In the winter of 1872 some inhabitants of the Loochoo Islands were cast away on the eastern coast of Formosa and murdered by the natives, and in the following year some shipwrecked sailors from the province of Bitchū experienced the same fate. Soyeshma Taneomi was sent by the government as plenipotentiary to Peking to complain of these outrages against Japanese subjects, but the Chinese government made no satisfactory reply and declined to acknowledge its responsibility for the acts of the natives of Formosa. The Japanese government was thus compelled to take into its own hands the task of exacting reparation. In April, 1874, Lieutenant General Saigō Tsugumichi was appointed to the command of a punitory expedition to Formosa. No serious opposition was encountered except at the hands of one tribe, which, however, was overcome after some fighting. On the eve of sending this expedition, Yanagiwara Sakimitsu was dispatched by the Japanese government as ambassador to China, but as he found the Chinese much incensed about Japan's action and very anxious that her troops should at once leave Formosa, Ōkubo Toshimichi, a leading member of the cabinet, was dispatched as plenipotentiary to Peking. Meeting only with procrastination and inconsistency on the part of the Chinese, he broke off the negotiations and announced his intention of returning to Japan. But at this stage the British minister in Peking mediated between the two empires, and the Chinese finally agreed to pay 100,000 taels to the families of the murdered Japanese subjects and 400,000 taels indemnity to Japan for the cost of the expedition, undertaking at the same time to prevent the recurrence of similar outrages in Formosa. [Illustration: ISLAND POSSESSIONS OF JAPAN]