148 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



the spot, at the date of May, 1853: "The political condition of China at the present time is 

 very unsettled; the whole empire seems to he in a state of agitation arguing some mighty 

 revolution ; one-half of the country is in occupation of an insurgent force, which claims to 

 represent the old Chinese, who were dispossessed a long time since hy the present ruling 

 dynasty. At the head of the rebel force is a very sagacious man, who, from disappointment, or 

 some imaginary wrong, growing out of his examination for literary honors, (so highly prized 

 hy the Chinese,) became disgusted, and at once showed his disaffection, and finally raised the 

 flag of open rebellion. At first he had only a few followers, but in the course of time 

 multitudes flocked to his standard ; and now, after over-running a great many provinces, he is 

 quietly in possession of the great city of Nanking. 



"This man denounces the j^revailing religion, and has caused to be destroyed numerous 

 Buddhist temples. He professes a faith somewhat similar to that of the Mormons in America, 

 and gives forth that he has constant communion with God, and has been acknowledged as his 

 Son. His ignorant and lawless followers profess to believe in his pretended revelations, and 

 with them he has acquired great power by his religious devices. He pretends to fraternize 

 with Christians, and argues that all Christian nations, by reason of similar faith, should aid 

 him in driving out of the empire the present usurping family, and putting upon the celestial 

 throne a true son of heaven, a believer of the decalogue, and a scion of the old Chinese 

 monarchs. He does not pretend to any claims himself to the imperial diadem; but it may be 

 well imagined, from his professed dogmas of religion^ that when the time comes he will turn out 

 to be the proposed great Celestial on Earth." 



In the state of agitation produced by these civil disturbances it was natural that the foreign 

 merchants who had large interests at stake should be anxious about the security of their prop- 

 erty ; accordingly, the American commercial houses established at Shanghai addressed a letter 

 to the Hon. Humphrey Marshall, minister of the United States to China, in which they stated 

 that the amount of their property, at a fair valuation, then at risk in the port of Shanghai, was 

 $1,200,000, and that they considered it fairly entitled to protection, which the rumored with- 

 drawal of the naval force would seem to deprive them of. Commodore Perry, regarding the 

 interests of American citizens in China, and at the same time not forgetting the great purpose 

 of his expedition, resolved to leave the Plymouth to protect his countrymen and their property, 

 but not otherwise to interfere with his own mission or the affairs of China. The request of the 

 American commissioner to have a vessel of war to convey him to the mouth of the Peiho, in 

 order to secure a recognition on the part of the Chinese government of his ofiicial presence, was 

 not complied with by the Commodore, who declined not only on the score of policy, but from 

 the necessity of concentrating all the naval force he could on the expedition to Japan. 



The Mississippi had arrived at Shanghai on the 4th of May, and the interval between that 

 date and the 17th of the same month, was chiefly employed in transferring the Commodore to the 

 Susquehanna, which then became his flag-ship, and in taking in the usual supplies of coal and 

 provisions for the voyage. "No less than jive toiis of Chinese " cash,"* to be dispensed in the 

 Lew-Chew islands, was rather an unusual addition to the ship's stores. 



On Monday morning. May 16, 1853, the Mississippi moved down the river and was followed 

 the next day by the Commodore in the Susquehanna, while the Plymouth was left behind, for 



• The " casli" is but a small sum. about the twelve-hundreth part of a dollar 



