=407. Attempts to Secure Cuba.=—Attempts to seize territory to the south in the interests of slavery, continued during Pierce’s administration. In 1853, a bold adventurer named William Walker gathered rash followers and made an attack on Lower California, which completely failed. The next year, leading Southerners like General Quitman, an adopted citizen of Mississippi and a distinguished soldier in the Mexican War, tried to secure Cuba by forcing the United States into a war with Spain on account of the confiscation of an American steamer, _The Black Warrior_. This attempt was merged in the intrigues that produced the Ostend Manifesto. =408. The Ostend Manifesto.=—On the 16th of August, 1854, William L. Marcy, Pierce’s Secretary of State, wrote to Pierre Soulé, the American minister at Madrid, that “much advantage might accrue from an interchange of views between himself, Buchanan, and Mason” (the Ministers to Great Britain and France) “in regard to the acquisition of Cuba.” Accordingly, these three Ministers met at Ostend, Belgium, and after a conference of a few days, promulgated the paper known as the “Ostend Manifesto” (October 18, 1854). They declared, first, that Cuba should belong to the United States; second, that the government might well offer for the island the sum of one hundred and twenty million dollars; and third, that if Spain would not accept this sum, the matter of conquest ought to be considered. The manifesto was generally well received in the South, but in the North it was characterized as “the manifesto of brigands.” =409. Filibustering.=—Soon Central America attracted the filibusters, as these adventurous invaders of peaceable states were called. In 1854 a little place named Greytown, on the Mosquito coast, was bombarded by an American ship for no very good reason. The next year, Walker interfered in a revolution in Nicaragua, and for a while got control of the state by making a creature of his, named Rivas, president. The new government was recognized by Pierce, but was shortly after overthrown.[184] =410. Perry’s Expedition.=—Although the disgraceful actions of the filibusters and the war in Kansas seem to mark Pierce’s administration as a thoroughly discreditable one, it was not without bright features. In 1854 a commercial treaty with Japan was secured as the result of a naval expedition which had been sent out in 1852 under Commodore Matthew C. Perry. This treaty, which was promulgated in 1855, is memorable as opening a place for Japan among the great nations of the world. [Illustration: AREAS OF FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN 1854] KANSAS-NEBRASKA LEGISLATION.