Mr. Van Valkenburgh to Mr. Seward.
No. 98]
Legation of the United States,
Yokohama,
September 19, 1868.
Sir: With reference to my dispatch, No. 97, of
yesterday, I now have the honor to inclose No. 1, copy of a report, made
to the Prussian chargé d’affaires and kindly furnished me by him, from
which you will perceive that at the very same moment when Higashi Kuze
and his councillors protested their ignorance of the orders that had
been issued to the Daimios’ ships cruising under the Mikado’s flag on
the west coast, another of his councillors frankly stated that those
ships had been instructed to seize or sink if necessary any foreign
vessel that might be found on the Neegata coast. After careful inquiry I
am inclined to believe that not a single American vessel is likely to be
on that coast at present.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
[Translation.]
Yokohama,
September 7, 1868.
Sir: By your order I went this afternoon to
the Saibancho to inquire from the minister of foreign affairs if it
was true, as you had heard, that the Japanese government had sent
ships to the west coast to arrest and confiscate foreign ships and
to employ force against them. In the absence of the minister, the
Handji Hisewi Sayemon replied to me as follows: No ships have been
sent there from Yokohama, nor has any order been given on that
subject, but already some time ago some ships were sent from Hiogo
to Neegata to attack this port and take it; these ships had orders
to arrest all foreign ships they might find in the neighborhood of
Neegata and which were suspected of smuggling, to search them, and
eventually to employ force and to sink them. The ships seized as
suspected of smuggling would be treated in accordance with the
stipulations of the treaties. Higashi Kuze had besides informed you
of this already by his letter of the 4th instant.
M. Von Brandt, Esq., His Prussian Majesty’s Chargé d’Affaires.
