No. 495
Department of State
Washington, April 1, 1880
John A. Bingham, Esquire.
&c &c &c

Sir:

A letter has been received from the Navy Department under date of the 31st ultimo, transmitting a copy of a dispatch from Commodore Shufeldt U.S.N., dated from Singapore the 15th of February 1880, containing an extract from a letter of this Department to the Secretary of the Navy, dated the 9th of November, 1878 which reads as follows:
“This Department has information that Japan and Corea have recently entered into a treaty, by one of the stipulations of which provision is made for relieving and returning shipwrecked mariners not only of the parties, but of other foreign countries. This is a proof of intimacy between those two governments, which may be taken advantage of in behalf of Commodore Shufeldt. I have consequently addressed an instruction to the Minister of the United States in Japan directing him to apply to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs for such personal or official letters to the authorities of Corea in favor of Commodore Shufeldt as may tend to smooth his way and to contribute to the success of his errand.”
Through some inadvertence the instruction intended for you was not sent.
You are, therefore, now instructed to lend your hearty cooperation to Commodore Shufeldt, in furtherance of his negotiations with the government of Corea on the occasion of the opening of her ports to the Japanese government, which event, it is understood, will probably occur in May next.

I am, Sir, &c.
Wm. M. Evarts