, and the occupants will promptly give you tea and cakes, and the examination of your strange costume, and sage queries about your ship, is their reward for their entertainment. If it should rain during your walk, request one of your unbidden native officer associates to procure a papyrus parasol.