, after ten minutes of sharp fighting, the Chinese
fled in great disorder, leaving a number of dead and wounded upon the
field. The American loss was two killed and four wounded.

Piracy was rampant in the China seas during this period, and so bold
and ferocious were the Chinese desperadoes that their junks were a
great terror to merchant vessels, and seriously interfered with
commerce. The "Powhatan," another of Captain Perry's squadron, and the
English sloop "Rattler," joined forces against a fleet of piratical
junks off Khulan, in 1855, and completely destroyed them, killing many
of the pirates in the attack and taking a large number of prisoners.
In Happy Valley, Hong-Kong, a monument was erected to commemorate the
eight English and American sailors who were killed in the conflict.

While the East India squadron was performing these important and
gallant services off the coasts of Japan and China, the other vessels
of the navy were by no means idle. Among the conspicuous naval events
of the time was the spirited action of Commander Ingraham at Smyrna,
in 1854. A young Austrian, Martin Koszta, had lived in New York city
two years before, and had declared his intention of becoming an
American citizen. He had gone to Smyrna on business, and having
incurred the displeasure of the Austrian government, had been seized,
and was a prisoner on board the Austrian man-of-war "Hussar."
Commander Ingraham, commanding the sloop-of-war "St. Louis," demanded
that Koszta be surrendered, on the ground that he was an American
citizen. This being refused, Ingraham cleared for action, although the
"Hussar's" force was much superior to his own. His bold stand brought
the Austrians to satisfactory terms, and the threatened engagement was
averted by the surrender of Koszta.

There were two Arctic expeditions in addition to that of the "Rescue"
and the "Advance" in the early fifties. Both of them grew out of the
ill-fated Arctic explorations of Sir John Franklin. Lady Franklin, his
wife, was anxious, upon the failure of the first relief expeditions,
to send another, and she asked that a surgeon of the United States
Navy, Dr. Kane, be permitted to command it. The Navy Department
granted the request, and in June, 1853, the expedition, composed of
eighteen men under orders from the department and the patronage of
Henry Grinnell, of New York, and George Peabody, the American
merchant, of London, began the northwest journey. This search for Si