CHAPTER XI
THE ISLANDS PASS UNDER THE GOVERNMENT OF JAPAN
ON Sunday, November 21, 1875, the Meiji Maru, a Japanese ship, captained by an Englishman or American of the name of Peters, left Yokohama at noon with four Commissioners on board Tanabe Yaichi, Hayashi Masaki, Obana Sakusuke,[1] and Nezu
Seikichi. Her destination was the Bonin Islands.
On Monday, the 22nd of the same month, at 9 A.M., H.M.S. Curlew (Captain Church) with Mr. Russell Robertson, British Consul, on board, also left Yokohama, and her destination was the Bonin Islands.
The Meiji Martu, putting on full steam, arrived in Port Lloyd early on Wednesday morning, the 24th.
The Curlew, proceeding more leisurely, arrived on Friday morning, the 26th.
What occasioned the separate departure of these two ships bound for the same place naturally calls for explanation, and as briefly as possible it shall be given:
Owing to the circumstances under which the first colony had been established on the Bonins, the early settlers, whether British subjects or not, had always regarded themselves as coming ultimately under the jurisdiction of the British Consulate in Hawaii and, had communication with Hawaii been more possible, there is no doubt that appeals would have been made from time to time from the Bonin settlers to the British Consul there. After the opening of Japan, the settlers came to realize that they had a British Consul now within comparatively easy reach at Yokohama. Thus it came to pass that by appeals made to him, and in other ways, the British Consul at Yokohama had his attention directed officially to these English-speaking settlers--some of whom were undoubtedly British subjects--who were inhabiting the Bonin Islands.
I do not know whether, on the occasion of the dispatch of the first Japanese Commissioners to the islands in 1861, any official communications had then passed between our British Minister and the Japanese Government. Certainly we had not interfered with the then attempt the Japanese had made, after an interval of some two hundred and fifty years, to reclaim the islands. But the attempt had practically failed, and the question was whether the Japanese were contemplating doing anything further, or whether they were now going to leave the islands alone. This was a matter oil which it was reasonable that our British Minister in Japan should seek to inform himself, but Sir Barry Parkes the British Minister in Tokyo at the time, could elicit no very definite reply from the Japanese Government to leis inquiries. Shortly, however, before the dispatch of tile Meiji Maru, he received intimation that the Government, having never regarded the Bonin Islands otherwise than as coming within the dominion of Japan, were about to dispatch a vessel with Commissioners on board to visit the islands and report on affairs there. On receipt of this communication, in which, apparently, no reference was made to English interests in the islands, Sir Harry Parkes felt that the occasion warranted the dispatch also of an English ship; and, Admiral Ryder having placed the Curlew at his disposal, the two ships sailed from Yokohama and arrived at their destination as stated above.
There was something not a little humorous as well as dramatic in the situation, the more so as the event proved that the Japanese Commissioners had been definitely instructed to take over the government of the islands. We can therefore well understand how, with the knowledge that the Curlew was following in her wake, the Meiji Maru had put on steam; and Thomas Webb was Mr. Robertson's informant that on their arrival on Wednesday morning (Webb, of course, was not aware of the reason) the Commissioners were manifesting much impatience, and desired Webb himself to gather together as many of the settlers as he could to an assembly on shore at two o'clock that same day.
The assembly gathered, but to the mortification of the Japanese, the function must have fallen sadly short of its intended impressiveness, for there had been no time to make the elaborate preparations for it which the dignity of the occasion required. Moreover, the important declaration and the speeches were to be duly made in English. The Commissioners had flattered themselves no doubt that they would have acquitted themselves in English much to their own satisfaction before their illiterate Bonin audience, but the discomposure they were under must have seriously affected their eloquence. History records not a few cases where great rites have been hurriedly performed, with just a technical validity under circumstances of emergency, and here is one that might be added to the list. The Commissioners had at least fulfilled their task. A public assembly had been called; and the proclamation had been made; and the purport of it had been grasped that the islands rightfully belonged to the Emperor of Japan, who was graciously pleased to take all those who were living on the islands from henceforth under his protecting care. So now let the Curlew come!
It is interesting to speculate what would have happened if that assembly had not taken place before the Curlew's arrival.
Believing ourselves that England would readily have conceded Japan's right to the islands, we can only say that, if the Japanese had, as we have no reason to suppose they had not, intentions of acting honourably towards the settlers, they would have themselves desired that the Meiji Maru should be accompanied by an English ship; and the presence of the British Consul, as England's representative and a consenting party to the step they were taking, would have contributed greatly to the reassurance of the settlers and to the impressiveness of the function. But, throughout, the Japanese had adopted the high course of ignoring any claim on them that England might make rather than allow themselves to acknowledge any favour done, or risk any restrictions being imposed on their freedom of action or administration, by coming to a recovery of their long-lost islands through the process of negotiation.
When the Curlew at length came into the harbour on the Friday, the conventional courtesies were duly exchanged between the two ships, and inasmuch as Captain Church and Mr. Robertson had come with no intention of thwarting or interfering with Japanese plans, Mr. Robertson, accepting the declaration made as a fait accompli, was careful that everything he did should be done as openly as possible, and held no important interview with the settlers at which he did not invite the Japanese Commissioners to be present. They readily availed themselves of these invitations, but extended no invitations of a like kind to Mr. Robertson, and were never quite at ease during the whole weep of the Curlew's stay.
At the further end of the harbour, where there is a sandy beach, Mr. Robertson had noticed on arrival an American flag flying. Latterly he discovered that the Savorys' house and clearing lay beyond, hidden from sight by a belt of intervening trees. In his account of the visit he paid to it, he writes: "I had a long chat with the old lady who received Captain Church and myself surrounded by her family--one or two of the other settlers also being present. She explained that the hoisting of the flag was out of compliment to us, and that one of her husband's dying wishes had been that the flag should be so displayed whenever a vessel arrived or on any exceptional occasion." The widow Savory had not yet given herself to her third husband, William Allen, the German; but in Mr. Robertson's mention of Allen, our knowledge of what subsequently happened makes us open our eyes a little when we read, "He appears to be a man of fifty and upwards and has taken to wife a Sandwich Island woman, Poconoi by name."
One criticism I should make of Mr. Robertson's report, admirable though it is. He clearly does not realize how different an account he might have had to give of the settlers, whom he describes for the most part as fairly prosperous, well mannered and orderly, had it not been for the character and influence of Nathaniel Savory. This failure to appreciate and record the debt the island owed to this veteran settler, who had passed away in the previous year, is no doubt largely attributable to his having had Thomas Webb for his chief informant on all the island matters.
The Meiji Maru had come with a generous supply of blankets, cottons, shirtings, tobacco, and cakes for distribution among the settlers. Captain Church also made up for most of them packets of useful things out of the ship's stores, so that the expectations of what they might succeed in getting for themselves, which were always kindled when a vessel of any kind put into harbour, suffered on this occasion no disappointment.
One circumstance must not be left untold. Captain Church discovered the original copper plate[2] put up by Captain Beechey in 1827, in the house of Leseur the Frenchman, and for a small gratuity made himself the possessor of it. In order, however, to guard against any wrong construction being afterwards placed upon his action in taking it away from the islands, he was careful to leave behind the following statement in writing:
"PORT LLOYD,
"BONIN ISLANDS,
"December 3rd, 1875.
"The undersigned wishes to place on record that he has removed from Peel Island the Copper Plate put up by Captain Beechey of H.M.S. Blossom on the occasion of his visit to the Bonins in June 1827 when these Islands were taken possession of by Captain Beechey in the name and on behalf of His Majesty King George the Fourth. The plate was found in the possession of Louis Leseur a resident on Peel Island, who parted with it for a small pecuniary consideration. The undersigned wishes it to be understood that the removal of the plate is in no way to be considered as the relinquishing of any rights that the British Government may have acquired by the action of Captain Beechey, as the undersigned has no authority to determine or pronounce any opinion one way or the other on the question of the acquisition of the Islands, past, present or future. The plate will be retained by the undersigned as an object of curiosity unless circumstances should demand that it be disposed of in any other way.
(Signed) "EDMD. J. CHURCH,
Commander H.M.S. Curlew.
"In the presence of
(Signed) "RUSSELL ROBERTSON,
H.B.M.'s Consul at Kanagawa."