dotting the water with topknots. Again McDougal ordered the gunners of the 11-inch Dahlgrens to fire. At first they seemed to pay no attention, and the order was given three or four times. The gun captain of the forward pivot was only waiting to get the exact range. The big shell struck the Lancefield at the waterline, passed through the boiler, tore out her sides, and burst far away in the town beyond. The frightful explosion, casting out steam, smoke, ashes, iron, timber, and human beings, was succeeded by a gurgling swell, under which the steamer disappeared from sight. On her way back, the Wyoming dropped shells with marvellous accuracy into the batteries, one of which was wholly destroyed.

At 12.20 the firing ceased. Fifty-five shot and shell had been fired within a space of one hour and ten minutes. Counting time lost when aground, this meant more than a gun per minute. The Wyoming was hulled ten times, her funnel had six holes in it, two masts were injured, and the upper rigging badly cut. The Choshiu clansmen fired chain-shot, grape, shell, and round shot from guns mounted on carriages of improved foreign pattern, able to sweep a wide arc and to change their elevation quickly. Their one hundred and thirty rounds killed five and wounded seven of our men. The loss of the Japanese, beside one battery ruined and two ships sunk, was probably over one hundred.

Japanese and American, it is hard for the writer to qualify his matured judgment that in the annals of the American navy no achieve. ment of a single commander in a single ship surpasses that of David McDougal in the Wyoming at Shimonoseki.

men, with maps made by the Dutch captain, shelled the forts, took one five-gun battery of twenty-four pounders, and came away. Nevertheless, Choshiu became the centre of opposition to the Shogun's government at Yedo. The clansmen, re-enforced by ronins, or free lances, from all parts of the empire, repaired their losses, built new batteries, mounted heavier guns, and succeeded for fifteen months in closing the strait against foreign commerce. The Tycoon being helpless, it became necessary for the treaty powers then represented in Japan to force the passage and destroy the forts.

In the allied fleet assembled to enforce the treaties and chastise the rebellious vassal, out of a total of 17 ships, mounting 208 guns, with 7590 men, the British had nine men-of-war. The heaviest were equipped with splendid new breech-loading Armstrong rifled cannon, of which the English officers were exceedingly proud, not sparing their ridicule of our antiquated muzzle-loaders. The French had three fine vessels, mounting 49 guns, with 1235 men. The Dutch squadron consisted of four heavy ships. carrying 58 guns, served by 951

men.

What was the American force? Our civil war was in progress, and the only national ship on the station was the sailing sloop of war Jamestown, Captain Cicero Price, worthless in a dangerous strait with a narrow channel and the tide running like a mill-race. Yet the moral influence of the United States was desirable, as showing united action of the powers. So, like a tiny bantam amid big fighting-cocks, the little steamer Ta Kiang of 600 tons was chartered. A thirty-pounder Parrott gun from the Jamestown was mounted on her deck. Lieutenant Frederick Pearson, with a party of thirty marines and sailors, was sent to co-operate with the fleet in towing or carrying the wounded. The ordinary complement of this merchant ship's officers and sailors were to work the steamer, while Pearson and his men were to give it a martial air. Nothing was said about fight

ing. Since the government at Washington could not be communicated with, and approval of the action of Pruyn and Price was not certain, Pearson was given orders which he might interpret to suit a Quaker-or otherwise. In reality, despite Washington's warning against "en

COMMODORE JOHN RODGERS.

tangling alliances," here was a case in which the United States was allied with three European powers for war-purposes against an Oriental people. It forms a striking precedent. Was it the first?

The greatest of naval battles in Japanese waters was fought September 5 and 6, 1864. The six heavy ships took up a position on the left, fronting the town and the ten batteries, which mounted sixtytwo cannon. The five light vessels made a flanking squadron on the right, while in the centre were the largest ships-Euryalus, Conqueror, and Semiramis-all finely equipped with heavy rifled guns, and among them was the little Ta Kiang. In the battle which followed, lasting during the afternoon and next morning, the Ta Kiang took part, doing splendid execution at three thousand yards with her rifled Parrott. In a trial of speed, Pear

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son's men actually beat the gun-squad of the Euryalus with her breech - loading 100-pounder Armstrong gun. It must be remembered, however, that the method of breech-loading was in those days so clumsy that this feature was later abandoned in the British navy. It was resumed when the notable improvement of hinging the breech, and putting in a gas-escape check, and an outward latch on, made breech-loading the only method worth considering.

The Ta Kiang assisted handsomely in towing the boats of the landing force which captured and dismantled all the forts, but beat all the vessels and quickly landed the fifty-six wounded on board in the hospital at Yokohama. Pearson was warmly praised by the British, French, and Dutch admirals, and awarded by Queen Victoria the decoration of the Order of the Bath, which Congress allowed him to wear. Yet neither McDougal nor Pearson ever received promotion, notice, or thanks for his superb and shining example of duty nobly done. In May, 1898, a prominent Japanese editor wrote: "The expedition against Choshiu did more to open Japan's eyes than anything else."

X-THE FORMOSA CAMPAIGN. OUR civil war being over, Farragut's flag-ship, the Hartford, Commodore H. H. Bell, joined the China squadron. The American bark Rover had been wrecked on the southeast corner of Formosa, and her crew murdered by the copper-colored natives, whose favorite sport was headhunting. As usual, the Chinese mandarins could do nothing. So on June 13. 1867, guided to the right place by British residents of Takao, a force of 181 marines and sailors was landed from the Hartford and Wyoming, who were to go into the bamboo jungles to chastise these Indianlike skulking cannibals. After four hours' marching in the frightful moist heat of darkest Formosa, unable to see but a few feet in the tangled thickets, a fight in a furnace" took place, in which Lieutenant - Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, one of the finest officers in the navy, was slain. The loss of the enemy, who were scarcely visible in the undergrowth, and were only indicated by the frequent flash of a gun barrel in the sunlight or the puff of smoke from their hiding place, was not known. Beyond burning a few huts, little damage was

their quarrels, "pooled their issues," and made a coalition, the "Sat-Cho-To," which seized Kyoto and the Mikado's person. At the decisive battle of Fushimi, January 27-30, 1868, Tycoonism and duarchy were blown to the winds, and feudalism was dealt a mortal wound. In the war troubles around Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe eleven French soldiers were slain. The British body-guard of Sir Harry Parkes suffered frightfully in the attack upon them by two assassins in a narrow street of Kyoto, one fanatic's sword doing most of the work of wounding eleven men and five horses.

In Japanese proverbs, "The beaten soldier fears even the moving tops of the tall grass." The defeated Tycoon, Keiki, unrecognized, gladly found asylum on board the United States steamship Iroquois, until in his own steam-yacht he took passage northward. Though he resigned his office, his followers fought the battle of Uyeno within the city limits of Yedo. The campaign of civil war was continued in Aidzu and Yezo. The victorious imperialists, led by Satsuma and

Choshiu, armed with American rifles, drilled in modern tactics, and full of valor and enthusiasm, won. On the water, the men of the cause which, by reason of its unfitness for the age, was foredoomed to be lost, were at first strong in modern war-ships built chiefly in the United States, and officered by natives educated in Holland. When, however, the iron-clad Stonewall arrived from the United States, and the Mikado's party secured her, the war was soon over.

That handsome war-steamer the Idaho, whose vitals of machinery were a failure, after costing the "butt end of nearly a million" dollars, became our store-ship at Yokohama. Delightful are the memories of the Idaho still enjoyed by resident landsmen, and of naval men whose happy hours of duty were in sight of Fujiyama's snowy crown. Commodore Watson, now looking up castles in Spain, and Captain Chester, now of the United States cruiser Cincinnati, illustrated the suavity and social charm, the unquailing courage, the stern devotion to duty, and the strict discipline of the American naval