Born on the 25th of August 1836 at Yedo, Enomoto Buyo was sent by the Tokugawa Government as a young naval officer to study in Holland, and he was in Europe for several years, ultimately returning to Japan on board the _Kai-yo Maru_, as she was named, a corvette built at Amsterdam to the order of the Shogunate. With him returned several of the students who had been despatched in 1862 and 1863 to Europe for purposes of study, some sent by their clans, and some by the Bakufu. Ito Shunsuke and Inouye Bunda, two of the number, had, as is elsewhere recorded, returned some years previously, in consequence of trouble in their native province of Choshiu. The _Kai-yo Maru_ reached Japan in 1866, and she was a formidable addition to the fleet of six vessels already possessed by the Shogun’s Government. Being a native of Yedo he was of course one of the Bakufu supporters, and when the troubles of 1867 began, and which were to culminate in the fall of the Tokugawa family from power, Admiral Enomoto was loyal to his chief, Prince Keiki, and fought strenuously for his side in the War of the Restoration. [Illustration: ADMIRAL ENOMOTO] When, on the result of the battle of Fushimi between the Tokugawa men and the Imperialist regiments belonging to Satsuma and Choshiu becoming known at Osaka, the Shogun recognised the impossibility of retrieving the fortunes of the day, his retainers procured a small boat for him at an adjacent wharf and he made his way to the vessels belonging to him,—three in number,—lying off Tempo-san, at the mouth of the river Yodo, on which the city of Osaka stands. He was quickly taken on board the _Kai-yo Maru_, Admiral Enomoto’s flagship, and she was next seen entering Kobé harbour with her consorts on the 26th January 1868, Prince Keiki being on board. Lying in Kobé were three Satsuma steamers, and the _Kai-yo Maru_ challenged them to combat by steaming round them and leading the way to the open sea. The contest took place in “Awa Bay” as it is termed, in reality the indentation of the coast facing Tokushima, the chief town of Awa province, close to the southern extremity of the island of Awaji, a few hours’ steam from Kobé. One of the Satsuma ships was sunk and another took fire. The three ships under Admiral Enomoto, one of which was the steam-yacht _Emperor_ which Queen Victoria had sent out as a present to the Shogun some time before, escaped with slight damage, and subsequently steamed to Yedo, where the Prince Tokugawa Keiki landed a week after the battle. The _Emperor_ yacht was best known by her Japanese name of _Banrio Maru_. Several of the clans at this period possessed foreign-built steamers, and the chieftain Shimadzu Saburo of Satsuma had purchased the _Fiery Cross_ in Yokohama as far back as 1862, as a present for his nephew the _daimio_ of Kagoshima. She had been handed over to her new owners in Yedo bay and navigated by them to the headquarters of the clan. The ships belonging to the several territorial barons were