Japan is supposed to have been first visited by the Portuguese as early as 1542, and it would appear that they managed to establish a strong trade with the country: then in the beginning of the seventeenth century the Dutch established a trading station at Nagasaki. The East India Company, in 1613, also established a depot on a small island named Hirado, off the west coast of Kiushiu, under a Captain Siris, but he abandoned the post in 1623. A shipwrecked English sailor named Will Adams, of Limehouse, London, lived for many years at Yedo in the service of the Shogun or Tycoon, mainly as a shipwright and boat builder, and he died there in 1620. The Portuguese might have remained indefinitely had they not meddled in politics; they also introduced a am religion which made such rapid progress that tradition put the number of converts down at several millions during the first hundred years. The early religious propagandists were men of noble character, but they were soon followed by men of inferior qualities and the people began to suspect that the real object of this mission work was the subjugation of the country. At first the Portuguese were persecuted, then they were expelled, and the sins of the Portuguese were visited on all foreigners indiscriminately, access to the country being denied to all aliens alike, except a few Dutch who were allowed to remain at Nagasaki for trade purposes, under very humiliating conditions. Japan thus closed her doors to the nations of the West, and they remained so closed for two centuries and a half, when Commodore Perry, of the United States Navy, landed at Uraga with a letter from the President of his country, and secured the promise of a treaty. Many vessels visited the islands during the interval and attempts had been made to secure a footing in the country. There was an edict prohibiting natives from leaving the islands and this law was strictly enforced. In 1870 a sister of the writer brought away from Japan the first native woman who was ever allowed to leave the country. Many natives who had chanced to be carried off in ships by which they had been saved when shipwrecked in their own junks were not permitted to return until after the formal opening of the country to commerce in 1854. Many of these men, on their return, could not speak their native language, but as they soon picked it up they became of great service to the State, mostly as interpreters and in other capacities.
Prior to 1868 there may be said to have been two rulers in the country. The Ten-shi, or Mikado as he is more commonly known to Europeans, the real head of the Empire, lived in semi-sacred seclusion at Kioto, whilst the Shogun or Tycoon lived at Yedo where he was the virtual ruler and head of the government as the Ten-shi's deputy. The position of Shogun was hereditary just as was that of the Emperor himself, but from having held the position for so many centuries they claimed absolute power and freedom of action without any reference to the Ten-shi, and that he was the executive head of the State. In 1862 the Shogun was cited by the Emperor to appear at Kioto; he did not go at that time, but later on, when he did go, it was admitted that he was only a vassal of the Ten-shi, and this was undoubtedly the beginning of the end of the rule of the Shoguns, the complete overthrow being accomplished in 1868.
As there were two rulers it is but natural that there should be two political parties and on the coming of the foreigners these parties ranged themselves under two very distinct banners. One was the Jo-I, who sought the expulsion of the foreigner and the continued seclusion of Japan, the others called the Kai-koru whose main policy was progress and the opening of the country to western methods; feeling between the two parties ran high and was very marked. Eventually the Jo-I became the O-Sei, in opposition to the Bak-fu or military curtain government, by which was virtually meant the rule of the Shogunatc. All who were opposed to the prevailing system of government ranged themselves under the banner of the O-Sei, not necessarily thereby opposing themselves to the foreigner, and when the cry of expulsion had served its purpose the leaders of that party were quite willing that it should cease to exist, and it may be said with perfect truth that many of Japan's foremost statesmen of after years were at one time allied with the O-Sei organization, yet we know they all stood for progress and advancement. The cry of the O-Sei was "the expulsion of the alien" but its real ambitions were "Down with the Shogunate."
Shimadzu, Prince of Satsuma, and Mori, Lord of Cho-shiu, the two most powerful daimios or nobles at the southern end of Japan had formed a league for " the expulsion of the barbarians and the restoration of the Ten-shi to full control," but the feudal system flourished and the Shogun was at the height of his power and every daimio owned allegiance to the Emperor's deputy at Yedo. The country was, however, far advanced in those revolutionary troubles preparatory to the crisis which had been surely coming for the past hundred years, but which was accelerated by the presence of the foreigner, whose coming had disturbed an elaborate political machinery. The Civil War of 1868, under which the dual system, feudalism and the "curtain government" of the Shogun were to pass forever, had really begun, though foreigners who did not know Japan supposed it was simply the revolt of two great feudal daimios from their suzerain and that it was simply a quarrel between Satsuma and Mori on the one side and the Shogun on the other.
When Commodore Perry landed at Uraga, as already stated, the villagers were filled with consternation, as no direct communication had been held with the outside world for over 230 years and it was in direct contravention of the laws of the Shogun to hold any communication with foreigners. The head man of the village undertook to have the letter forwarded to the ruler of the country and the commodore obtained the promise of a treaty at some future time; this was obtained during the following year. The advent of this foreign officer during such an unsettled state of the country served but to accentuate the difficulty of the position of the Shogun and his party, for if he yielded to the demand of the President of the United States as contained in the letter, that the country should emerge from its self-imposed seclusion and allow foreigners to enter within its gates, he would incur the wrath of the nobility, or at least a certain part of them, whilst if he refused he might find his country facing a hostile invasion and perhaps become an India or a China, which would be quite as disastrous to himself as forcing the exclusion of the foreigner. So he took the counsel of men who advocated the making of treaties with people whom Japan was not, at that time, strong enough to effectively exclude, and thus was inserted the thin edge of the wedge—at first nothing more than a promise of friendship—between the United States of America and Japan, but it was the thin edge, for very shortly afterwards a treaty was negotiated which granted the right to establish a legation at Shimadzu, a small town on the Idzu peninsula, some sixty-five miles southwest of Kanagawa. In 1858, Lord Elgin concluded a treaty granting rights to establish legations in Yedo, but as feeling was running very high against the foreigners it was eventually agreed that they should be settled at Yokohama, a small village close to Kanagawa, but off the main road connecting the two ancient capitals. Our relations with Japan in those early days were very disturbed, as the party opposed to foreign intercourse was powerful and truculent.
In 1861 an armed force of ronins attacked the British legation in the middle of the night, killing and wounding many of the inmates. These "ronins" were armed bands going about the country making attacks on foreigner?; they had mostly been retainers of some great feudal lord who had now become adventure's, rather than mercenaries, drifting with the political current of the hour.
Anxieties were further multiplied for the Baku-fu party when, in 1862, the Ten-shi sent an envoy to Yedo to require the Shogun to proceed to Kioto, there to discuss the political situation and concert measures with the other great nobles of the land for the expulsion of foreigners. Shimadzu, a Prince of Satsuma, and uncle of the head of the house of Satsuma, undertook personally to proceed to Yedo to escort the Imperial Envoy or Viceroy to and from Kioto, and proceeded there with six hundred of his clansmen. He had other ambitious objects in making the journey, but it is only necessary now to state that he completely failed in all. He was treated in Yedo with coldness and hauteur, and on that fateful September 14 he left Yedo with all his followers and commenced his long journey down the Tokaido, or great road, that connects the two capitals, passes through Kanagawa and within a short distance of Yokohama: it may readily be understood that he was not in the best of good moods as he travelled homewards. It so happened that on that same day a party of English, some visitors from China and others, merchants from Yokohama, and consisting of Mrs. Borrodaile and Messrs. Richardson, Marshall and Clarke were riding along this same road within treaty limits. At first they met the usual crowds, then (lie advanced party of the noble's guard, and then that of the prince himself, seated in a palanquin. In Japan, when a great noble passes it is the rule to give a clear road and to make obeisance, but this pleasure party was either little versed in the customs of the country or else they were somewhat arrogant, for they went riding on taking no notice whatever of the great man who was passing. When close to the palanquin of the prince, Mr. Richardson was cut down by a Japanese sword and his body hacked to pieces. Mrs. Borrodaile narrowly escaped death, by the opportune falling of her hair, which was cut. Mr. Marshall lost an arm, and Mr. Clarke managed to escape, though hotly attacked. News of the occurrence soon reached Yokohama and a small force of blue-jackets and men from the minister's escort went out to the scene of the disaster to bring in the body. The writer was one of this party and well remembers the scowls and evil looks on the faces of the natives he met, but the prince's party had already passed and no further attack was made. Colonel Neale, British charge d'affaires, in the absence of Sir Rutherford Alcock, called on the Shogun's government for the punishment of the murderer and compensation to the victims. After prolonged negotiations the Japanese alleged—and we now know that they simply stated what was the truth—that they were powerless to coerce the Prince of Satsuma in his distant dominions; so Admiral Kuper and the British fleet took the matter in hand and in August of the following year a considerable squadron left Yokohama for Kegoshima, the capital of the Satsuma territory, situated at the extreme south of the Empire. An ultimatum was sent ashore requiring the execution of the murderer of Mr. Richardson, in the presence of the British officers, together with the payment of compensation to the relatives of the murdered man and the victims, the amount being fixed at £25,000. This was refused and the Japanese did not wait for the fleet to open fire, but took the initiative themselves, and with unquestionable courage and skill. The admiral immediately seized and destroyed three steamers belonging to the prince and bombarded the town. A fire broke out, which, owing to a typhoon blowing at the time, destroyed more than half the town. The fleet drew off and the Yedo government paid the fine.
The writer arrived at Yokohama in the spring of 1861 from Tien-tsin, where he had been frozen in on the Pei-ho River for four months, at the close of the China War of i860, so that he was in good time to be in the thick of all the anti-foreign troubles in Japan. The occurrences at Kegoshima were made the subject of a debate in the House of Commons, when Sir Rutherford Alcock was entirely sustained in the retaliatory measures, he had pursued. But the debates and the occurrences together were, in an indirect way, the cause of two midshipmen leaving the navy. It is a curious coincidence that they both entered the army, one meeting a soldier's death in Zululand, the other being the writer.
Shimadzu has been referred to as the uncle of the head of the house of Satsuma, but some little explanation is required for this. The previous daimio was Shimadzu's brother, and he adopted the then young ruling prince as his son and it followed under Japanese law that the father became uncle to his own child, so that Shimadzu was the father and nominally the uncle of Satsuma; hence the reason for his being so prominent in the affairs of his country at this period.
It is somewhat important that the geographical position of Cho-siu and Kiu-shiu be fully understood to be able to follow the events of the next year or more in Japan. The Empire consists of four principal islands: in the far north is Yeso, which may be eliminated from this article, as it does not play any part in the episodes; next comes Hondo, by far the largest of the group and it may be considered the mainland; the capital is situated on the east coast of this island: then Shikoku, which is, as it were, jammed in sideways and under the instep of a foot formed by the southern end of Hondo: finally comes Kiu-shiu which is separated from Hondo by the narrow Straits of Shimonoseki. The Ten-shi or Mikado's capital at Kioto is also situated on Hondo, in the middle of the instep referred to. The Satsuma family held sway in Kiu-shiu and Mori was lord in Cho-shiu, which is situated on that part of Hondo which stretches down to the Straits of Shimonoseki: therefore the Lord of Cho-shiu on the north and Satsuma on the south held the straits. Well realizing the strength of his position, Mori opposed the passage of foreign vessels entering the straits from the west and Satsuma took sides with him and the two thus became involved with the Baku-fu, i.e., the Shogun concerning the right of way. Mori signified his disapproval by firing on ships attempting the passage. The Bakufu had failed to convince him that the channel ought to be open to ail comers, and despairing of its own ability to put a stop to the systematic interference with foreign shipping, had authorized the admirals of the western powers to take such measures as they thought best.
June 25, 1863, was the day fixed for the expulsion of the "barbarians" and on that same date the American merchant vessel Pembroke, having a pilot furnished by the Yedo government, was on its way through the straits, and was fired on by the land batteries and the guns of the armed brig Ko-sei, formerly the Lanric, but was not damaged. Thus the peace of centuries was broken. On July 8, the French despatch boat Kim Chang was hit in several places. A boat was lowered to enquire the reason for such an attack, but a well-directed shot immediately sank her and nearly all the crew were killed or drowned, the vessel herself being saved by a lively use of the pumps. Three days later the Dutch frigate Medusa was hit thirty-one times, seven shots piercing the hull and three 8-inch shells bursting on board: four men were killed and several wounded. On the 20th of the same month the French gunboat Tancrede, though steaming rapidly through the channel, was struck three times before she got through. Then, not long after that, a steamer belonging to Satsuma was mistaken for an alien vessel and was fired upon; she was set on fire by the shells and sunk, twenty-six Japanese losing their lives. There was ample proof that the Cho-siu artillerists had learned their lesson well, and they were in high glee over their successes. They believed that with their armed brig, their bark (formerly the Daniel Webster), and an iron steamer of 600 tons named the Koshin, formerly the LanccHeld, they could lick creation. What most astonished the Hollanders on the Medusa was the projectile, such size and weight being undreamed of; to find 6- and 8-inch shell exploding on their deck was a novelty to the Dutchmen in the Eastern world and showed that the Japanese were up to the times. The American sloop Wyoming, under the command of Commander McDougal, was the next to retaliate on the hostile clansmen, but as I am in hope that this article will be read by officers of the American Navy, who have just cause to be proud of the deeds of McDougal and the crew of the Wyoming, I will make a special chapter of that engagement; moreover, I am not dealing with the deeds of a single foreign nation just here.
The French ships Tancrede and Semiramis then went out to punish the war-like holders of the passage for their attack on the Tancrede. They subjected Shimonoseki and did considerable damage, but here again the Japanese displayed good gunnery and courage. Next, a combined fleet comprising British, French and Dutch vessels steamed out from Yokohama and the battle of Shimonoseki of 1864 was fought. The Americans had no warship in those waters at the time to represent them, so they sent out an unarmed chartered vessel, but she took no active part in the engagement.
The British contingent consisted of nine ships of various sizes: There was Admiral Kuper's flagship, the Conqueror, 101 guns and to which the writer belonged, the frigate Eurylus, 51 guns, the corvette Barrosa, 22 guns, Tartar, 20 guns, paddle sloop Leopard, 18 guns, Bouncer and Coquette, 4 guns each, and the paddle sloop Argus with 6 guns, also the Perseus. The French sent five ships and the Dutch four, the Medusa being one of that number. As was the custom amongst British middies when anything exciting was on in those days, I managed to get a little fun out of the fight as well as the excitement: burnt powder was not new to several of the other midshipmen on the same ship as myself, for we had been present at the attack on and taking of the Tanku and Taku Forts, at the mouth of the Pei-ho River in i860, and some of us had been up to the sacred city of Pekin. Of the battle itself there is little enough to be said. The vessels of the various powers took up their allotted position just out of the strong current, and early the next morning prepared for the assault. Not without warning, however, for due notice had been given of the intention. The Cho-shiu batteries were eight in number, the first being three miles to the east of the town of Shimonoseki, thence extending up to the hill opposite Moji Point where the main street of the town begins. In all, there were mounted some seventy-five guns in these batteries, and the instant that the guns of the ships opened tire a most lively response was made by the Japanese gunners. The most powerful of the Cho-shiu guns were mounted at a small village half way between the town of Shimonoseki and another village named Cho-fu.
After some pretty severe fighting', in the course of which the town caught fire and burned fiercely, the batteries were silenced and some blue-jackets were landed to aid in extinguishing the fire. The natives were not all armed with firearms as one sailor on the Tivrcde was killed by an arrow. After the surrender of the forts was completed, a document was drawn up for Mori's signature, agreeing to certain conditions under which the allied squadron should retire: the document was duly signed and returned after two days, and the guns from the batteries were taken on board the fleet which then drew off. An indemnity oT £600,000 was eventually paid, irrespective of the amount claimed by and paid to the owners of the American ship Pembroke which, as already stated, had been fired on. Of course the loss of the guns put a stop to the firing on vessels passing through the straits. Though the Cho-shiu men were very proud of the resistance they had made against so many vessels, they have not forgotten the behavior of the British in landing a party to assist in extinguishing the conflagration which the fighting had caused. The French lost three men killed and the Cho-shiu had between fifty and sixty men killed and many wounded.
The act of Cho-shiu in firing upon the foreign vessels marked the beginning, not only of a foreign war and "The first deed of arms in Japan" as it has been called by a native historian, it marked also the beginning of a civil war and a long political struggle which was to end only with the revolution in 1868. For all that, Japan had not failed to property learn the lesson she was taught from the fighting with the foreigners. She learned the lesson and she immediately set to work to profit by it. At the time when dissensions between the two parties were at their height the Shogun, being only fifteen years old, was not able to lend any assistance to his party; Shimadzu, acting for his nephew (son) the Prince of Satsuma. exerted all his influence to reconcile the conflicting interests of the contending factions, but without avail, and matters were in this condition when the Shogun decided to proceed to Kioto in answer to the summons he had received from the Ten-shi during the previous year; there was a halfhearted reconciliation between the ruler and his viceroy or deputy and for the moment harmonious relations were re-established. But a personal quarrel occurred between the Shogun and Mori, Lord of Cho-shiu, which would have been much more serious for the Shogun had Satsuma been quite ready to throw in his lot with Mori. As it was it ended disastrously for Mori, who was sent down to his own dominions by the Emperor, and the Shogun remained in favor. The Cho-shiu clan was from that time directly and openly opposed to the Shogun's party and were so indignant at the insult thus put upon their lord that they marched to Kioto and attacked it. In the fight that ensued the clansmen were opposed by the troops of the Shogun, who had been directed by the Emperor to punish Mori for the outrage, and at the same time Mori was deposed by edict of the Emperor. But Mori and his men cared little for either Emperor or Shogun and raised the standard of revolt in the west of Japan. Then, at the head of a numerous army, he set out again for Kioto where he met the troops of the Shogun in a series of engagements which ended in the Shogun's defeat. This was fatal to the Shogunate, for whilst it is true that he had already made the admission of vassalage to the Ten-shi, that was simply an admission that the power of the Shogun had its limits. Satsuma had failed to support Mori, but that did not indicate for a moment that he supported the Shogun, and by this time some of the more powerful of the provincial daimios had fallen away from their allegiance to the Shogun and had ceased to attend the court at Yedo, or even reside there during the prescribed six months in each year. The whole country between Kioto and Yedo now became infested with ronins, outlaws by choice, adventurers by nature, men who had become freelances for the sole purpose of not involving their daimios in trouble on account of their actions, and it was perfectly unsafe for single persons or even small parties of foreigners to go out riding beyond the limits of the town, even within the treaty limits. Within a very brief space of time several assassinations took place, including Major Baldwin and Lieut. Bird, of the British regiment stationed on the Bluff, of Mr. Hueksen or Heutsen, of the British legation; of an officer of the French 101st Line Regiment, and of several others. The chapter is a painful one in the history of Japan and she has so long repented for the misdeeds of a few of her misguided people and as these misdeeds certainly did not have the approval of either party in the country at that time, it would certainly be nothing but generous of the English to say little to remind the Japanese of it.
Matters were going along in this way till the early part of August, 1865, when the flagship of Admiral Kuper was ordered away from Japan, and on the 12th of that month the writer set sail on that ship from Yokohama Bay on his way to lands far distant. We had not been under way very long till we met our aid friend, the Argus—already referred to as being with us at the bombardment of Shimonoseki—she had mail for us which was soon transferred, and once more we had a look at the place where tie batteries had proudly, or should I say arrogantly, defied the foreign "barbarian." And thus ended my period of service in Japan, and in fact in Eastern waters, but I was certainly there during the stirring days when history was in the making, and history has seldom been made in "the piping times of peace."
July 16, 1863. An Episode.
In the previous pages an attempt has been made to tell of events in Japan leading up to the summer of 1863 when, according to the decree of the Shogun or Tycoon, the "hairy barbarian" was to be expelled, and Mori, the powerful daimio of Cho-shiu attempted to bar the passage of foreign vessels through the Straits of Shimonoseki by firing on them. June 25 was the date set for the carrying out of that decree, and on that day Mori was provided with exactly what he wanted to enable him to carry out his part in the program, for during the afternoon the American merchant vessel Pembroke entered the straits on her way to Nagasaki and China, having on board a pilot that had been supplied by the Yedo government: she was fired on by the land batteries, also by the guns of the armed brig Ko-sei, but escaped unhurt. Thus the peace of two centuries and a half was broken. In April of that same year Commander McDougal, of the U. S. Navy, in command of the Wyoming, was in Hong Kong looking for trouble, in the shape of a Confederate privateer; he received orders from Mr. Pruyn, the United States Minister in Yokohama, to bring his ship to that port, and to have her guns ready for service as the Japanese were beginning to give trouble to foreigners. Incendiarism and assassination on the part of the "ronin" were on the increase and, as a matter of fact, the U. S. legation was burned very shortly after the arrival in port of the Wyoming, but whether by accident or design, could never be found out. On July 11 Commander McDougal heard from his minister the news of the firing on the Pembroke on the 25th of the previous month, the news having come up from Shanghai, and he was glad enough that Mori had provided an immediate substitute for an Alabama. Nothing daunted by the fact that he was not acquainted with the passage of the straits, neither could he obtain any chart of the place, he ordered coal on board and procured two pilots from the government; then he lost no time in sailing out to Shimonoseki.
The Wyoming was a sloop of war of 700 tons; she carried four 32-pounder side guns and two 11-inch Dalhgren pivot guns. She carried a crew of 160 officers and men, all of whom seemed "fit," and they composed a really good crew. The writer was the very first to board the JFyoming on her arrival in Yokohama, carrying a message from Admiral Kuper, and he had many opportunities of revisiting the ship during her stay in port, becoming very intimate with most of the officers and forming a great liking for and mutual friendship with that kindly old gentleman and thorough sailor, Commander McDougal. It is on account of this friendship and the intimacy with the other officers that enabled him to get a true account of the "episode" at first hand and quite ungarnished, and from having visited the scene of the action, he felt almost that he had seen the whole thing. As can be seen from a study of the accompanying sketch the Straits of Shimonoseki form the western gateway of the Inland Sea, the actual straits being about three miles long and from one and a half to two miles wide, but the navigable channel is only from three to seven hundred feet wide. The town consists principally of one long street running along at the foot of some bold bluffs, and there is a ravine in which the houses cluster pretty thickly; the population was, at that period, about fifteen or sixteen thousand persons. The batteries, or more correctly speaking, the redoubts or platforms where the seventy-four guns were mounted, extend from a point at the extreme east of the straits right up to the town itself; the village of Chofu, where the heaviest guns were mounted, being nearly in the middle of that line. There is also a ten-gun fort named Buzen on the opposite shore, but in such a position that it could not come into action against any ship that was attacking the town of Shimonoseki, facing some of the more easterly of the Cho-shiu redoubts. Amongst other guns on shore there were several 8-inch Dahlgrens which had been given to the government at Yedo, but in some way had got into Mori's hands. As well as the shore batteries, the Japanese had three vessels which have been described in a previous part of this narrative.
The Wyoming entered the narrow straits at 6 o'clock on the morning of July 16. Signal guns were fired from the first redoubt and passed along as far as the town. Before coming within sight of the town the first shot fired struck the ship above the asgint room. No reply was made to any shot, however, till rounding the Monshi promontory on the southern shore, when the three ships and the whole town burst into view. Commander McDougal had taken care to ascertain the exact draft of the iron learner already referred to, for he knew that where she could go the Wyoming could follow. Stakes had been driven into the mud on the edges of the navigable channel and it was evident—men from the first shot fired—that the Japanese knew the exact distance and expected to blow the ship to smithereens. The steamer Koshin was lying close in under the forts and McDougal ordered the man at the wheel to steer direct for her as he intended to take her. The pilots got frightened and told him he would run his ship on shore as there was not enough water, and they were doing all they could to keep the vessel on the southern shore: it was evident they were not accustomed to hear shot and shell flying about. As soon as the Wyoming was seen to be steering for the northern shore and the steamer, another battery, up the side of the hill, began to fire; this was one of the batteries that had an 8-inch Dahlgren. About then another battery also opened fire, and then was shown McDougal's wisdom in steaming out of the staked channel, as :he shot now began to pass above the hull and up in the rigging. The three Japanese men of war carried eighteen guns between them. Even by this time, the Wyoming had several wounded and three killed. As the ship neared the Japanese vessels her flag was run up amidst ringing shouts and cheers, but was at once saluted from a fresh shore battery of four guns. By 10.30 a. m. the American vessel was in front of the town and dashed in between the steamer and the two brigs and was soon abreast of the Ko-sci which fired a broadside from her four brass 24-pounders. The Koshin was not able to do very much damage, her guns being pointed up the channel; but the brig was so close that the faces of her crew were plainly discernible, and the guns of the two ships were nearly touching each other. So rapidly did the Japanese work her guns that no less than three broadsides were fired before the Wyoming passed her. As she passed between the two Japanese ships she fired broadsides from both sides, and every shot found its billet. Now the inevitable happened; the Wyoming cleared the steamer and steered over towards the southern shore, and all the shore batteries getting the range again, together with the guns on the bark, concentrated their fire on her, and—she grounded—but despite that fact and the holes torn in her side by shells, she still vigorously continued firing: the Koshin had slipped her cable and made towards the shore under the batteries, either for the purpose of escaping or to attempt to ram and board the American ship. One of the brigs showed signs of distress and was evidently about to sink. But McDougal was not content to carry on the fight with his ship in the mud, so he set her propeller to work to get her off; fortunately this was a powerful one and after several attempts she floated again. The grounding took place close under the southern or Kiu-shiu shore in front of a village, and right opposite to the western extremity of the town of Shimonoseki. Ignoring the sinking brig, the Wyoming paid all her attention to the on-coming Koshin. In doing so she had to contend with the swift running current. The bow chaser was the gun that proved of most service at this moment, as the broadsiders could not yet come into play; the bow gun, however, did its work well; the second shot passed through the vessel; it pierced her side just above the water-line, smashed the boiler, came out on the other side and exploded in the town half a mile away. Great volumes of steam rose from the disabled ship and spars and wreckage were hurled up in the air. The officers left the ship in rowing boats to pull for the shore and the crew jumped overboard to swim away, and the steamer sank from sight; at least forty of these men lost their lives. At this time the Wyoming was well past the town itself and had her work cut out to make way against the very powerful tide, as she had plenty of work before her yet: the bark was still firing as fast as she could serve the guns, and the guns in the batteries were finding their target. McDougal decided to settle the bark first and then give all his attention to the shore guns. The bark was soon disabled and worthless. On her way back the Wyoming dropped most of her shots right in the batteries, one of which was completely destroyed. Half an hour after noon the firing ceased, the Wyoming having fired from fifty to sixty shots in all, the enemy must have fired one hundred and thirty or more shots during the same time. The Wyoming lost five men killed and seven wounded: she was hulled ten times and her smokestack had six holes in it, her nasts were injured and her rigging was pretty badly cut up. The Japanese lost two vessels sunk and the other disabled; one battery destroyed and many killed and wounded; the number of their casualties was never ascertained, as in Yokohama we were dependent on Yedo for information and the reports from there were erratic. There is no doubt whatever that the shore guns »ere well mounted, and the first idea that they were fixed so as to fire on the staked channel was soon found to be incorrect: the Japanese also fired a great variety of missiles, such for instance as round shot, shell, grape, canister and even chain-shot.
Honor and glory come to some men so easily and there is no doubt that McDougal was entitled to all the glory and honor he never got for the part he played in the opening up of Dia Nipon. Perhaps had the United States not been busy attending to other matters nearer home at the time, McDougal would have had his services duly recognized, forgotten they certainly have not been.
During the engagement the Wyoming was under fire from three ships, and, at one time or another, of eight batteries and either one or two gun redoubts. Before she got through she sank two of the ships, made a lame duck of the third: she went aground and worked off again without aid, she disabled at least one of the batteries and silenced several of the others. She carried only six guns herself, but had opposed to her no less than ninety-two guns, some of which were heavy ordnance.
When shall her glory fade?
Think, think of the wild fight she waged!
For this little "episode" the United States collected $12,000, part of which went to the owners of the S. S. Pembroke.
On entering the harbor of Yokohama the following day, the Wyoming was greeted with ringing cheers from the Conqueror and other British war vessels as well as those of other nations then at anchor, and Admiral Kuper made haste to congratulate Commander McDougal. Very shortly afterwards, having made good her damages, the Wyoming, in compliance with orders she had received prior to coming to Japan at the urgent request of the U. S. Minister, left the East for home waters. She had the hearty good wishes of all who remained behind, and dozens of people lined the Bund to see her steam out. The writer, too, felt that he had lost a friend as she turned the point and sank from sight, but there has always been a lingering memory and pleasant recollections in his heart for as kind and good natured a friend as ever he had in his life in the person of David McDougal.