We were sent to this country by the President, who desires to promote the welfare of Japan, and are quite different from the ambassadors of other countries.

If you make a treaty first with the United States and settle the matter of the opium trade, England cannot change this, though she should desire to do so.

By means of steam one can go from California to Japan in eighteen days.

If I write in my name to the agents of England and France residing in Asia and inform them that Japan is ready to make a commercial treaty with their countries, the number of steamers will be reduced from fifty to two or three.

In time of war steamships and improved arms are the most important things.

In case of war, a treaty would have to be made at the end of the war.

The President wishes the Japanese to be very prudent about the introduction of opium, and if a treaty is made, he wishes that opium may be strictly prohibited.