Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/175

 of black smoke, they spread consternation among the Japanese, who for the first time looked upon such a spectacle, to them an omen of frightful portent. Among the common people of that era there was sung a popular ballad, a legend of the "Black Ships" which were to bring destruction to their nation, a stanza of which runs as follows:—

Just as the vessels of the squadron came to anchor, at five o'clock in the evening, two signal guns were fired and a rocket shot up high in air from a neighboring fort. It was the signal to the inhabitants of the capital that the expected and feared strangers had arrived, of whose coming they had received an intimation through the Dutch at Deshima. A native writer chronicles the effect of this signal. "The popular commotion in Yedo at the news of a 'foreign invasion' was beyond description. The whole city was in an uproar. In all directions were seen mothers flying with children in their arms, and men with mothers on their backs. Rumors of an immediate action, exaggerated each time they were communicated from mouth to mouth, added horror to the horror-stricken. The tramp of war-horses, the clatter of armed warriors, the noise of carts, the parade of firemen, the incessant tolling of bells, the shrieks of women, the cries of children, dinning