the great purposes of his mission, rendered much more interesting and important
by the startling revolutionary movements in that country. The
United States steamer Princeton was especially set apart for that purpose.
But the steamers Princeton, San Jacinto, and Alleghany, have all proved
miserable failures. This accounts, therefore, for the delay of a previous
II order similar to this.
The President trusts that it may not seriously incommode your operations,
in regard to Japan, to co-operate with our commissioner in the interesting
undertaking to bring about free intercourse with the government of China;
to form commercial treaties of vast benefit to the American people, and introduce
a new era in the history of trade and commerce.
The mission in which you are engaged has attracted much admiration,
and excited much expectation. But the present seems to be a crisis in the
expedition fitted up from this port, under the protection of Richard Charlton, Esq., her
Majesty’s consul, to colonize the Bonin Islands ; and I wotdd intimate to the masters of all
whaling vessels touching at that group, that the said Mazarro is a sober and discreet man,
and recommend them to support him by all means in their power against the troubles of
the peace of that distant settlement, recommending, also, to the settlers to receive Mr.
Mazarro as then- head, until some officer directly appointed by her Britannic Majesty is
placed over them.*
“ ALEX. SIMPSON,
“ H. B . M. Acting Consul fo r the Sandwich Islands.
“ God save the queen.
“ A small body of enterprising emigrants would find this group a most admirable place
for settlement Its colonization, indeed, I consider to be a national object.”
True copy: H N LAY.
Un it ed States Steam F rigate Susquehanna,
Hong Kong, December 23, 1853.
Sin: Referring to the conversation which I yesterday had the honor of holding with
your excellency, as also to your written communication, with accompanying papers, this
moment received, I beg to remark that the account given by Mr. Simpson is far from being
correct.
That gentleman has forgotten to name oil the white persons who embarked in the enterprise
to form a settlement upon Peel Island. The names and places of birth of these
men may he enumerated as follows:—•
Mateo Mazarro, the leader, a native of Genoa; Nathaniel Savory, horn in Massachusetts,
United States ; Alden B. Chapin, also a native of- Massachusetts; John Millechamp,
a British subject, and Charles Johnson, a Dane.
These five men, accompanied by about twenty-five or thirty natives of the Sandwich
Islands, male and female, landed a t Port Lloyd in the summer of 1830. Of the whites
Nathaniel Savory is the only one remaining on the island. . Mazarro, Chapin, and Johnson,
are dead, as I am informed; and Millechamp is now residing at Guam, one of the La-
drone group.
history of China, and is considered by many as throwing around China, at
least, as much interest and attraction as Japan presents.
To have your name associated with the opening of commercial intercourse
with Japan may well excite your pride; but to be identified, also, with the
great events that we trust may yet transpire in connection with China,
may be well esteemed a privilege and an honor.
Hoping that it may not interfere seriously with your plan of operations,
you will, on receipt of this communication, immediately dispatch one of the
war steamers of your squadron to Macao, to meet the Hon. R. M. MeLane,
our commissioner to China, to be subject to his control until other orders
reach you. Mr. MeLane will bear with him further instructions to you.
In the meantime, however, you will act as heretofore in the matter of your
mission—only dispatching the vessel as above mentioned. Mr. MeLane will
probably leave on the 19th proximo.
I t would, therefore, appear, that so far as the nationality of the settlers could apply to
the question of sovereignty, the Americans were as two to one, compared with the three
others, who were subjects of different sovereigns. ^
Since the first occupation of the island, the early settlers have been occasionally joined
by white persons landing from whaling ships, some few of whom have remained ; and, at
the time of my visit there were, I think, about eight whites in the settlement.
These people, after my departure, met together and established a form of municipal
government, electing Nathaniel Savory their chief magistrate, and James Maitley and
Thomas H. Webb, councilman.
With respect to any claim of sovereignty that may be founded upon the right of previous
discovery, there is abundant evidence to prove th a t these islands were known to navigators
as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, and were visited by the Japanese
in 1675, who gave them the name of “ Bune Sima.”—(See enclosed extracts.)
In 1823, three years before the visit of Captain Beechey, in H. M. ship “ Blossom,” the
group was visited by a Captain Coffin, in the American whaling ship “ Transit.” *
Thus it is plainly shown that the government of her Britannic Majesty cannot claim
the sovereignty upon the ground of discovery, and it only remains to determine how far
this right may be derived from the ceremony performed by Captain Beechey.
But these are matters only to be discussed by our respective governments, and I refer
to them now merely in explanation of our conversation of yesterday.
With respect to my purchase of a piece of ground from Nathaniel Savory, though conceiving
myself in no way bound to explain such arrangement, I do not hesitate, in all due
courtesy, to say, that the transaction was one of a strictly private character.
In acquiring the fee of the land, I had not the slightest idea of personal profit, but
made the purchase for a legitimate object, and to withhold the only suitable position in (he
harbor for a coal depot from the venality of unprincipled speculators, who might otherwise
have gained possession of it for purposes of extortion.
And now let me assure your excellency, that the course pursued by me has been influenced
solely by a settled conviction of the necessity of securing ports of refuge and sup-
* I have ascertained the name of this vessel from a Captain Morris, commanding an American whaling
ship now in this p o rt
Since the above was written, the Commodore has taken pains to procure evidence, that Coffin was bom
in the United States. As to the ship, he has no farther testimony than that stated above.