It was finally determined that the party that was to visit Yokohama should consist of Ibara, a councillor named Sugi Tokusuké, a secretary, and Itô, with four servants, who were to be accommodated on board the "Barrosa" and "Djambi." The "Tancrède," which was to leave before us, could not find room for more than half the party, and as they did not wish to be separated longer than they could help, they elected to come with us. On the 4th October the "Racehorse," Commander Boxer, arrived to relieve us. Ibara and his secretary, Yamagata Keizô, and we sailed the following morning.
News of our successful result of the naval operations and of the conclusion of a convention with the Prince of Chôshiû was at once conveyed to the foreign representatives at Yokohama, who lost no time in calling the Tycoon's government to account for their apparent complicity with Chôshiû, as evidenced by the copies of orders from Kiôto which Itô had given us. The explanation was feeble, and the representatives found no difficulty in obtaining from the ministers their consent to pay whatever war indemnity might be due from Chôshiû, or else to throw open to trade a port in the inland sea. Although in the sequel the receipt of the indemnity money by us actually took place, it was in a manner forced upon the four Powers and their diplomatic agents, and certainly as far as Sir R. Alcock is concerned, he may be entirely exonerated from the accusation of a desire to exact an indemnity from either the defeated _daimiô_ or the government which assumed responsibility for him. The principal object he sought was to obtain the sanction of the Mikado to the treaties, so as to put an end to the agitation against foreign commerce which had been carried on by hostile _daimiôs_ in the Mikado's name ever since the opening of the ports. Now that Satsuma and Chôshiû, the two ringleaders of the opposition, had been brought to their senses, it ought to have been, he thought, an easy matter for the Tycoon's government, if they sincerely desired to carry out their treaty obligations, to assert their authority and compel the whole country to accept the new policy of foreign intercourse. The fixing of an indemnity was intended only to provide a means of pressure upon the Tycoon's government in order to procure the Mikado's ratification of the treaties, and the consequent extension of commercial relations.