up into the inner harbor, and at once put himself in communication with the governor. After some equivocation and delay the imprisoned seamen were delivered up, and the Preble rejoined the squadron.[1]
The sailors both from the Lawrence and the Lagoda made detailed statements of their treatment while held as prisoners by the Japanese, which showed that they had suffered great indignity and cruelty. They alleged that they had been required to trample and spit upon the Christian cross; that they had been in some instances shut up in narrow cages, put in stocks, exposed to unnecessary hardships and severe weather, and that as a consequence some of their number had died. These accounts had much to do with the final resolution of the government of the United States to force a treaty upon Japan. And yet it is not certain that the Japanese government authorized any severe or cruel treatment. In order to carry out its policy of rigid exclusion of foreigners, it caused all who were found on its coasts to be arrested and held as prisoners. The orders were to send them to Nagasaki, from which port they were taken out of the country by Dutch vessels as soon as opportunity occurred. If indignity or cruelty was inflicted, it was caused rather by the zeal of subordinates than by order of the government.
About the year 1850 all the waters around Japan were swarming with American whalers in quest of their prey. Not less than eighty-six such vessels were counted by a Japanese observer that year as passing a single point. It was felt by them to be a great hardship that
- ↑ S. Ex. Doc. 59, cited, 64–69; Ib. 3–44, 69–73.
