This was my first experience with a victim
of brain storm, and, although I shrink from the admittance of “having cold feet,” I must admit that the atmosphere on this occasion was unduly chilly.
On the main deck I met some coal-passers who had been gambling in the engine-room; apprising these fellows of there being a crazy man on deck, we concurred in the advisability of notifying the master at arms and having him put away for safe keeping. In a short time the fellow was manacled and led to the brig, protesting his innocence of having been a party to the massacre.
Upon examination by the surgeon, the man was removed to the “sick bay,” where it developed that the unfortunate fellow was suffering from acute melancholia. During the investigation to consider the advisability of sending him to a sanitarium in Yokohama, he tried to cough up a ten-inch shell which he claimed to have accidentally swallowed. Having undergone a course of treatment on the Island of Hondo, Japan, the fellow fully recovered, and I have since learned that he regained his normal health and is prospering in the middle West.
Upon completion of our ship in dry dock, we bade adieu to the land of the heathen Chinee and steamed into the China Sea en route to the Sula Archipelago, spending Thanksgiving in the harbor of Puerto Princessa on the Island of Palawan.
VI.
A Trip to Japan
Departure of the “Flag-Ship” from Manila—A Typhoon in the China Sea—The Inland Sea of the “Rising Sun”—Baseball with the Kobe Country Club—Fujiyama—Yokohama—Tokio, and the Imperial Palace of the Mikado—A French Fleet Celebrates the Taking of the Bastille—Unveiling of Perry’s Monument—A Reception on Board the New York to the Nobility of the “Flowery Kingdom.”
The United States Cruiser New York,—flying the ensign of Rear Admiral Rodgers, commander-in-chief of the Asiatic station, who had received orders to proceed to Yokohama, Japan, to participate in the unveiling of a monument erected by the Japanese government in commemoration of the achievement of Commodore Perry, his grandfather, who anchored there with his fleet in 1854, and, as ambassador sent by President Filmore, succeeded in opening the ports of Japan to foreign commerce,—drew anchor June 25, 1901, and steamed