508 



EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



Nor is the mode of whipping cotton^ which fell under their observation, more worthy of 

 admiration. It is a coarse and laborious contrivance, which Yankee ingenuity would soon 

 supersede, provided the Emperor of the celestials would grant a "patent for the invention," 

 wliich could be protected. Without that, Jonathan will uot tax his ingenuity. 



Cotton Whipping, Hong Kong. 



And now the Commodore, having finished the work assigned him by his country, and worn 

 down by long-continued anxiety of mind, ill health of body, aggravated, doubtless, by his 

 solicitudes and cares for many months, and an increasing debility, began to look toward the rest 

 of home, which he so much needed. He had written to the Hon. Secretary some time before, 

 asking leave, when his work was done, to turn over the command to the ofiicer next- in rank, 

 and return to the United States. At Hong Kong he found awaiting him dispatches from the 

 Navy Department^ conveying the leave he asked, leaving it optional with him to return in the 

 Mississippi, or by the overland route from India. He chose the latter, and, delivering to Captain 

 Abbot the command of the squadron, now composed of the Macedonian, Powhatan, and Vandalia 

 only, (the rest having all been ordered home,) after a most friendly acknowledgment of his 

 services by his countrymen living in China, and a kind farewell expressed in a correspondence 

 between himself and the commercial houses of Kussel, Nye, Wetmore, King, and indeed all the 

 American firms and residents, which will be found at length in the Appendix, he embarked, in 

 company with his flag lieutenant, in the English mail steamer Hindostan, and arrived in New 

 York on the 12th day of January, 1855, having been absent from the United States two years 

 and two months. 



On the 23d of April, 1855, the Mississippi reached the navy yard at Brooklyn, and on the 

 next day the Commodore, repairing on board and formally hauling down his flag, thus consum- 

 mated the final act in the story of the United States Expedition to Japan. 



