NOTES ON LIU-KIU. 273 



people. It is to his careful record tliat we owe most of our knowledge of tire 

 past history of these most interesting islands. 



At the beginning of this centurj^ when the Chinese emperor invested 

 Cliang-wan with the full sovereignty, two envoys left Pekin on the mission, 

 one of whom was Li Ting-yuen, the author of the " Shi Liu-kiu Ki," to 

 Avhich I have several times referred. He gives a naive and amusing account 

 of his exi:)eriences, besides much information that is really valuable. It is 

 curious to note that during his visit, which lasted over a period of six or 

 seven months, the agents of the Prince of Satsuma were resident in Napha. 

 Yet so well was this fact concealed that Li does not appear ever to have had 

 the least suspicion of it. Of the later visits of Basil Hall, Beechey, Perry, 

 and others I have already spoken. The American plan of making Kapha a 

 port of call fell through on the breaking do-wn of the exclusive policy of the 

 Japanese, and the islands lying, as they do, remote from the world's traffic, 

 have been but little visited since. Gradually the hold of China relaxed, while 

 that of Japan tightened. All tribute to the former country seems to have 

 ceased in 1850. I am unaware whether there is any exact Chinese rendering 

 of the term " suzerainty," a word that in our own language has of late years 

 acquired a meaning of extreme delicacy. But if so, it was doubtless in use 

 among Celestial politicians to express the relations existing between their 

 country and Liu-kiu subsequent to that date. These relations the Formosan 

 difficulty still further attenuated, and in 1879 they maybe said to have been 

 completely severed by the bold step ventured on by the Japanese, who 

 quietly deposed the Liu-kiu king, and took over the Government. Finally, 

 during the Franco-Chinese War in 1885 the formal recognition of the 

 sovereignty of Jajjan was claimed — I believe successfully — at the Court of 

 Pekin. 



VOL. I. 



