File:Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan (1857) (14782201504).jpg

Identifier: narrativeofexped05perr (find matches)
Title: Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan
Year: 1857 (1850s)
Authors: Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 1794-1858 Hawks, Francis L. (Francis Lister), 1798-1866
Subjects: United States Naval Expedition to Japan (1852-1854)
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company (etc., etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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d Chinese, andany further allusion to such restraints will be considered offensive; towhich we will add that the Japanese commissioners put in writing, as oneof the points agreed upon between them and Commodore Perry, that thecitizens of the United States will not submit to degradations like those im-posed upon the Dutch and Chinese. And Commodore Perrys countrymenexpected him to say precisely what he did say, and are quite satisfied withthe result. It only remains to be added that, until since the return of our expedition,neither the Dutch nor Russians were able to effect a treaty. England andthe United States alone succeeded ; and England readily admits that, in pointof time, ours was the first. This is all we have ever said; and we concludewith the wish that all the powers of Europe, seeking commercial treaties withJapan, may succeed as well as England and ourselves, and that most inter-esting Empire thus be opened to, and enriched by, free communication withthe civilized world. v\
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\)b EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. familiar tliouglit; the agency of steam was, of course, involved, and fuel forits production was indispensable. Hence arose inquiries for that great min-eral agent of civilization, coal. Where was it to be obtained on the longroute from California to Asia? Another inquiry presented itself: Withwhat far distant eastern nations should we trade? China was in somemeasure opened to us; but there was, beside, a terra incognita in Japan,which, while it stimulated curiosity, held out also temptations which invitedcommercial enterprise. True, we knew not much about its internal regu-lations ; we knew that-it had, for centuries, isolated itself, as it were, fromthe world, and persisted in a system of excluding foreigners from inter-course ; that but one European nation was allowed to approach for purposesof trade, and that repeated efforts made by others for a similar privilegehad uniformly failed of success. But we knew, too, that it possessedvaluable productions, and

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