122 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



The renown which your Highness has acquired in America, for your attainments in every 

 branch of science, induces me to jjlace at your disposal this trifling gift of Mr. Colt. 



I hope that you will send one of your ships of Siam to America, where I can promise the 

 officers a friendly and honorable welcome. 



It will, at all times, give me the greatest pleasure to render to all vessels under the Siamese 

 flag whatever aid or assistance it may be in my power to command. 



With profound respect I have the honor to be your most obedient servant, 



M. C. PERRY, Commander-in-chief 

 of all the U. S. naval forces in the East India, China, and Japan seas. 

 To his Royal Highness Phar-Pen-Clow-Chow-Yon-Hon. 



The Commodore was induced thus to take the initiative in endeavoring to open communica- 

 tions with Siam, in the hope that he might possibly be able to revive the treaty between that 

 kingdom and the United States, made on our part by Mr. Roberts. This had virtually become 

 a dead letter and altogether inoperative, as had, indeed, also that made by England with the 

 same people. Sir John Davis and Sir James Brooke, on behalf of England, and Mr. Ballastier, 

 on the part of the United States, had made subsequent efforts and been politely repulsed ; but 

 the Commodore hoped that possibly another attempt might result more successfully ; and as he 

 had been entrusted by the government with several blank letters of credence, he was prepared 

 to act on the authority of one of them should he find a favorable opening. Both the kings of 

 Siam, and many of their officers, understand the English language, and one object of the 

 Commodore was to induce the monarch to send one of his ships to the United States (they are 

 all vessels, at once, both of war and commerce) to examine into our institutions, resources, &c. , 

 and thus lead to friendly commercial relations. 



The Commodore subsequently received a courteous answer to his letter, and from that and 

 private information which he had taken pains to get of his probable reception, he would have 

 gone to Siam had not uncontrollable circumstances prevented. 



The Commodore also j^resented to Mun-Clow-Sar-Coun, captain of the Siamese sloop-of-war, 

 a service sword and a copy of "Bowditch's Navigator." 



The Mississippi left Galle on the morning of the 15th of March, and after getting clear of 

 the harbor, shaped her course for Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost of the group of that 

 name, with the intention of passing between it and Paloway, a small island or rock lying off 

 the northern extremity of Sumatra. On the 20th, Great Nicobar was made, and the proposed 

 course having been taken, the steamer entered the straits of Malacca, steering for the Malay 

 shore, on which side the weather is represented as being more settled and the sky less obscured. 

 Fortunately, the weather was favorable during the passage through the straits, and it was 

 found necessary to anchor once only during the night, at the entrance between the North and 

 South Sands, within sight of the Aroa islands. The navigation of the straits did not appear to 

 the Commodore as dangerous as an examination of the chart had led him to expect ; yet it is 

 somewhat intricate and certainly not free from danger. 



A vessel has, however, the advantage of being always able to anchor, though, in some parts 

 of the channel, necessarily in rather deep water. The two most dangerous passages are tliose 

 termed the East and We.st Channel ; and the narrow one between Formosa bank and the 

 Pyramids lying opposite, and the northern end of the middle bank. A light vessel recently 

 anchored on "Two-and-a-half fathom bank" renders tlie former passage more safe ; while the 



