492 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



The Plymouth, it will be rememhered, had been left at Shanghai to protect American interests 

 there, and was not with the squadron on the second visit to the Bay of Yedo ; while the store- 

 ship Lexington was sent back from Siraoda to Lew Chew, during the previous month of May. 

 There were, therefore, collected at Simoda, after the visit to Hakodadi, but five ships of the 

 squadron, viz : the steamers Mississippi and Powhatan, the Macedonian sloop-of-war, the 

 Southampton, which, having finished the survey of Volcano bay, there rejoined the squadron, 

 and the store-ship Supply, the last named having remained at Simoda during the absence of 

 the others. 



As the discovery of coal was an important object, and as, beside, there were various causes 

 making a visit to Formosa necessary, the Commodore, as has been said, ordered the Macedonian 

 and Supply to that island, with instructions to Captain Abbot, in command of the former vessel, 

 to stop at the Philippines on his way back, to join the squadron in China. As to the steamers, 

 he proceeded with them and the Southampton direct to Lew Chew. This was the fifth and last 

 visit to Kapha ; we shall first speak of that, reserving for a future page the results of the voyage 

 of the Macedonian to Formosa. 



When the squadron left Lew Chew on its last visit, two master's mates, named Randall and 

 Bierbower, had been left in charge of the coal depot established at Tumai, and now, on the 

 Commodore's return, he found that matters during his absence had not proceeded quite as 

 amicably as he could have wished. Randall had his little complaints to make, and had 

 preferred them to his superior. Lieutenant Commanding Glasson, when he arrived in the 

 Lexington in May, and this latter ofiicer now reported them to the Commodore. They 

 amounted to but small grievances, however ; one consisted of a complaint that some of the 

 children in Lew Chew had thrown stones, which fell near some of the American seamen who 

 were walking on shore ; another was, that a Lew Chew butcher had quarrelled with one of the 

 seamen while engaged in traffic with him, and beaten him with a club. Lieutenant Glassoa 

 had called on the mayor of Napha to ask an explanation. As to the first, the mayor stated 

 that it was an accident, occurring while the children were engaged in sport, and was not an 

 intentional act of aggression toward the seamen. As to the case of the butcher, the mayor 

 stated that one of the sailors attemjited in the market to take from the butcher certain of his 

 meats without paying for them. The butcher naturally endeavored to secure his property, 

 when the sailor struck at him with his knife ; a scufile ensued, in which the sailor was beaten 

 with a club. Lieutenant Glasson told the mayor that the butcher, instead of resorting to force, 

 should have reported the sailor ; that he (the mayor) well knew the Commodore, on such a state 

 of things, would have caused the man to be punished, and would have amply reimbursed the 

 butcher for his loss ; but that the latter should not have violated the law of Lew Chew and 

 resorted to such desperate remedies. To this the mayor readily assented. These, however, 

 were minor matters, and the probability is that the general feeling on board the ships was that 

 the sailor got no more than his deserts, as the matter seems to have gone no further. 



But there was a far more serious incident to be reported by Lieutenant Glasson ; this was no 

 less than the supposed murder of one of his crew by the Lew Chewans. It seems that, on the 

 12th of June, a man named Board was found dead in Napha, under circumstances which 

 justified a strong suspicion that he came to his end by violence. The Commodoi'e had not yet 

 reached the island, and Lieutenant Glasson appointed five officers of the ship to investigate the 

 circumstances and report thereon to him. Tliese gentlemen, after making a post-mortera 



