Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/199

Rh the French consul upon which the effort was abandoned.

He successfully mediated in a dispute between the Pekin Government and a British concern that arrived in China with a squadron of warships which it proposed the Chinese should take, English crews and all. The result, again a triumph of fair play, was that the Lay-Osborne Flotilla sailed back to England.

A more important consequence to the United States was the subsequent action obtained from the grateful Chinese forbidding the Confederate raider Alabama even to approach the ports of the Empire. This was more of a concession than any of our famous ambassadors could get from any country in Europe. Not the least of his services to China was his influence in leading the Prince to solicit the services of the eminent American engineer, Raphael Pumpelly, to make the first examination of their mineral resources.

It was all very well for the ministers in Pekin to agree upon this mild procedure, but