144 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



government of the town is in the hands of the Portuguese. The Portuguese have a college, 

 churches and various educational, henevolent, and ecclesiastical institutions in the town, where 

 the Chinese also have their peculiar establishments and a temple. 



On the evening of April 28th, the Mississippi was again under weigh, leaving the Saratoga 

 at Macao to await the arrival of Dr. S. W. Williams, of Canton, who had been appointed 

 interpreter to the expedition. The course was now directed for Shanghai. 



The navigation of the coast of China, from Hong Kong to the mouth of the Yang-tse-Keang, 

 is, at most seasons, difficult and perplexing. The frequent fogs and irregular tides and currents 

 make it very annoj'iug to those who are strangers to the navigation, when close in with the 

 coast. Fortunately, however, vessels are always, when near the land, on anchoring ground, 

 and although they are sometimes obliged to bring to, in situations exposed to winds from the 

 sea, it is better to resort to the anchor than to drift blindly among groups of islands and reefs. 

 If the weather be moderately clear, vessels may run from island to island, and thus navigate 

 the coast with perfect safety and convenience, but the fogs which prevail at certain seasons 

 scarcely allow of this advantage. During the passages of the Susquehanna and Mississippi from 

 Hong Kong to Shanghai neither had a meridian observation of the sun. 



The entrance to the Yang-tse-Keang, which leads to the commercial city of Shanghai, is 

 obstructed on either side by shoals, which make it dangerous for vessels not having pilots. On 

 the north side is a shoal called the North Sand, extending some six leagues westward from the 

 main land, and on the south side is a parallel shoal, called the South Sand, projecting nearly 

 as far from the shore on that side. The outer extremities of these shoals are beyond sight of 

 the main land. The channel between the two shoals may be estimated at about two miles in 

 width, and there are no light-houses, boats, beacons, or buoys to indicate to strangers the 

 entrance. A small islet called Gutzlaff island is the only indication, for the bearings of whicb, 

 and other directions for entering the channel, the nautical reader is referred to the Appendix. 



The rise and fall in the Yang-tse-Keang averages about ten feet, and vessels are obliged to 

 find their way haj)-hazard into the channel, or perchance run iij)on one of the sister sands. 

 Numbers of vessels resorting to Shanghai are lost, and still nothing has been done to remedy 

 the evil. The Commodore was convinced, on visiting this river with the Mississippi, that until 

 proper landmarks and beacons are established to indicate the entrance, it must be an unfit resort 

 for any but the smaller vessels of a squadron, and consequently, an unfit i^lace for a naval 

 depot. The Susquehanna, the Plymouth, and the Supply, all grounded on going in, and the 

 last remained thumping on the North Sand twenty-two hours, and was only saved from total 

 loss by a providential change of wind. The Mississippi was carried, in the confusion of her 

 pilot, out of the channel, but by good fortune did not stop, tliough she ran into nineteen feet 

 water, one foot less than her draft, on the South Sand, but the power of the engines jjroved her 

 salvation. The wealthy foreign merchants established at Shanghai, who are gathering a 

 plentiful harvest from the increasing trade of the place, should contribute some of their thousands 

 toward rendering the navigation less dangerous. It is but justice to say that a willingness has 

 been expressed by some of these gentlemen to subscribe liberally toward the accomplishment of 

 the desired object, and, in fact, a boat had been ordered to be built in the United States, for the 

 purpose of towing vessels up and down the river, 



Shanghai is built upon the left bank of the river Wampon, a branch of the Yang-tse-Kiang. 

 Near the mouth of the Wampon is the village Woosung, the station where the foreign merchants 



