Alcmene

The Alcmene was a French ship which called at Naha harbor in 1844, seeking trade negotiations and to establish missionary activity in the islands.

As with other Western ships which called at Ryûkyû in this period, the crew were provided with food, water, and other provisions, but Ryûkyû officials, with Makishi Chôchû as lead interpreter, rejected the notion of trade negotiations, arguing that their kingdom was small, poor, and reliant upon both China and Japan, and therefore in no position to expand its overseas trade. The French were, for some reason, permitted to drop off a missionary, Theodore Augustin Forcade, and his Chinese interpreter, and left promising to return to press the issue further.

Forcade remained in the islands for two years, before departing on the Sabine in 1846.

References

• Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 152.