What are _Kanaka Wich_, to what country do they belong?[3]
[3] Probably Kanaka, Sandwich island, he alludes to.
What are the implements at the disposal of an officer, who commands ten thousand soldiers in the field?
What are the advantages of the steam-gun?
Give me a recipe to make percussion-caps.
In a Dutch book on military art I found, that for a newly-invented gun or _musket_ the percussion-caps are attached to the cartridge by a thread. Why don’t the Americans have such muskets, haven’t they yet discovered how?
Why do people from other countries live in Loo-Choo?
Simoda on the horizon from the north pole in what degree? And in what degree to the east from London? a few days ago the masters of the Mississippi have been measuring, they must know.
If you will be kind enough to give me the information, what is the most useful and latest invention in America for military men. I shall be obliged to you and be always ready to oblige you in return.
It will worry your mind to read my letter and I find expressions for what my soul suggests.
I hope you will answer my letter, I go on board of the ships in the boats that take the water. I can not go on any other boat, and am always in the hope that the boat will be sent to the ship where you are.
I shall go to Yedo and be back in Simoda on the return of the ships from Hakodade, and hope to see you then in good health.
Query. The great Mexico empire, which belongs to the powerful United States, where is that situated?
The authorities have notified me, that I was not allowed to receive Americans at the house and converse with them.
I therefore write this letter and shall be on board your ship to-morrow and speak with you.
The following day he was on board, according to promise, in the suite of some Japanese officers. There was no opportunity to answer his questions that day, and on the return of the ships from Hakodade he did not make his appearance, retained by _illness_ or otherwise at Yedo, that is all. The officers heard from him, but never saw him again after that day, and his questions remained unanswered. “Give me a recipe to make percussion-caps.”
We noticed the number of matchlocks, that the Japanese were armed with, when we landed first in Japan—at Gorihama. The Dutch writers say, that they are aware of the superiority of the musket, but that a deficiency of flints in the geological formation of their country, and their determined aversion to dependence upon foreigners for anything essential to their military equipment, prevents their adoption. Their curiosity about the mode of making percussion-caps, and the “wafers” for the howitzers, was very great at all times.