It will be convenient at this point briefly to advert to the exploits of this squadron, which have necessarily been put on one side in the recent course of the narrative by the claims of the more important events. After the destruction of two small Japanese merchantmen on the 11th of February nothing more was heard of Captain Reitzenstein's cruisers for more than two months. In April, however, the command was taken over by a more highly-placed officer, Rear-Admiral Jessen, and a sudden burst of activity took place. With the _Rossia_, the _Rurik_, and the _Gromoboi_, and a flotilla of torpedo-boats and destroyers, the new commander made a raid upon the east coast of Korea at Gensan. At that very time Admiral Kamimura's squadron started on a voyage northwards to search for the Russians, and there can be no doubt that the two would have met, but by a stroke of the most perverse ill-luck one of those dense spring fogs, which descend upon the Sea of Japan like a pall, intervened and the opposing squadrons passed close to one another without discovering their proximity. When, totally baffled by these weather conditions, Kamimura returned to Gensan after a three days' cruise, he found to his chagrin that the Russians had visited the port in his absence and had even sunk a small merchant steamer called the _Goyo Maru_. But of more serious importance still was the destruction of the _Kinshiu Maru_, a transport with 124 soldiers of the 37th Regiment of Infantry on board. She fell in with the enemy's ships on the night of the 25th while they were on their way back to Vladivostock. A summons to surrender was met by a haughty refusal. An hour's grace was given, at the end of which a torpedo was discharged against the doomed vessel, striking her amidships. Under the orders of their officers the men fell in upon the deck, as calmly and steadily as if on parade, to wait for inevitable death. The officers themselves, five in number, following the stern traditions of the ancient Samurai clan, went below and committed suicide; but the rank and file determined that they would strike one blow at the enemy before they died, and so they opened a gallant but ineffective fire upon the Russians with their rifles. The cruisers made a deadly reply with their machine guns, tearing great gaps in the masses of men thickly gathered together on the deck of the transport. Still, however, the soldiers fought on with desperate bravery, until another torpedo brought the tragic drama to a swift conclusion, sinking the ship in a few seconds. Undaunted even at the moment of death, the Japanese went down with triumphant shouts of "Banzai" upon their lips. Seventy-four of the rank and file perished, but forty-five others escaped by means of the steamer's boats, which they found floating on the sea, and on the 29th they arrived at Gensan with their thrilling story. [Sidenote: A Thrill Through the Civilized Globe]