The
rooms at his residence were comfortable, but cold-looking, for mats
and paper screens do not look nice in a frost. There were tables and
chairs and paraffin lamps, but no bedsteads, only about a dozen cotton
and silk quilts, some of which were supposed to serve as a couch,
while others were to be used as coverings.
Sir Harry has had, I fear, a great deal of trouble about the yacht.
She is the first vessel of the kind ever seen in Japan, with the
exception of the one sent out in 1858 as a present from the Queen to
the then Tycoon, and now used by the Mikado. The officials, it seems,
cannot make the 'Sunbeam' out. 'Is she a man-of-war? We know what that
is.' 'No.' 'Is she a merchant ship?' 'No; she is a yacht.' But what
can be the object of a vessel without guns is quite beyond their
comprehension. At last it has been settled that, in order to be like
other nations, the Japanese officials will not force us to enter at
the Custom House, or to pay a fine of sixty dollars a day for not
doing so. As a matter of precedent, it was important that the point
should be settled, though I hardly imagine that many yachts will
follow our example, and come out to Japan through the Straits of
Magellan and across the Pacific.
As it was now growing late, we returned to the hotel for dinner.
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