Mr. Portman to Mr. Seward.
Sir: The object of the mission of Matsudaira Hoki no Kami, referred to in my despatch No. 4, of the 14th ultimo, was to obtain an extension of the payment of the third instalment of five hundred thousand dollars of the Simonoseki indemnity, greatly desired in view of the still uninterrupted demand upon the resources of this government so largely in excess of the usual appropriations.
The Tycoon is still at Osacca; he cannot yet disband his army, or reduce it to a peace footing, and the military contingents of the Daimios will have to be continued for some time in the pay of this government, as the Chorhu difficulty has not yet been settled.
The principal motives of this prince in raising the standard of rebellion in his provinces of Suwo and Nagato were, in the first place, hatred of the Tycoon, by whom he claimed to have been betrayed when carrying out the instructions received from Kioto to fire on foreign vessels at Simonoseki, and in the second [Page 199] place a deeply felt jealousy of the Tycoon’s growing power, principally derived from the facilities he commands of procuring supplies of arms, munitions. &c., at the open ports, in which the Daimios were only allowed to participate to a limited extent.
Ever since he entered upon his hostile course, Chorhu endeavored to attract foreign trade to his provinces, in the hope of ultimately enlisting the sympathy of the treaty powers in his favor. And thus Simonoseki recently became a place of resort for steamers, where even coal could be obtained. Arms and munitions were freely sold to Chorhu’s agents in the ports of his provinces, and it is asserted that such supplies have even openly been purchased for his account at Nagasaki.
With the ratification of the treaties, however, his hope vanished of obtaining foreign aid or sympathy; the encouragement he gave to individual traders was not followed, as he was led to expect, by the recognition of his sovereign rights by the treaty powers, yet it is currently estimated that Chorhu has at present about sixteen thousand men, armed with serviceable rifles, in his army, besides some rifled field artillery; and as in the event of hostilities he would necessarily act on the defensive, he is no doubt in a position to reject propositions for his unconditional surrender.
It is hard to say on which side is the greater reluctance of submitting this question to the arbitrament of the sword. Strong efforts were made to make Japan a great naval and military power and to infuse a martial spirit into the people; but as yet those efforts do not appear to have been very successful; its predilections are decidedly in favor of negotiating, and it is quite likely, therefore, that negotiations, with force in the background, will be carried on for some time yet, and until the Prince of Chorhu shall have succeeded in obtaining better terms than the Tycoon is supposed to have offered thus far.
In view of this state of things, and of the pretended inability of this government to pay the third instalment yesterday, when it became due, it has been unanimously determined to accept in lieu thereof their promissory note at three months from date for the amount named; and I now have the honor to inform you that I this day received a letter from the Gorogio to the effect that such note had been deposited with the Oriental Banking Corporation at this place.
I hope you will be pleased to approve of my action. I certainly had no authority to receive that money; neither did I feel at liberty to dissent from the unanimous opinion of the representatives of Great Britain, France, and Holland. Should you decide, after the senate shall have approved the convention, that the indemnity must be paid according to its stipulations, I beg to say that the note deposited could at any moment be discounted by the Oriental Banking Corporation, so that the total amount received thus far from the Japanese government may be said to be equal to one-half of the whole indemnity, namely, $1,500,000 Mexican currency.
I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your most obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.