Jessica+V

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This letter has been sent within the sight of Tokyo, it should been worth the postage. Our expedition was very sucsessful, America now has a small coal depot at Napa, in the Loo Choo islands. The treaty with Japan is agreed with and will be signed on the 24th. And all of this was done in about six weeks! That was quite fast since Japanese aren't very fast people. The history of all of the negotiations in the following. At the end of January the first group of sailing ships left for Japan -The steamers followed a week later- First we entered the wrong bay first. Thankfully, we found one of the ships on shore and one of the steamers pulled her off without damage. On February 7th we entered Tokyo bay, It was a lovely winter day. The air was cool, the sun was bright, and the sky cloudless. The country was beautiful, valleys filled with crops, and all was green in early spring.We approached Gorihama and Uragu, the shores where lined with canvas forts and filled with soilders. The commodore Matthew Perry's first meeting took place here in July. We passe the shore silently and in a single line. We ancored about 30 miles up the bay. Near Webster Island.=====

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The council was happy to see us. The old emperor had just died and the new emperor, Ka-ye-i, was satisfied with the presidents letter and was determined to grant all that he wished. The council revoked the law of not fighting in war. They knew about the war but decided not to get into it.===== Everyday the officers attended the negotiations. -or rather, in the suite- the negtioations stopped to go into buisiness in a private room. Entertainment was provided and we where entertained on the ship -the telegraph is up and already talks to us in Japanese- The hydraulic ram is up and running. Along with the other loud machines. We went through many villages near us. The citizens are law abiding people. Any resestance to law is very rare. The middle and lower class people like to be social. The people here are the happiest and healthiest people i have ever seen -out of 10,000 people I didn't see a unhealty one...