sufficiently known to me, was on one occasion realized in a manner at
once mortifying and ludicrous. The eagerness for trade among the
bumboatmen, actual and expectant, sometimes becomes a nuisance; in
their efforts to be first they form a mob quite beyond the control of
the ship, the gangways and channels of which they none the less
surround and grab, deaf to all remonstrance by words, however
forcible. This is particularly the case the first day of arrival,
before the privilege has been determined. In one such instance my
patience gave way; the din alongside was indescribable, the confusion
worse confounded, and they could not be moved. There was working at
the moment one of those small movable hand-pumps significantly named
"Handy Billy," and I told the nozzle-man to turn the stream on the
crowd. Of course, nothing could please a seaman more; it was done with
a will, and the full force of impact struck between the shoulders of a
portly individual standing up, back towards the ship. A prompt upset
revealed that it was a middle-aged woman, a fact which the pump-man
had not taken in, owing to the misleading similarity of dress between
the two sexes. I was disconcerted and ashamed, but the remedy was for
the moment complete; the boats scattered as if dynamite had burst
among them. The mere showing of the nozzle was thereafter enough.
The _Iroquois_ was about a week in the monsoon, a day or so having
been expended in running into Fuchau for coal. She certainly seemed to
have lost the speed credited to her in former cruises; the cause for
which was plausibly thought to be the decreased rigidity of her hull,
owing to the wear and tear of service. In the days of sailing-ships
there was a common professional belief that lessened stiffness of
frame tended to speed; and a chased vessel sometimes resorted to
sawing her beams and loosening her fastenings to increase the desired
play. But, however this may have been, the thrust of the screw tells
best when none of its effect is lost in a structural yielding of the
ship's body; when this responds as a solid whole to the forward
impulse. In this respect the _Iroquois_ was already out of date,
though otherwise serviceable.
On the eleventh day, December 7th, we reached Nagasaki, whence we
sailed again about the middle of the month for Hiogo, or Kobe, where
the squadrons of the various nations were to assemble for the formal
opening. With abundant time before us, we passed in leisurely fashion
through the Inland Sea, at the eastern end of which lay the newly
opened ports. Anchoring each night, we missed no part of the scenery,
with its alternating breadths and narrows, its lofty slopes, terraced
here and wooded there, the occasional smiling lowlands, the varied and
vivid greens, contrasting with the neutral tints of the Japanese
dwellings; all which combine to the general effect of that singular
and entrancing sheet of water. The Japanese junks added their
contribution to the novelty with their single huge bellying sail,
adapted apparently only to sailing with a free wind, the fairer the
better.
Hiogo and Kobe, as I understood, are separate names of two continuous
villages; Kobe, the more eastern, being the destined port of entry.
They are separated by a watercourse, broad but not deep, often dry,
the which is to memory dear; for following along it one day, and so up
the hills, I struck at length, well within the outer range, an
exquisite Japanese valley, profound, semicircular, and terraced, dosed
at either end by a passage so narrow that it might well be called a
defile. The suddenness with which it burst upon me, like the South Sea
upon Balboa, the feeling of remoteness inspired by its isolation, and
its own intrinsic beauty, struck home so forcible a prepossession that
it remained a favorite resort, to which I guided several others; for
it must be borne in mind that up to our coming the hill tracks of Kobe
knew not the feet of foreigners, and there was still such a thing as
first discovery. Some time afterwards, when I had long returned home,
a naval officer told me that the place was known to him and others as
Mahan's Valley; but I have never heard it has been so entered on the
maps. Shall I describe it? Certainly not. When description is tried,
one soon realizes that the general sameness of details is so great as
quite to defy convincing presentation, in words, of the particular
combination which constitutes any one bit of scenery. Scenery in this
resembles a collection of Chinese puzzles, where a few elementary
pieces, through their varied assemblings, yield most diverging forms.
Given a river, some mountains, a few clumps of trees, a little sloping
field under cultivation, an expanse of marsh--in Japan the universal
terrace--and with them many picturesque effects can be produced; but
description, mental realization, being a matter of analysis and
synthesis, is a process which each man performs for himself. The
writer does his part, and thinks he has done well. Could he see the
picture which his words call up in the mind of another, the particular
Chinese figure put together out of the author's data, he might be less
satisfied. And should the reader rashly become the visitor, he will
have to meet Wordsworth's disappointment. "And is this--Yarrow? this
the scene?" "Although 'tis fair, 'twill be another Yarrow." Should any
reader of mine go hereafter to Kobe, and so wish, let him see for
himself; he shall go with no preconceptions from me. If the march of
improvement has changed that valley, Japan deserves to be beaten in
her next war.
As I recall attending a Christmas service on board the British
flag-ship _Rodney_ at Kobe, we must have anchored there a few days
before that fixed for the formal opening; but, unless my memory much
deceive me, visiting the shore after the usual fashion was permitted
without awaiting the New Year ceremony. At this time Kobe and Hiogo
were in high festival; and that, combined with the fact that the
inhabitants had as yet seen few foreigners, gave unusual animation to
the conditions. We were followed by curious crowds, to whom we were
newer even than they to us; for the latest comers among us had seen
Nagasaki, but strangers from other lands had been rare to these
villagers. In explanation of the rejoicings, it was told us that slips
of paper, with the names of Japanese deities written on them, had
recently fallen in the streets, supposed by the people to come from
the skies; and that different men had found in their houses pieces of
gold, also bearing the name of some divinity. These tokens were
assumed to indicate great good luck about to light upon those places
or houses. By an easy association of ideas, the approaching opening of
the port might seem to have some connection with the expected
benefits, and inclines one to suspect human instrumentality in
creating impressions which might counteract the long-nurtured jealousy
of foreign intrusion. Whatever the truth, the external rollicking
celebrations were as apparent as was the general smiling courtesy so
noticeable in the Japanese, and which in this case was common to both
the throng in ordinary dress and the masqueraders. Men and women,
young and old, in gay, fantastic costumes, faces so heavily painted as
to have the effect of masks, were running about in groups, sometimes
as many as forty or fifty together, dancing and mumming. They
addressed us frequently with a phrase, the frequent repetition of
which impressed it upon our ears, but, in our ignorance of the
language, not upon our understandings. At times, if one laughed,
liberties were taken. These the customs of the occasion probably
justified, as in the carnivals of other peoples, which this somewhat
resembled; but there was no general concourse, as in the Corso at
Rome, which I afterwards saw--merely numerous detachments moving with
no apparent relation to one another. Once only a companion and myself
met several married women, known as such by their blackened teeth, who
bore long poles with feathers at one end, much like dusters, with
which they tapped us on the head. These seemed quite beside themselves
with excitement, but all in the best of humor.
Viewed from the distance, the general effect was very pretty, like a
stage scene. The long main street, forming part of the continuous
imperial highway known as the Tokaido, was jammed with people; the
sober, neutral tints of the majority in customary dress lighted up,
here and there, by the brilliant, diversified colors of the
performers, as showy uniforms do an assembly of civilians. The
weather, too, was for the most part in keeping. The monsoon does not
reach so far north, yet the days were like it; usually sunny, and the
air exhilarating, with frequent frost at dawn, but towards noon
genial. Such we found the prevalent character of the winter in that
part of Japan, though with occasional spells of rain and high winds,
amounting to gales of two or three days' duration.
Unhappily, these cheerful beginnings were the precursors of some very
sad events; indeed, tragedies. A week after the New Year ceremonies at
Kobe, the American squadron moved over some twelve miles to Osaka, the
other opened port, at which our minister then was. Unlike Kobe, where
the water permits vessels to lie close to the beach, Osaka is up a
river, at the mouth of which is a bar; and, owing to the shoalness of
the adjacent sea, the anchorage is a mile or two out. From it the town
cannot be seen. The morning after our arrival, a Thursday, it came on
to blow very hard from the westward, dead on shore, raising a big sea
which prevented boats crossing the bar. The gale continued over
Friday, the wind moderating by the following daylight. The swell
requires more time to subside; but it was now Saturday, the next day
would be Sunday, and the admiral, I think, was a religious man,
unwilling to infringe upon the observance of the day, for himself or
for the men. His service on the station was up, and, indeed, his time
for retirement, at sixty-two, had arrived; there remained for him only
to go home, and for this he was anxious to get south. Altogether, he
decided to wait no longer, and ordered his barge manned. Danger from
the attempt was apprehended on board the flag-ship by some, but the
admiral was not one of those who encourage suggestions. Her boatswain
had once cruised in whalers, which carry to perfection the art of
managing boats in a heavy sea, and of steering with an oar, the safest
precaution if a bar must be crossed; and he hung round, in evidence,
hoping that he might be ordered to steer her, but she shoved off as
for an ordinary trip. The mishap which followed, however, was
not that most feared. Just before she entered the breakers, the
flag-lieutenant, conscious of the risk, was reported to have said to
the admiral, "If you intend to go in before the sea, as we are now
running, we had better take off our swords;" and he himself did so,
anticipating an accident. As she swept along, her bow struck bottom.
Her way being thus stopped for an instant, the sea threw her stern
round; she came broadside to and upset. Of the fifteen persons hurled
thus into the wintry waves, only three escaped with their lives. Both
the officers perished.
The gale continued to abate, and the bodies being all soon recovered,
the squadron returned to Kobe to bury its dead. The funeral ceremonies
were unusually impressive in themselves, as well as because of the
sorrowful catastrophe which so mournfully signalized the entry of the
foreigner into his new privilege. The day was fair and cloudless, the
water perfectly smooth; neither rain nor wave marred the naval
display, as they frequently do. Thirty-two boats, American and
British, many of them very large, took part in the procession from the
ships to the beach. The ensigns of all the war-vessels in port,
American and other, were at half-mast, as was the admiral's square
blue flag at the mizzen, which is never lowered while he remains on
duty on board. As the movement began, a first gun was fired from the
_Hartford_, which continued at minute intervals until she had
completed thirteen, a rear-admiral's salute. When she had finished,
the _Shenandoah_ took up the tale, followed in turn by the _Oneida_
and _Iroquois_, the mournful cadence thus covering almost the whole
period up to the customary volleys over the graves. As saluting was
the first lieutenant's business, I had remained on board to attend to
it; and consequently, from our closeness to the land, had a more
comprehensive view of the pageant than was possible to a participant.
Our ships were nearly stripped of their crews; the rank of the admiral
and the number of the sufferers, as well as the tragic character of
the incident, demanding the utmost marks of reverent observance. As
the march was taken up on shore, the British seamen in blue uniforms
in the left column, the American in white in the right, to the number
of several hundred each, presented a striking appearance; but more
imposing and appealing, the central feature and solemn exponent of the
occasion, was the long line of twelve coffins, skirting the sandy
beach against a background of trees, borne in single file on men's
shoulders in ancient fashion, each covered with the national colors.
The tokens of mourning, so far as ships' ensigns were concerned,
continued till sunset, when the ceremonial procedure was closed by a
simple form, impressive in its significance and appropriateness.
Following the motions of the American flag-ship, the chief mourner,
the flags of all the vessels, as by one impulse, were rounded up to
the peaks, as in the activities of every-day life; that of the dead
admiral being at the same time mast-headed to its usual place. By this
mute gesture, vessels and crews stood at attention, as at a review,
for their last tribute to the departed. The _Hartford_ then fired a
farewell rear-admiral's salute, at the thirteenth and final gun of
which his flag came down inch by inch, in measured dignity, to be
raised no more; all others descending with it in silent haulage.
Admiral Henry Bell, who thus sadly ended his career when on the verge
of an honored retirement, was in a way an old acquaintance of mine. It
was he who had refused me a transfer to the _Monongahela_ during the
war; and he and my father, having been comrades when cadets at the
Military Academy in the early twenties of the last century, had
retained a certain interest in each other, shown by mutual inquiries
through me. Bell had begun life in the army, subsequently quitting it
for the navy for reasons which I do not know. He had the rigidity and
precision of a soldier's carriage, to a degree unusual to a naval
officer of his period. This may have been due partly to early
training, but still more, I think, in his case, was an outcome and
evidence of personal character; for, though kindly and just, he was
essentially a martinet. He had been further presented to me,
colloquially, by my old friend the boatswain of the _Congress_, some
of whose shrewd comments I have before quoted, and who had sailed with
him as a captain. "Oh! what a proud man he was!" he would say. "He
would walk up and down the poop, looking down on all around,
thus"--and the boatswain would compress his lips, throw back his
shoulders, and inflate his chest; the walk he could not imitate
because he had a stiff knee. Bell's pride, however it may have seemed,
was rather professional than personal. He was thorough and exact,
with high standards and too little give. An officer entirely
respectable and respected, though not brilliant.
Upon the funeral of our wrecked seamen followed a dispersion of the
squadron. The _Hartford_ and _Shenandoah_, both bound home, departed,
leaving the _Oneida_ and _Iroquois_ to "hold the fort." Conditions
soon became such that it seemed probable we might have to carry out
that precept somewhat literally. This was the period of the overthrow
of the Tycoon's power by the revolt of the great nobles, among whom
the most conspicuous in leadership were Chiosiu and Satsuma; names
then as much in our mouths as those of Grant, Sherman, and Lee had
been three years before. Hostilities were active in the neighborhood
of Osaka and Kobe, the Tycoon being steadily worsted. So far as I give
any account, depending upon some old letters of that date, it will be
understood to present, not sifted historical truth, but the current
stories of the day, which to me have always seemed to possess a real
value of their own, irrespective of their exactness. For example, the
reports repeated by Nelson at Leghorn of the happenings during
Bonaparte's campaign of 1796 in upper Italy, though often inaccurate,
represent correctly an important element of a situation.
Misapprehension, when it exists, is a factor in any circumstances,
sometimes of powerful influence. It is part of the data governing the
men of the time.
While a certain number of foreigners, availing themselves of the
treaty, were settling for business in Kobe, a large proportion had
gone to Osaka, a more important commercial centre, of several hundred
thousand inhabitants. Its superior political consideration at the
moment was evidenced by the diplomats establishing themselves there,
our own minister among them. The defeat of the Tycoon's forces in the
field led to their abandoning the place, carrying off also the guards
of the legations; a kind of protection absolutely required in those
days, when the resentment against foreign intrusion was still very
strong, especially among the warrior class. It was, after all, only
fourteen years since Perry had extorted a treaty from a none too
willing government. The fleeing Tycoon wished to get away from Osaka
by a vessel belonging to him; but in the event of her not being off
the bar--as proved to be the case--a party of two-sworded men, of whom
he was rumored to be one, brought a letter from our minister asking
any American vessel present to give them momentary shelter. It is
customary for refugees purely political to be thus received by ships
of war, which afford the protection their nation grants to such
persons who reach its home territory; of which the ships are a
privileged extension.
The minister's note spoke of the bearers simply as officers of the
very highest rank. About three in the morning they came alongside of
the _Iroquois_, their boatmen making a tremendous racket, awaking
everybody, the captain getting up to receive them. When I came on deck
before breakfast the poor fellows presented a moving picture of human
misery, and certainly were under a heavy accumulation of misfortunes:
a lost battle, and probably a lost cause; flying for life, and now on
an element totally new; surrounded by those who could not speak their
language; hungry, cold, wet, and shivering--a combination of major and
minor evils under which who would not be depressed? At half-past seven
they left us, after a brief stay of four hours; and there was much
trouble in getting so many unpractised landsmen into the boats, which
were rolling and thumping alongside in the most thoughtless manner,
there being considerable sea. I do not remember whether the ladders
were shipped, or whether they had to descend by the cleats; but either
presented difficulties to a man clad in the loose Japanese garb of the
day, having withal two swords, one very long, and a revolver. What
with encumbrances and awkwardness, our seamen had to help them down
like children. Poor old General Scott shuddering in a Key West
norther, and these unhappy samurai, remain coupled in my mind; pendant
pictures of valor in physical extremes, like Caesar in the Tiber. For
were not our shaking morning visitors of the same blood, the same
tradition, and only a generation in time removed from, the soldiers
and seamen of the late war? whose "fitness to win," to use Mr. Jane's
phrase, was then established.
Between the departure of the Tycoon's forces and the arrival of the
insurgent daimios, the native mob took possession of Osaka, becoming
insolent and aggressive; insomuch that a party of French seamen, being
stoned, turned and fired, killing several. The disposition and
purposes of the daimios being uncertain, the diplomatic bodies thought
best to remove to Kobe, a step which caused the exodus of all the new
foreign population. Chiosiu and Satsuma, the leaders in what was still
a rebellion, had not yet arrived, nor was there any assurance felt as
to their attitude towards the foreign question. The narrow quarters of
the _Iroquois_ were crowded with refugees and fugitive samurai; while
from our anchorage huge columns of smoke were seen rising from the
city, which rumor, of course, magnified into a total destruction.
Afterwards we were told that the Tycoon had burned Satsuma's palace in
the place, in retaliation for which the enemy on entry had burned his.
The Japanese in their haste left behind them their wounded, and one of
the _Iroquois'_ officers brought off a story of the Italian minister,
who, indignant at this desertion, went up to a Japanese official,
shouting excitedly, "I will have you to understand it is not the
custom in Europe thus to abandon our wounded." This he said in
English, apparently thinking that a Japanese would be more likely to
understand it than Italian.
The embarkation was an affair of a short time, and the _Iroquois_ then
went to Kobe, where we discharged our load of passengers. The
diplomats had decided that there, under the guns of the shipping, they
would establish their embassies and remain; reasoning justly enough
that, if foreigners suffered themselves to be forced out of both the
ports conceded by treaty, there would be trouble everywhere, in the
old as well as the new. So the flags were soon flying gayly, and all
seemed quiet; but for the maintenance of order there was no assurance
while the interregnum lasted, the Tycoon's authorities having gone,
and Chiosiu or Satsuma still delaying. Officers on shore were
therefore ordered to go armed. On February 4, 1868, two days after our
return, a party of samurai, some five hundred strong, belonging to the
Prince of Bizen, marched through the town by the Tokaido. As they
passed the foreign concession, which bordered this high-road, they
turned and fired upon the Europeans. The noise was heard on board the
ships, and the commotion on shore was evident, people fleeing in every
direction. The Japanese troops themselves broke and ran along the
highway, abandoning luggage, arms, and field-pieces. The American and
British ships of war, with a French corvette, manned and armed boats,
landing in hot haste five or six hundred men, who pursued for some
distance, but failed to overtake the assailants. At the same time the
vessels sprang their batteries to bear on the town; a move which
doubtless looked imposing enough, though we could scarcely have dared
to fire on the mixed multitude, even had the trouble continued.
When our seamen returned, a conference was held, wherein it was
determined, as a joint international measure, to hold the concession
in force; and as a further means of protection to close the Tokaido,
which was done by occupying the angles of a short elbow, of two
hundred yards, made by it in traversing the town. This step, while
justifiable from the point of view of safety for the residents, was
particularly galling to Japanese high-class feeling; for the use of
the imperial road was associated with certain privileges to the
daimios, during whose passing the common people were excluded, or
obliged to kneel, under penalty of being cut down on the spot. Satsuma
was reported to have remonstrated; but in view of the recent
occurrence there could be no reply to the foreign retort, "You must
secure our people." The custom-house, within the concession, was
garrisoned, making a fortification very tenable against any enemy
likely to be brought against it; while round it was thrown up a light
earth-work, to which the seamen and marines dispersed in the
concession could retire in case of need. But behind all, invulnerable,
stood the ships, deterred from aggression only by fear for their own
people, which would cease to operate if these had to be withdrawn.