Part 33

The scene presented on board the “Huascar,” when boarded by her captors, was most terrible. Hardly a square yard of her upper works had escaped injury, including her smoke-stack, conning tower, boats, davits, mast and chain-plates. Her bulwarks, poop, forecastle and hatch-combings were much injured, while her capstan was struck and knocked entirely overboard. During the latter part of the fight, indeed, the Peruvian had been little more than a floating target for the Chilian’s accurate fire.

Eighteen dead bodies were taken out of the cabin, and the turret was full of the remains of the two sets of guns’ crews.

The light wood-work, ladders and bulkheads were all destroyed. The ship’s log-book had been destroyed, but complete working drawings of the “Blanco” and “Cochrane” were found on board.

The action lasted one hour and a half; and during this time the “Huascar” lost her commander and the three next senior officers, either killed or disabled, and had twenty-eight officers and men killed, and forty-eight wounded, out of a crew of about two hundred.

Nearly every time she was struck the greatest temporary damage possible was inflicted, and yet no permanent injury was caused. The armor was really a disadvantage to her, for it served to explode the enemy’s projectiles, which only stopped when they struck at the very smallest angles. The backing and inner skin only served to increase the number of fragments, which were driven in with deadly effect. The shell which passed through the thin sides of the forecastle did not explode, and did but little damage. Each shell which pierced the armor exploded, and each explosion set the ship on fire in a new place. The Chilian small-arm men and the Nordenfelt machine gun drove all the Peruvians off the deck, and away from the unprotected guns there. The “Cochrane” fired forty-five Palliser shells. The “Blanco” fired thirty-one. It is thought that the “Huascar” fired about forty projectiles from her turret guns.

The “Cochrane” was hit three times. The “Blanco” was untouched, while the “Huascar” received at least sixteen large Palliser shells, besides Nordenfelt bullets and shrapnel. The shot-holes in the “Huascar” were so jagged and irregular that no ordinary stoppers could be of any service.

The officers who have given us the account of this action make a number of practical deductions and suggestions of great importance, but not necessary to be quoted here.

BOMBARDMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. JULY 11TH, A. D. 1882.

It would be rather presumptuous for any one to attempt at this time to give the real causes of the bombardment of Alexandria, and of the subsequent operations of the British army in Egypt. The Egyptian leader, Arabi Pasha, has been tried, and the tribunal, while sparing his life, sentenced him to be banished to Ceylon, where he is now. Nothing definite was made public, however, as to the assurances of support and sympathy which he is supposed to have had, not only from the Sublime Porte, but from other nations.

Egyptian politics may be symbolized by a tangled skein which time alone can unravel. Some day it may be known whether the ostensible reasons brought a great calamity about, or whether secret and less worthy motives caused the action of the British ministry, and controlled their fleet and army.

In the summer of 1882 Arabi Pasha, who had complete control of the military force of Egypt, although the Khedive had not been formally deposed, was strengthening the forts about Alexandria, and increasing their armament. As he was opposed to English or any foreign control in Egypt, England naturally felt alarm for the safety of the Suez Canal, which is so vitally important for her communications with her great Eastern empire, as well as for her general commerce. Admiral Sir Beauchamp Seymour, with a powerful squadron of the largest ironclads and a number of gun-boats, had been ordered to Alexandria, in observation.

The city of Alexandria, named from its founder, Alexander the Great, has experienced many vicissitudes. The modern city is built on a peninsula, which was formerly the Island of Pharos, and on the isthmus connecting it with the mainland. The ancient city was on the mainland, where its ruins cover a vast extent of surface.

Founded nearly three and a half centuries before the Christian era, it rose, under the liberal and beneficent sway of the Ptolemies, to great eminence as a seat of learning, as well as of commerce. Under the Roman Empire it continued to be a very splendid and influential city, second only to Rome herself, and engrossing the lucrative traffic with India. Its library was one of the wonders of the world--400,000 volumes being in the Museum, and 300,000 in the temple of Serapis. The former was accidentally destroyed by fire during the war with Julius Cæsar; and the latter was burnt by command of Caliph Omar, upon the Mohammedan conquest, in the year 640. After the discovery by the Portuguese of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, its commerce fell off, and its population dwindled to a few thousands. Gradually it revived again, and for a long time has been the most important commercial city of the Levant, with a very large foreign as well as native population. But, to return: On July 6th, 1882, Admiral Seymour sent an _ultimatum_ to Arabi and his council, which had the effect of stopping work upon the fortifications for a short time, and produced a promise that such work should not be renewed.

But on the following night a powerful electric light, on board the ironclad Alexandra, of the English squadron, disclosed the fact that, under cover of the darkness, guns were being mounted on the forts commanding the entrance to the great port, or western harbor--there being two harbors, one east and one west of the isthmus. New guns were placed in position on the north side, also, on the peninsula where the Harem, or residence of the Khedive is situated, and which forms the protection to the main anchorage. Earthworks were also being thrown up there by a very large force.

Seymour telegraphed these facts to the British government, summoned a council of his officers, and made preparations for battle. He then sent a demand to the Egyptian authorities for the surrender of the forts to him within twenty-four hours, with a view to disarmament, under penalty of bombardment.

There was a French fleet in the port, which had been ordered to take no part in any aggressive measures; and there were also naval vessels of several other nations, among which were some of our own, the commanders of which had been very active in affording refuge to Americans resident in Egypt, as well as to citizens of other countries who were not represented by men-of-war.

The French fleet, seeing hostilities imminent, got under way, and steamed out into the offing, followed by the other foreign men-of-war and merchant vessels. Many of these were crowded with refugees, but there were left in the city a large number of Greeks, Italians, Maltese, and Syrians.

The British ships then proceeded to take up their stations before the forts, and a panic ensued among the inhabitants, who quitted the city, as did most of the Europeans who had remained. This they effected with great difficulty, and there was a prospect of the renewal of the massacre which had taken place some weeks before. The cash chest of the European Director of Customs, which were managed for the benefit of the foreign bondholders, was seized by Arabi, but the officials managed to get away.

On the 10th of July a deputation of Egyptian notables came off to the English flag-ship, to know the meaning of these warlike preparations. They had not heard of the _ultimatum_, which had not reached them, by some blunder, whether on the part of the English or the natives does not appear; and, indeed, the document was brought off to them while they were still on board the ship, by messengers who had been searching for them. They then went on shore, to consider it.

Very early next morning, the 11th of July, a deputation of Egyptian officials came off to say that they were willing to dismount the guns of the forts themselves. This would appear to be all that the English Admiral had originally demanded; but whether he suspected a ruse, or whether he was determined to take offensive measures at any rate, he refused to entertain the proposal, saying that the time for negotiation had expired.

At seven in the morning the first shot was fired from the Alexandra, and eight English ironclads, of the heaviest description, with five heavy gun-boats, opened upon the different forts. These were the heaviest guns and the thickest armor, by far, that had ever been in action. To mention only one, the Inflexible had four 81-ton guns, and armor from sixteen to twenty-four inches thick, and measures 11,400 tons.

The Egyptian forts constituted two distinct systems of defence. The first consisted of those which protected the new port and eastern town; and the second those which covered the entrances to the outer western harbor. Seymour divided his fleet so as to simultaneously bombard the whole. His ironclads and wooden gun-boats were fitted, in addition to heavy guns, with torpedoes, and Nordenfelt and Gatling machine guns.

The Invincible (flag-ship), Monarch and Penelope, with the Téméraire outside, took up a position at the entrance of the western harbor, about opposite Fort Meks, and about twelve hundred yards from another important work, Fort Marsa-el-Kanat.

They attacked these forts, on the shore of the mainland, while the Superb, Sultan, and Alexandra attacked and totally destroyed the lighthouse fort, and another near it on the peninsula. The Inflexible took up a position between the two divisions, and with her enormous guns, assisted in the work of both.

The gun-boats attacked the “Marabout” batteries, at the entrance of the harbor, running close in, and soon silencing them. One of the gun-boats afterwards covered a landing party, which blew up the heavy guns in Fort Meks.

The Egyptian artillerists surprised the English by the determination with which they fought their guns; but they were all silenced by four o’clock in the afternoon--rather a long time, it would seem, for vessels carrying guns of such power, if they were properly pointed. By this time four of the forts had been blown up, and the Khedive’s palace and harem was in flames. The English fire ceased about half-past five in the afternoon.

The casualties of the English were five killed and twenty-eight wounded. This is rather a high number, considering the character of the vessels employed. The Egyptians seemed to have fired only solid shot, and these, in some cases, entered the ships, and caused most of the injuries by splinters.

The Egyptian loss was great, but will probably never be known. It is said that the gunners in the forts were mostly blacks--Soudanese--who are as remarkable for their bravery and bull-dog tenacity, as they are for the very dark color of their skin.

The English are reported to have burst the guns in the ruined forts with dynamite.

Fort Napoleon, a very strong work, somewhat inland, and dating from the French occupation, and Fort Gabarrie, had not been thoroughly bombarded on the first day, and still held out; and arrangements were made to have the Invincible, Monarch and Penelope go in the next day to attack them. In the meantime the Invincible had silenced some outlying batteries, and had sent on shore a party which had burst nine large guns. During the night the Egyptians had repaired an outside battery, but when the Inflexible and the Téméraire opened on it, it did not reply, and was found to be abandoned. On the morning after the bombardment the Khedive’s palace was still burning, and there were other fires in the town.

The wind had risen, and a swell was coming in, which prevented accurate firing, and at one P. M. all fire ceased, on both sides, having not, of course, been so sustained and continuous as on the preceding day. A white flag was now shown in the town, and a gun-boat was sent up the inner harbor to the Arsenal, with a flag of truce flying. The Arsenal is the official residence of the Ministers of War and Marine, but the gun-boat found no one there, in authority, and no one, in consequence, able to tell the meaning of the white flag flying in the city. The officer sent up, therefore returned to Seymour. Night now drew on, and the fires in the town were evidently extending.

At daybreak, next morning, the whole of the forts were found to be abandoned, and the English Admiral telegraphed to the fleet not to open fire. Half the city appeared to be in flames, with a dense cloud of smoke hanging over it. The conflagration was, in fact, tremendous, and involved the whole European quarter and the Grand Square. The Egyptian army had retreated.

Towards morning a body of about one hundred Europeans fought their way down to the beach, and were taken off by armed boats from the fleet. They had spent a terrible night, defending themselves in the building of the Ottoman Bank, and other buildings adjacent. During the night hundreds of people were massacred, mostly Christians, and for the two succeeding days Alexandria was the scene of horrors hardly equalled by Paris during the Commune.

An uncontrolled soldiery, released convicts and the scum of the population were let loose, and murder and pillage went on. Petroleum was used to fire many buildings in the best part of this fine and flourishing city.

The Khedive was helpless, and really in great danger of his life, in his palace at Ramleh.

Seymour and his officers and men looked on at “this sad spectacle of awful and unexpected catastrophe, which they had no power to prevent.”

It is hard to tell whether to blame most the want of statesmanlike forethought, or the want of military perception in the English naval Commander, who precipitated this dreadful state of affairs, without having the means, in the shape of troops, to land and seize the town.

To disinterested observers it was an indefensible act, to bombard a city with such a mixed population, many of whom were prone to rapine and murder, without having the power promptly to put things in order.

The English Government seems to have thought Admiral Seymour’s conduct good, for they have just made him a Baron.

The sailors and marines of the fleet were landed as soon as it was ascertained that Arabi’s forces had retreated. These were joined by detachments from the German and American men-of-war, for the purpose of protecting their consulates, in the first place, and then they assisted in extinguishing fires, seizing marauders, and rescuing many terror-stricken people from the most imminent danger; patrolling the streets, and assisting, in every way, to restore order.

As regards the bombardment itself, it may be said that the Egyptian batteries were served steadily and rapidly; and their aim was good. The officers appear to have set a good example to their men, appearing often upon the parapet, to watch the effect of their shot. All the batteries facing the sea were destroyed by the heavy guns opposed to them, and their guns dismounted. An explosion of a magazine, in one fort, is said to have killed all of the garrison. The faces of the batteries were pulverized, and large holes were made in the masonry of the lighthouse, and the large stone fort adjoining was reduced to ruin, and all its guns dismounted. The loss of life in the garrisons of these forts must have been frightful. The harem palace was damaged extensively by shell and by fire.

The Arab quarter behind Fort Pharos caught all the shell which missed the batteries; and here all was chaos and destruction.

Of the English ships, the Penelope was struck five times, and had eight men wounded, and one gun disabled. The Invincible was struck many times, and six shots penetrated. She had six wounded, and some spars shot away. The Monarch, which kept under way, was not hit. The Superb had her funnel injured, and plates damaged. The Alexandra suffered slight damage in her hull. The Sultan had her main-mast and funnel shot through, and her hull pierced several times in the unarmored part. Two of the 18-ton guns of the Alexandra were disabled by shot, which passed in at the port-holes.

THE WAR BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN.

THE OPENING OF JAPAN TO FOREIGN NATIONS.

We may well be proud of the fact that our country was the first to open the empire of Japan to the free intercourse which, in common with the rest of the world, we now enjoy with that formerly mysterious country. In former years the Dutch, Portuguese, English, and others had a limited intercourse with the Japanese, but were cut off from that, and, with the exception of the Dutch, entirely expelled from the country two centuries and a half ago. The Dutch alone, of all Christian nations, were allowed to remain for the purposes of traffic, “and they purchased the privilege at the price of national humiliation and personal imprisonment, for which all the profits of gainful barter offer but an inadequate compensation.”

This self-isolated empire, Japan, has experienced more radical and startling changes within the last generation than any people or nation of which history treats. It seemed as if, once freed from the trammels which had so long confined it, the empire was determined, at one bound, to place itself abreast of other nations which had attained a high civilization and enlightenment by slow and painful steps. With a wealth of the best models before them, and the intelligence to be able to throw off their prejudices and avail themselves of those models, the feat was easier, but still remains wonderful, the more we consider it.

Situated at the eastern extremity of Asia, between 31° and 49° north latitude, the empire consists of a large group of islands, many of them small and surrounded by a sea which is not very easy to navigate at all times.

There are three very large islands--Niphon, or Nippon, seven hundred miles long, but so narrow that its breadth in the centre is not more than fifty miles; Kiusiu, about two hundred miles long and fifty miles wide; and Yesso, formerly sometimes called Xicoco, eighty-five or ninety miles long and fifty wide.

There are many mountains, some of them volcanic, and the country is subject to earthquakes, often of a serious character.

The number of inhabitants is given as about forty millions; but it is said by late observers that, dense as the population appears to be in certain regions, the country could support many more.

The Japanese appear to be a mixture of the Malay and Mongolian races, like the Chinese, from whom there seems little doubt they derived their civilization, ages ago.

The first knowledge of Japan which the Western world had was given by the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, at the end of the thirteenth century. When he returned from a long sojourn in Asia he was hardly believed when he spoke of a large island off the coast of Cathay, or China, which he called Zipangu. That island is the modern Nippon.

There is no doubt that Marco Polo’s written story and accompanying maps had much to do with the determination of Columbus to find the farthest east by sailing west. Although he was not able to find and open Japan, he did discover a country which has performed a part of his contemplated work--a nation which, if it did not discover Zipangu, was to become the instrument of bringing it into free and full communication with the rest of the world.

It is to the Portuguese that we owe the first real knowledge of Japan. When Mendez Pinto, on a voyage to China in 1542, was driven by a storm to Japan and landed there, the event was considered so important by the authorities of that isolated country that they not only entered it in their archives, but preserved portraits of persons who seemed most strange to them in complexion, features, dress, and language.

The authorities and the visitors were so much pleased with each other that an arrangement was entered into by which a Portuguese ship was to be yearly despatched--probably from Macao--laden with articles of trade. The returns were made in gold, silver, and copper, of which latter metal there was abundance in Japan.

Then came the establishment of a mission under Francis Xavier, afterwards canonized by the Catholic Church, and a man of wonderful ability and with all the requisites for a Christian missionary of his time. He and his assistants did not meddle with Japanese affairs or politics, soon made friends, and many converts; but St. Francis Xavier died in 1552, and his successors were not so wise or so Christian-like as he had been. They differed among themselves and meddled with matters which did not concern them. The Franciscans and Dominicans quarrelled with the Jesuits, but they obtained, among them, a very large number of converts, among whom were numbered some of the princes or feudal lords.

The Dutch came next in establishing a footing in Japan, about 1598. One of their first vessels had an English pilot named William Adams, who has left us a narration of his long residence there--a romantic story, but which can only be alluded to here. He arose to high distinction, and, among other things, instructed the Japanese in the art of ship-building and mathematics.

An English factory was established at Hirado in 1613, but the enterprise was soon abandoned.

All went well with the Portuguese until about the year 1617, when a revolution occurred in Japan which placed in power those who were hostile to both foreign traders and to missionaries. This revolution had a fatal effect upon the Portuguese influence, especially as they had, as has been said, showed imprudence in mingling in the politics of the country, while their ambassador exhibited great pride and haughtiness, in marked contrast with the Dutch. The latter, attending strictly to their mercantile transactions and moved by hatred and jealousy of their rivals, the Portuguese, took good care to give the assurance that they themselves were of a different creed from the Jesuits.

When, therefore, in 1637, the Portuguese--traders, missionaries, and all--were banished from the country, after many persecutions and much bloodshed, the Dutch were allowed to keep up an intercourse, but under severe restrictions.

Once rid of the Portuguese, there then began a persecution of the native Christians, which continued for many years, during which it is said that several millions suffered for their faith. The number sounds large, but all accounts agree in regard to it.

Then the Dutch fell under suspicion, for several good reasons, and were only permitted to remain at all on condition of residing at one spot, where they could be guarded and every motion observed. In 1641 they were ordered to remove to Dezima, a small island near Nagasaki, which Kæmpfer said “was more like a prison than a factory.” But, unwilling to quit the prospect of profitable trade, they willingly underwent this imprisonment and agreed to forego any of the outward signs of Christianity, such as leaving off divine service, etc.