The Western Democrat

NINTH VOLUME—NUMBER 453
FROM THE JAPANESE EMBASSY.
The Niagara left Kanagawa on the 28th of November from Hong-Kong, bringing letters up to that date. The landing of the Ambassadors and the reception of the Niagara's officers have already been noticed. A visit to the city of Yeddo seems to have completely dissolved that halo of beauty which the imagination had lent it. The houses are of one story, standing on an underpinning of wood or stone, constructed of a framework of light timber, with heavy beams above, while the side and partitions below are simply frames of sticks and paper—the whole resembling a vast rice-paper camp, which only needs a spark to kindle it into a flame. In fact, two thousand houses were burnt down during the short stay made there by the Niagara. It is said also that forty thousand people lost their lives during the earthquake of 1858, unable to escape from the burning ruins.
Numerous temples, however, add a degree of picturesqueness to the otherwise monotonous scene.
The residences of the Tycoon and his principal officers are also gorgeously fitted up, each having a large guard of soldiers to protect the inmates.
Four days after the Ambassadors' arrival they made a visit to the American Minister, and expressed their kind appreciation of the manner in which they had been treated. Two days later an audience was given to the Minister and the Niagara's officers by the Prime Minister of the Empire. The visitors were received with great urbanity. Simme Bugen and the other Ambassadors were also present. After tobacco and pipes had been handed round, conversation began between Mr Harris and the Minister, the latter expressing the satisfaction with which his Government had heard of the reception of the Embassy, and his thanks for the presents which had been sent to the Tycoon. Dinner followed, in which Eastern ingenuity appears to have displayed itself to perfection; but, strange to say, the quondam bibulous Ambassadors refused to taste, touch, or handle any of the inebriating liquors. With a few complimentary observations, the company soon afterward broke up.
The presents were landed on the next day but one, and comprised a gun-boat and machinery, a battery of Dahlgren guns, with a large quantity of small arms and machinery, the whole weighing about ninety tons. One of the officers was surprised to find, in an adjoining shed, seventeen Dahlgren guns, exact copies of the one presented by Commodore Perry; but he was quietly informed that the Japanese had finished one thousand more of the same sort, which were all in the forts and arsenals at Yeddo. An Armstrong gun had also been made, apparently from some newspaper description. Half an hour's instruction enabled the men to work the new gun with entire success.
Nearly all the foreigners in Japan, however, complain bitterly of the indignities which are still heaped upon them; and it is evident that the prejudices of centuries are far from being overcome.
Fears are entertained of an indiscriminate massacre of strangers, to be followed by war and all its horrors. Though the currency difficulty had been settled during the visit to this country, no official notification of it had been made when the Niagara left. Calling at Hong Kong the steamer took Mr Ward, the American Minister to China, from that port to Aden.