415 



1; M. Meuelot, rib-lion- 

 i -Chasseur 



.tenant in the Km press's 



. Tago..!!*; and M. Diiliousquet, 



tig the Mine rank in tin.- M-i llegiiiu-nt <!' 



of this military mis- 



December 1866. 



he to organize the Tycoon's 



army, both as respects the materiel and the 



A civil war prow, in August I860, ont of the 

 States, England, 



; jointly inflicted on the Prince 



his at tacks on foreign vessels that 



patted through the Inland Sea, ns the channel 



e main island is styled. In the set- 



nt of the case between the Tycoon and 



the ion -i^'iii r>, an indemnity was exacted from 



that ruler, who mulcted the Prince, who re- 



the claim, and hence the war. Choshiu, 



I'rinco of Negate, being well provided with 



:i implements of war, and having an army 



drilled on the European model, was enabled to 



gain many advantages over the Tycoon, who 



had failed to avail himself of the instruction of 



: ners. On August 4th intelligence reached 

 Yokohama from Osaca, to the effect that in 

 three engagements the troops of the Tycoon 

 had prevailed against those of Choshiu. The 

 scene of the action was Oshimangoori, in the 

 province of Soowo, one of the two provinces 

 comprising the estate of Mori The troops en- 

 gaged on the side of the Tycoon were 5,000 or 

 6,000 men, under the command of Matsdaira 

 Okino-karni, and some infantry and artillery 

 (about 1,200) drilled in the European style. It 

 appears that Simonosaki was occupied by the 

 LI'S troops before the war began. Subse- 

 quent advices confirmed this news, and added 

 that the Tycoon's troops occupied Oosiraa, and 



hiu's forces made an attack on the side 

 of the Straits. They were, however, repulsed, 

 but not before they had destroyed several 

 towns. In the operations Choshiu lost two 

 s-lups. The new Tycoon gained important ad- 



.:^es over Choshiu, and in December it was 

 reported that the war had been stopped for the 

 present by the Mikado, and that Choshiu obeyed 

 the order, declaring that he had never fought 



-t the .Mikado, but against a party unjustly 

 opposed to him. 



In the latter months of the year the country 

 was suffering from a deficiency in the rice crop, 



vated by the war, which caused that staff 

 of Japanese life to rise in price to nearly three- 

 fold its ordinary value. Considerable discon- 

 tent prevailed, and many rice riots occurred, in 

 one of which the American minister, General 

 Van Valkcnburg, was stoned, and the British 

 Consulate was also attacked with the same 

 mU-ivcs. No importance, however, was at- 

 tachid to the t'mevte by the General, or the 

 British authorities. The Japanese officials were 

 5u nowise accountable for this last attack on 

 foreigners, and the outrage was the work of a 

 few ignorant and hungry people. 



According to reports from Japan received in 

 .i..-r, tin- I'rinco of Satsurna had sent a 

 large collection of curiosities and speci- 

 mens of the produce of his province to the 

 World's Fair at Paris. One of the firm of 

 Glover & Co. had left Yokohama for Xan- 

 ga-aki, there to take charge of the prince's 

 younger brothers on an expedition to Europe. 

 Fourteen young Japanese gentlemen, in charge 

 of the Rev. Mr. Lloyd, were to leave Yoko- 

 hama, also bound to see the Paris Exhibition. 

 Rev. Mr. Brown, American Missionary in Japan, 

 also sent a number of Japanese youth to the 

 United States, to be educated. They expect to 

 remain in this country five or six years, that 

 they may acquire a knowledge of our religion, 

 institutions, arts, sciences, and laws. They are 

 all men of official rank, belonging to the depart- 

 ment of Statsuma. Their names are, Captains 

 Shimada and Hisamats, and Lieutenants Chara, 

 Kudo and Yostuda. Three of them are young 

 men, and the other two are men in middle life. 



On November 2Gth a great fire occurred at 

 Yokohama, causing a loss of over $5,000,000. 

 The town of Yokohama was almost entirely 

 unknown by name to the outside world pre- 

 vious to the negotiations of the treaty between 

 the United States and Japan after the mission 

 of the late Commodore Perry in 1853 existing 

 only as a scattered commercial and export sub- 

 urb of the great imperial capital, Jeddo. Since 

 that time it has grown rapidly into notice, and 

 at the moment of the great conflagration it 

 maintained the same relation to Jeddo as the 

 ports of Amoy and Hong- Kong do to the more 

 inland industrial centre of China. Indeed, it 

 may be said that Yokohama was built up for 

 Japan within a dozen years by foreigners, par- 

 ticularly by Americans and English. The town 

 is situated about twenty-three miles south of 

 Jeddo, on the Gulf of Jeddo and the southeast 

 coast of the island of Niphon. The course of 

 trade and communication outward runs from 

 Jeddo to Nangasaki and thence toYokohama, the 

 travel being reversed, from Yokohama inward, 

 to persons coming from abroad. Its public build- 

 ings, temples, parks, and gardens are constructed 

 and ornamented in the usual Japanese style ; but 

 considerably modernized by the introduction of 

 improvements from abroad. The population of 

 the city fluctuates to a very great extent, being 

 made up at certain seasons, almost entirely by 

 that portion of the seven hundred thousand 

 citizens of Jeddo who are called down by the 

 demands of trade and finance to meet the hun- 

 dreds sometimes thousands of foreigners who 

 make it their temporary residence. It is 

 (.Mimated that the resident population of the 

 town and the adjacent villas does not exceed 

 ninety thousand persons. Yokohama is the 

 residence of the United Sates and other foreign 

 Consuls to the empire. Its stores and ware- 

 houses always contain a heavy stock of very 

 expensive goods, the contents of the principal 

 "shops "being roughly valued quite lately at 

 600,000, on which insurances to the extent of 



