investiture for the island king, or to congratulate a Shiogoon upon his accession to power. The same policy, however, was pursued toward China also. After the revolution of 1868 the Loo Choo islands were made a dependency of the Japanese empire, and the king acknowledged the Mikado for his suzerain. Some five years later, the Japanese reduced the king to the status of a retired Daimio, and transformed Riu Kiu into a ken, or prefecture. To this the islanders objected, and continued to send a tribute-junk to Ningpo, and implored China’s interposition. The Pekin government, on its part, considered that Japan, by its annexation of the Loo Choo islands, had wrongfully cut off a fringe of the robe of the Middle Kingdom. Let us now glance at Japan’s connection with Formosa, before examining, somewhat in detail, her much more important relations to Corea. It was toward the end of 1873 that a Loo Choo junk was wrecked on the eastern shore of Formosa; the crew were killed by the savage inhabitants of that region, and, as it was reported, eaten. The Loo Choo islanders appealed to their hereditary suzerain at Satsuma, who referred the matter to Tokio. As it happened, China laid no claim to the eastern part of Formosa, and no trace of it appeared on the maps of the Middle Kingdom. In the spring of 1874, the Mikado dispatched Soyejima as Embassador to Pekin, and his representative there obtained an audience with the Chinese Emperor. The Tsungli Yamen disclaimed responsibility for eastern Formosa, and conceded the right of Japan to chastise the savages there. While Soyejima was absent in China, a Japanese junk was wrecked in Formosa, and its crew were stripped and plundered. On the return of the Embassy, 1,300 Japanese soldiers, under the command of Saigo Yorimichi, were ordered to avenge the outrage, and, after a few skirmishes with savages, they proceeded to occupy the eastern part of Formosa. There they built roads, organized camps, and directed fortifications in accordance with the principles of modern engineering and military art. Incited, it is said, by foreign influence, the Chinese government now began to urge its claims upon the whole of Formosa, and to denounce the Japanese as intruders. For a time war seemed inevitable, but the result of the negotiations, intrusted to Okubo, who was sent to Pekin, was that the Chinese paid an indemnity of $700,000, and the Japanese evacuated the island. The abortive expedition had cost Japan $5,000,000 and seven hundred lives.