4_oo The National Geographic Magazine 



guished himself by his former participa- 

 tion in a work of like nature. 



The squadron sailed from the United 

 States in June, 1853, and proceeded to 

 China by the way of the Cape of Good 

 Hope and the Indian Ocean, reaching 

 Hongkong, China, March 16, 1854. 

 The civil war then raging in China, 

 which required the constant attention of 

 the squadron, prevented much survey- 

 ing work in the first year. 



Ringgold having become incapacitated 

 for duty, Lieutenant John Rodgers, 

 U. S. N., assumed command of the ex- 

 pedition and administered it to a suc- 

 cessful ending. The details of the sur- 

 veys made by Rodgers can not be dwelt 

 upon here, but from the data collected 

 there were made fifteen charts of har- 

 bors and special localities and twenty 

 charts of island groups and extensive 

 coasts and seas, among which were 

 charts of the Bonin Islands ; the Liu- 

 Kiu group, and the islands to the 

 westward ; the mouth of the Pei-Ho 

 River, as well as the Miao Tao Strait; 

 the ports of Japan and the Tsugaru 

 Straits, and ports in Kamchatka ; the 

 Aleutian group, and the first American 

 chart of Bering Sea. 



In September, 1855, the brig Porpoise 

 foundered with all hands on board during 

 a terrific typhoon that swept the China 

 Sea of many ships, and thus was lost to 

 the expedition, the navy, and the coun- 

 try, as the Secretary of the Navy stated, 

 some of the most gallant and intelligent 

 young officers that ever graced the 

 service. 



Captain Rodgers with the Vinccnnes, 

 after entering Bering Strait on July 16, 

 1855, proceeded northward for the pur- 

 pose of verifying the position of land 

 placed upon the charts by the report of 

 Captain Kellet, of H. M. S. Herald, in 

 about latitude 72 N., longitude 175 

 W. , and also to examine, if possible, 

 Plover Island, which had been reported 

 as seen by that officer, and he was then 

 to endeavor to reach Wrangell Land. 



Running for Wrangell Land, which at 

 that time had never been seen by Euro- 

 peans, he failed to discover it, although 

 he went within 16 miles of its reported 

 position. Curiously enough, it was the 

 vessel named after him, the U. S. ship 

 Rodgers, which twenty-six years later, 

 under the command of Lieutenant R. M. 

 Berry, U. S. N., succeeded in reaching 

 and charting this unknown land. 



Having penetrated up to that time 

 farther north in the Bering Sea route 

 than any one else, Rodgers' Expedition 

 returned to San Francisco and later 

 made a cruise of exploration, searching 

 for doubtful dangers in the Pacific 

 Ocean to the westward of that port. 

 After making a survey of Hilo Bay, 

 Island of Hawaii, the llncennes returned 

 to New York by way of Cape Horn. 



Besides a vast amount of geographical 

 data sent to the Navy Department, 

 Rodgers turned into the Smithsonian 

 Institution natural history specimens to 

 a considerable amount and of much 

 value, and, as predicted by the Secre- 

 tary of the Navy, the labors of the offi- 

 cers and men of the expeditionary force 

 proved not only of great benefit to com- 

 merce, but also made interesting con- 

 tributions to science. 



COMMODORE PERRY'S EXPEDITION 

 TO JAPAN 



Probably no naval officer, and surely 

 no U. S. naval officer, ever gained a 

 greater triumph in foreign lands — a tri- 

 umph the benefits of which have en- 

 riched all nations and whose full fruition 

 is inconceivable even at the present time, 

 a half century after the expedition which 

 brought it about entered upon its work — 

 than Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 

 whose expedition opened to the civil- 

 ized nations of the world the Empire 

 of Japan about the middle of the nine- 

 teenth century. 



The expanding interests of the United 

 States incident to the discovery of gold 

 in California and the rapid settlement 



