sufferings, unavoidable in a state of imprisonment, gives to the people of
Japan a high character for generosity and benevolence.
Thus ended the efforts of Russia, until within a very reoent period, of
which we shall speak presently.
THE UNITED STATES OE AMERICA.
The attempts of our own country are all recent, and need not detain us
long. In the year 1831 a Japanese junk was blown off the coast, and, after
drifting about for some time in the Pacific, at length went ashore on the
western coast of America, near the mouth of the Columbia river. Kindness
was shown to the shipwrecked Japanese, and finally they were carried to
Macao, where they received the protection and care of the American and
English residents. I t was determined, after a time, to return the poor
creatures to their home. Either their benevolent friends were ignorant of
the Japanese law which prohibited the return of natives to Japan, or, if
they knew it, they supposed that, at any rate, those who went to Japan on
such an errand of mercy would not be molested for entering one of the
harbors of the Empire. Accordingly the “ Morrison,” an American merchantman,
was fitted out by the American house of King for the voyage to
Japan; and the more effectually to manifest her purely pacific purposes, all
her guns and armament were taken out. In 1837 she made the voyage, notes
of which have been published by Mr. C. W. King, an American merchant of
great respectability, who sailed in the “ Morrison.” The ship reached the bay
of Jeddo, and the Japanese very soon found out that she was entirely unarmed
and defenceless. The official visitors soon showed their contempt after making
this discovery, and early the next day the vessel was fired at with shotted
guns. She immediately weighed anchor and ran to Kagosima, the principal
town of the island of Kiu-siu, where she again came to anchor. After a
while preparations were made here, also, to fire upon the vessel, and before
she could remove, a battery opened upon her. The ship then returned to
Macao with the Japanese on board.
In 1846 an expedition was sent from the government of the United States
to Japan; its business was, if possible, to open negotiations with the Empire.
The ships consisted of the “ Columbus,” of ninety guns, and the corvette
“ Yincennes.” Commodore Biddle commanded the expedition. In July the
vessels reached the bay of Jeddo, and were, as usual, immediately surrounded
by the lines of guard boats. On this occasion they numbered about four
hundred. Some of the Japanese went on board the “Yincennes,” and one of
them placed a stick with some sort of a symbol carved on it at the head of the
vessel, and another of similar kind at the stem. The act was not perfectly
understood by the Americans, but they construed it to mean taking possession
of the ship, and ordered the sticks to be taken away. The Japanese
complied immediately without making any objection. The ships remained
ten days, but no one belonging to them landed, nor was anything accomplished.
The answer of the Emperor to the application for license to trade
was very short: “ No trade can be allowed with any foreign nation except
Holland.” : , ........ " " ■
In February of the year 1849 the United States ship Preble, under
Commander Glynn, formed part of the American squadron in the China seas,
when information was received, by way of Batavia, of the detention and imprisonment
in Japan of sixteen American seamen, who had been shipwrecked
on the coast of some of the Japanese islands. The Preble was immediately
dispatched to demand their release. As the ship neared the coast of Japan,
signal guns were fired from the prominent headlands to give warning of the
approach of a strange vessel; and when she entered the harbor of Nagasaki^
she was met by a number of large boats which ordered her off, and indeed
attempted to oppose further ingress. But the ship steadily standing on with
a firm breeze, soon broke their ranks, and came to anchor in a desirable
position.
Eleets of boats, crowded with soldiers, shortly afterward began to arrive,
and from that time until the Preble’s departure, they poured in, in one constant
stream, day and night. The troops they brought were encamped on
the elevated shores surrounding the anchorage of the Preble. From these
heights also were unmasked, at intervals, batteries of heavy artillery, numbering
in all sixty guns, which were trained upon the Preble’s decks.
Commander Glynn forthwith commenced negotiations for the release of
the American seamen, who had been imprisoned for nearly seventeen months,
and been treated with great cruelty and inhumanity. When they were
first confined, they were made to trample on the crucifix, and were told it
was the “ devil of Japan,” and that if they refused to trample on it their
lives should be taken. When Commander Glynn first demanded the release
of the prisoners, the Japanese officials treated the demand with well affected,
haughty indifference; finding, however, that this would not answer, they resorted
to evasive diplomacy; when the captain of the Preble, with the rough
bluntness of a sailor, peremptorily told them, in most unmistakable language,
that they must immedialely give up the men, or means would be found to
compel them to do so, as the government to which they belonged had both
the power and the will to proteot its citizens. This very soon changed their
tone, and deprecating any angry feeling, a promise was immediately made
that the men should be sent on board in two days from that time. This
promise having been fulfilled to the letter, the Preble returned to join the
squadron on the coast of China. The next effort made by the government
of the United States was that of which the story was told in the subsequent
pages of this work.
We have thus laid before the reader the chief features of the principal