Part 18

Four days later two French war-ships went in and hammered to pieces such fragments of the fortifications as the _Wyoming’s_ gunners had left, but the clansmen, reinforced by _ronins_, or freelances, from all parts of the empire, repaired their losses, built new batteries, mounted heavier guns, and succeeded for fifteen months in keeping the straits closed to foreign commerce. Then an allied fleet of seventeen ships, with upward of seven thousand men, repeated the work which the _Wyoming_ had done single-handed, forcing the passage, destroying the forts, putting an end to the uprising, and restoring safety to the foreigner in Japan. The American representation in this great international armada consisted of one small vessel, the _Ta Kiang_, manned by thirty sailors and marines under Lieutenant Frederick Pearson, and mounting but a single gun. So gallant a part was played by Pearson in his cockle-shell that Queen Victoria took the extraordinary step of decorating him with the Order of the Bath, which Congress permitted him to wear--the only American, so far as I am aware, that has ever been thus honored. But no other operation of the war so impressed the Japanese and so gained their admiration and respect as when the _Wyoming_ came storming into the straits and defied and defeated all their ships and guns. Years afterward a noted Japanese editor wrote: “That action did more than all else to open the eyes of Japan.” Though the European commanders were loaded with honors and decorations for what was, after all, but supplementary work, the heroism displayed by McDougal and his bluejackets received neither reward nor recognition from their own countrymen, for 1863 was the critical year of the Civil War, and the thunder of the _Wyoming’s_ guns in far-away Japan was lost in the roar of the guns at Gettysburg. As Colonel Roosevelt once remarked: “Had that action taken place at any other time than during the Civil War, its fame would have echoed all over the world.” But, though few Americans are aware that we once fought and whipped the Japanese, I fancy that it has not been forgotten by the Japanese themselves.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] In 1814 Bean was sent by General Morelos, then president of the revolutionary party in Mexico, on a mission to the United States to procure aid for the patriot cause. At the port of Nautla he found a vessel belonging to Lafitte, which conveyed him to the headquarters of the pirate chief, at Barataria. Upon informing Lafitte of his mission, the buccaneer had him conveyed to New Orleans, where Bean found an old acquaintance in General Andrew Jackson, upon whose invitation he took command of one of the batteries on the 8th of January and fought by the side of Lafitte in that battle. Colonel Bean eventually rose to high rank under the Mexican republic, married a Mexican heiress, and died on her hacienda near Jalapa in 1846.

[B] A full account of the life and exploits of Jean Lafitte will be found under “The Pirate Who Turned Patriot,” in Mr. Powell’s “Gentlemen Rovers.”

[C] A detailed account of the amazing exploits of Colonel Boyd will be found in “For Rent: An Army on Elephants,” in Mr. Powell’s “Gentlemen Rovers.”

[D] Erastus Smith, known as Deaf Smith because he was hard of hearing, first came to Texas in 1817 with one of the filibustering forces that were constantly arriving in that province. He was a man of remarkable gravity and few words, seldom answering except in monosyllables. His coolness in danger made his services as a spy invaluable to the Texans.

[E] It is a regrettable fact that this, one of the finest episodes in our national history, from being a subject of honest controversy has degenerated into an embittered and rancorous quarrel, some of Doctor Whitman’s detractors, not content with questioning the motives which animated him in his historic ride, having gone so far as to cast doubts on the fact of the ride itself and even to assail the character of the great missionary. Full substantiation of the episode as I have told it may be found, however, in Barrows’s “Oregon, the Struggle for Possession,” Johnson’s “History of Oregon,” Dye’s “McLoughlin and Old Oregon,” and Nixon’s “How Marcus Whitman Saved Oregon,” an array of authorities which seem to me sufficient.

[F] Years afterward, Daniel Webster remarked to a friend: “It is safe to assert that our country owes it to Doctor Whitman and his associate missionaries that all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains and north of the Columbia is not now owned by England and held by the Hudson’s Bay Company.”--Dye’s “McLoughlin and Old Oregon.”

[G] The efflorescent soda incrusted on the margin of the water was used by the soldiers as a substitute for saleratus.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.

Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.