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A Journal of the Perry Expedition to Japan (1853-1854)

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A Journal of the Perry Expedition to Japan (1853-1854) — A General MeeeJing of !he Asiatic Society of Japan was held in tlic Amer- ican Embassy, Tokyo, at 4 p.m., Wednesday, June 16. In the absence of the Pret-ident, IT. E. Sir Claude MacDonald, the Chair was taken by Prof. E. M. Vickers, Mce-President for Tokyo. The minutes of the last meeting, liaving been printed, were taken as read. 1 he According Secretary announced that a catalogue of the books in the Library of the Society had l)een jmbli.shed; and (hat the following persons had been elected members of the Society : Dr. \\ ill \\ rcluiv- sky, Vienna, Austria ; Post Wheeler, Esq., American Embassy, Ti.kyo, and John Reilly, Esq., Salem, N.J., U.S A. lie al.'^o made the following announcement : Mr. \N ilfred P>ertram Cuningliam, Assistant in the Pritisli Consular Service in Japan, has presented to the Society a translation made by him of the Table of Contents of the Imperial Household Deparlment's History of the Opening of the Country [K'ai/^ohi Kigeii). This work, in three volumes, numbering 2943 pages and embracing over 700 official documents, was presented to the Society last year through Dr. D. C. Greene, as announced at the time. The tal)Ie of conter.ls occupies 44 pages of small Japanese tyije. The English translation wi!l greatly facilitate reference to the work I'y foreigners engaged in historical research. The Cliairman then informed tl-.e audience how, by th.e kindness of Prof. E. Wells Williams, of Vale I'nivcrsily, his fath.er's " Journal cf the Perry Exjiedition to Japan (1853, 1854) " had l>een placed at the disposal of the Asiatic Society of Japan. He also exjn'cssed the pleasure and honour felt by the Society in being able to include such a valuajjle document among its Transactions. lie then called on the Recording Secretary, who read selections from tlie Journal, Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from Brown University http://www.archive.org/details/journalofperryexOOswel f f^ 4- fy^ ^ ? ra nnnwi^.i '/ \? > ^^ /•'/-— Portrait of Commodore Perry with autographs of Sanjo Nai-daijin, then Prime iMinister, and Shozan Sakuma. A JOURNAL OF THE PERRY EXPyimON TO JAPAN (1853- 1854) BY 0. S? WELLS WILLIAMS; \S\^-^^"^'^ FIRST INTERPRETER OF THE EXPEDITION EDITED BY HIS SON F^ W. WILLIAMS .>.*. 1910 '- i^AV/U. ^ -i ?«iLLCfrE AftA I fim J PREFATORY NOTE. Samuel Wells Williams, the author of this Journal, was born in the town of Utica, New York State, September 23, 18 13, the eldest child of a publisher and man of affairs of some note in a flourishing settlement on the great highwc.y of early immigra- tion along the Mohawk valley to the West. The son of New England ancestry, he was brought up in the wholesome but rigorous fashion of the Puritans. lie manifested at an early age the strong religious feeling that characterized him throughout life, but he seems at no time to have contemplated a career in the church, his chief ambition being to become a scientist. It was while preparing himself in Troy for a position as teacher of botany that an offer came to him from the American Board to take charge of the Mission Press that had been set up in Canton. After some months of hasty preparation for his new task, he set sail for China, arriving at the anchorage off Whampoa a few weeks after he had completed his twent}^-first }'ear. His life as a missionary during twenty-three years, with the exception of one visit home, was spent as superintendent of the press in edit- ing the monthly periodical, the " Chinese Repository," and in the preparation of a dictionary and grammar of the Cantonese dialect. During his stay in America between 1845 and 1848, he wrote and published the " Middle Kingdom," a work which for more than sixty years has remained the chief source of re- ference and of information upon the country and people of China. Mr. Williams' busy but uneventful life in the Factory in Canton was interrupted in the summer of 1837 by an invitation — tt PREFATORY NOTE. to join the attempt on the part of a generous American merchant to return seven shipwrecked Japanese sailors to the Bay of Yedo in the .ship " Morrison.'' The experiment ended, as is well known, in utter failure so far as its immediate object was concerned, but the experience both broadened the mind of the young missionary and stimulated him to a study of the Japanese language and people which aroused an interest that never left him. It is difficult for us to-day to understand the indifference and ignorance of the Western world concerning Japan in the early nineteenth century. Despite the information which was accessible through the works of Dutch authors, there seems to have been a popular notion that the island empire was a semi-civilized derelict among the nations of the East that might at any time succumb to the power willing to undertake the expense of conquering it. Its remote position and a sense of the cost and difficulties of the task probably saved the country from the hazard of such an attempt. Through his acquaintance with these Japanese sailors and with the available literature upon their country, Mr. Williams was disposed to rate Japan and its people rather above the Chinese in both strength and culture. He apprehended most seriously the fatal influences of a warlike attempt upon the nation, and after his return to China set himself to the task of studying Japanese with two of the sailors who were employed in his printing office, desirous at once of giving them a means to earn their livelihood and of acquiring a fuller knowledge of their country. His account of the trip of the " Morrison ' appears in the September and December numbers of the "Chinese Repository" for 1837. As the periodical is not easily consulted now, it may be of interest to quote some of his reflections upon the failure of one of the finest bits of altruism that marks the intercourse of West and East : " In summing up the circumstances attendant upon both attempts, and comparing them with what we could learn of previous trials, it was instructive to observe how gradually the Japanese Government has gone on in perfecting its system of PREFATORY NOTE. iW seclusion, and how the mere lapse of time has indurated, instead of disintegrating, the wall of prejudice and misanthropy which surrounds their policy. These circumstances also indicated their present feelings, for we could refer the greater part of what had happened alone to the Government. A people who show the decision of character of the Japanese, silently erecting their batteries to drive away their enemies by force of arms, and bringing their cannon several miles to plant in a favourable position, are not to be lightly despised or insulted with impunity. If the immediate aggressor escapes, \'engeance usually lights upon some unwary and innocent straggler, and the mutual hatred is thus increased. At Satsuma a pilot is sent to bring the ship into an anchorage, and the officers are made acquaint- ed with our object, which they apparently approve. It would seem that here, too, great distrust of foreigners existed, fioni the report that the people took us for pirates : and a rumor of such marauders in these regions must have reached their ears. The men (the shipwrecked Japanese on board) repeatedly told the officers that they need only tell us to depart and we would go ; but that before dismissing us, we requested to be supplied with fresh provisions. Yet a hundred or more men are commissioned to drive out a defenceless vessel with cannon and musquetry, and commence their attack, too, at a time when we should be in great jeopardy as soon as the anchor was off the ground. What course of conduct would have been pursued by the Japanese if ours had been an armed vessel, it is impossible to f^ay ; but I am more than ever rejoiced, now the experiment has been made, that no cannon were carried. However, towards a people who thus manifest decision of counsels and reliance upon their own resources, although exerted in a barbarous and savage manner, and on occasion when kindness was meant, a degree of respect and deference is paid. They now regard foreigners as ready to pounce upon their feountry the moment it should be opened, and before they consent to receive them they must be assured that those who IV PREFATORY NOTE. seek their ports are peaceable friends. They can derive no just idea of other nations, or of their enterprise, commerce, and philanthropy from what they see of foreign trade, cabined and reduced as it is by their laws ; and who expects them to come with open arms and request free intercourse before they aie acquainted with the benefits they would derive from it ? . Kecause one attempt has failed, shall all future endeavours cease ? We learn wisdom from experience. The rejection of the men, though painful to them and to us, may be the very best thing that could have happened : for if they had been received and we quietly dismissed, our means for doing them. and their countrymen further good would have been taken out of our hands. In this view of the case, and it appears reasonable, let U-s not abandon this nation ; but by making the best use of the men whom we have, get better prepared to do them permanent and, ' and bye,' if God permits, and as Otokichi says, good ; By " ' we will try again.' The hopes revealed in this expression of a youth oi twenty-five remained in the man of one and forty when invited by Commodore Perry to serve as Interpreter on his expedition to Japan.
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