206 PAST AND PRESENT. 



effect of opening his guns at us. The steamers were 

 burnt. Before setting fire to the one we had in charge, 

 I went on board, and landed all the crew on an island, 

 except the captain and another official. These two 

 were sitting quietly in the saloon : and on my asking 

 them if they preferred to be landed as the men had 

 been, or come on board the ship I was in, they con- 

 sulted together in quite a matter-of-course tone whether 

 they would not commit there and then the "happy 

 despatch." It ended in their preferring to see a little 

 more life, and we smuggled them on shore near Yoko- 

 hama, where for several months they both remained 

 hidden, their whereabouts only known to our consul. 

 What became of the captain I never knew ; but that 

 he tried all he could during the time of the action off 

 Kagosima to find his way to the magazine, intending to 

 blow our ship up, I believe to be quite true. The 

 other man became great in the counsels of his country, 

 and on the change of Government, etc., he was ap- 

 pointed as Minister to England. I had a great deal to do 

 with him some years afterwards, when he was Foreign 

 Minister in Japan, and I was surveying the coasts. 

 The result of our attack on Kagosima was to induce the 

 Prince of Satsuma to grant our demands. He evi- 

 dently was not aware how he had really driven us off. 



