PERRY, MATTHEW CALBRAITH ( ) , Amer ican naval officer, was born in South Kingston, R.I., April 1o, 1794. He became a midshipman in 1809, and served during the War of 1812, and in 1813 was made lieutenant. In 1826 he became a commander, and during 1826-30 was in the recruiting service at Boston, where he took a leading part in organizing the first naval apprentice system of the U.S. navy. He was promoted in 1837 to the rank of captain (then the highest actual rank in the U.S. navy), and in 1838-40 commanded the "Fulton II.," the first American steam war vessel. In 1843, with the honorary rank of commodore, he assumed command of a squadron sent to I the African coast by the United States, under the Webster-Ash burton treaty, to aid in suppressing the slave trade. On Oct. 23 24, 1846, during the Mexican War, Perry, in command of six vessels, attacked and captured Frontera and Tobasco, thereby cutting off Mexico from Yucatan. He relieved Commodore David Conner at Vera Cruz on March 21, 1847, and after a two days' bombardment the city wall was breached sufficiently to admit the entrance of troops.
Perry's distinctive achievement was his negotiation of the treaty between the United States and Japan. On July 14, 1853, accom panied by his officers and by armed marines and sailors (in all about 30o men), he went ashore and presented to commis sioners especially appointed by the shogun to receive them, Presi dent Fillmore's letters to the emperor, and his own credentials. A few days later the American fleet sailed for Hong-Kong with the understanding that Perry would return in the following spring to receive the emperor's reply. Accordingly, on Feb. i 1, 1854, he reappeared in the Bay of Yedo with his fleet of six vessels, and despite the protests of the Japanese selected an anchorage about farther up the bay, nearly opposite the present site of Yoko hama, and within about 1 om. of Yedo (Tokyo). Here, on March
31, 1854, was concluded the first treaty (ratified at Simoda on Feb. 21, 1855, and proclaimed on June 22 following) between the United States and Japan. The more important articles of this treaty provided that the ports of Simoda and Hakodate were constituted as ports for the reception of American ships, where they could buy such supplies as they needed ; that Japanese vessels should assist American vessels driven ashore on the coasts of Japan, and that the crews of such vessels should be properly cared for at one of the two treaty ports; that shipwrecked and other American citizens in Japan should be as free as in other countries, within certain prescribed limits ; that ships of the United States should be permitted to trade at the two treaty ports under temporary regulations prescribed by the Japanese, and that privileges granted to other nations thereafter must also be extended to the United States. Commodore Perry died in New York city on March 4, 1858.
See the official record, Narrative of the Expedition of an Amer ican Squadron to the China Seas and Japan (1856). The first volume of this work, containing Commodore Perry's narrative, was also published separately. A brief biography of Perry is included in Charles Morris's Heroes of the Navy in America (Philadelphia, 1907). See also William E. Griffis's Matthew Galbraith Perry, a Typical American Naval Officer (Boston, 1887).