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overlordship of the Barbarian Island.” The area under his direct control was small, extending south from a line between the present Hakodate and Kumaishi, along which guard-houses were placed. Outside these limits no attempt was made at administration or settlement. The country beyond, about which very little was known, was regarded barbarian territory"; but stations were marked out at various points (nearly all coastal), and trading patents or licences issued to certain merchants, calle
contractors," at those stations, who carried on barter with the natives or employed them in fisheries, paying to the Matsumae a tax for this monopoly. The Matsuma rulers were not concerned with the development of the island. They went so far, no doubt in support of the monopolies they had granted, as to prevent immigration to the native territory, and the merchants at the trading stations would suffer no independent persons to enter their concessions. All arrivals from the mainland, too, were interrogated and medically inspected at the ports (Matsumae, Esashi, Hakodate, &c.). Unless they had a guarantor on shore they were not permitted to land. Even then they were treated in theory as travellers and liable to a yearly tax as such. It appears, however, that the strictness relaxed at times. After periods of famine in north-east Japan-and they were frequent-farmers from the distressed districts would secretly cross over to Yezo, so that the Japanese population did in effect increase, though very slowly. Thus it is stated to liave been 20,816 in 1701 and 26,508 in 1785. Some placer-mining and a little tin:ber-felling is stated to have been carried on by the Matsumnae family, and a rough survey of the island made by his emissaries who penetrated as far as Saghalien. Though during a long period-two centuries-no real progress was made with development, the Ainus were now on the whole in subjection, and the way paved for further colonial enterprise.
In 1785 the Tokugawa Government sent officials to inspect Yezo. The reports of these officers, who found that the Russians were gradually encroaching on Saghalien and working southwards, drew the attention of the Government to the need of defending as well as developing the island. In 1799 the Shogunate took over from
· Matsumae the control of the Eastern Barbarian Territory," that is, roughly, the territory east of Shiriuchi, a very small tract being left to the Matsumae family. A map of this territory was prepared by the celebrated cartographer Ino Chukei in 1800. Government offices were established, with Hakodate as headquarters, and immigration was encouraged. Among the new tinmigrants were some of the Tokugawa bannermen. The system of trading stations and monopolies in the district near Hakodate was abolished, and the whole of the east, including the Kuriles, thrown open to settlers, who were brought under official auspieces from Nambu Echigo and other provinces. Later, in 1807, the remaining ** Barbarian Territory
19 was taken over, so that the whole of the island was now in theory under direct Tokugawa adminis- tration. In practice, however, the policy of colonising was not actively pursued, so that only a few districts received a marked influx of settlers, chiefly of the eastern territory," and there for the most part on the littoral of Volcano Bay. Repeated incursions of Russians into the Kuriles and Saghalien appear to have alarmed the Shogunate at this time. They spent large sums in military preparation and adopted altogether a negative defensive policy witli regard to the island. In 1821 they actually went so far as to place the government once more in the hands of the Matsumar family with a proviso that the Tokugawa codes should be followed. Matsumae took his duties very lightly, In fact he did nothing. The system of trading stations and monopolies was revived in the East. This system actually discouraged the settlement of immigrants, for the holders of the concessions were opposed to farming, since it interfered with the supply of labour for the fisheries.
After more than thirty years-in 1855, when Perry had arranged that Hakodate should be one of the open ports-the Shogunate again assumed control of the whole island, excepting the immediate domain of Matsumae. The Governor was appointed, to reside at Ilakodate. Men from the clans of Nambu, Tsugaru, Akita, Sendai, &c., were sent to garrison and settle the island (most of them returned to their homes when the revolution broke out), and in general an attempt was made to develop the island by road-making and the encouragement of immigration. Farmers were brought from the mainland, and supplied with housing, tools, and food for two or three years. But conditions were not attractive, communications were bad, and the agricultural possibilities of the country at that time were small; so that there was no general influx of settlers. How slowly immigrants had spread previous to 1855 can be gauged from the fact that, until that year, an old custom, apparently based on some Ainu tradition, had forbidden women and children to pass Kamui-zaki, so that the whole of the fertile region of the Ishikari valley was closed to settlement, until one Nashimoto,
a Bakufu official, with his wife and family broke the tabu and passed over the Cape. He was soon followed by fishermen and small traders, who began to make their homes in the districts of Sapporo and Otaru. Here and elsewhere the contractors were deprived of their concessions.
The Bakufu's attempts at colonisation were, it has been seen, not very successful; The clansmen all and were brought to a close by the political crisis at Yedo, withdrew to take their part in the settlement of the nationa! problem, and the Govern- ment's attention was diverted to more urgent matters.
In the first year of Meiji the new Imperial Government devised an administrative scheme for the island, but got no further, for Yezo now became the scene of Enomoto's stand on behalf of the Shogunate. In fact, for the brief period during which he was able to keep the upper hand over the forces of the Government and Matsumac, Yezo was a republic, with Bromoto as President and his companions in arms as Ministers. The rebellion once subdued, a Development Commission, known as the "Kaitakushi," was formed in July of the second year of Meiji, and the government of the island, now named the Hokkaido, established at Hakodate, and later at Sapporo, In 1871 one of the commissioners returned from America, having secured there the services as adviser of General Horace Capron, with several foreiga assistants, and bringing back a variety of agricultural machinery and tools, livestock, plants, seeds, &c., to be used in the development of Hokkaido resources. The schemes, which now included Saghalien, was drawn up to cover a period of ten years from 1872. The funds at the disposal of the Commission were to consist of an annual Government grant of 10,000,000 yen, together with such revenues as were derived by the Commission (which was at the same time the Administration) from taxation and similar sources. In addition, to meet initial expenditure, convertible bonds were issued for 2,500,000 yen, and a further 1,000,000 yen lent by the Treasury. The task before the Commission was a difficult one. With limited funds they had to survey the island, and to discover what were its resources, while it was necessary at the same time to construct roads, to improve transport, to build offices and workshops, to attract and assist settlers, and to General start new industries. They appear to have made but a middling success. Capron and his assistants worked hard, but, to judge from their reports, they had to contend with obstacles which in the end proved insuperable. Their advice, even on technical points, was accepted only when palatable. Capron was left in the dark as to the Commission's intentions, and, he asserts, hampered by a lack of frank and willing co-operation on the part of his Japanese colleagues. He even has to protest against exorbitant charges made by the Commission for the personal supplies of his staff. Money was denied to undertakings he considered of prime importance, and wasted on unnecessary objects, such as the upkeep of tribes of superfluous officials and the building of their quarters. In 1875 it became evident that the Commission's policy, or at least its method, was unsuccessful, and general retrenchment was needed. General Capron's engagement was terminated, and work continued on a much more modest scale. It is only fair to the foreign staff to say that most of the under- takings for which they were responsible prospered, and have left their mark on the Hokkaido; as most of the schemes to which they were opposed ended in failure. They made valuable trigonometrical and geological surveys, and investigated the mineral and vegetable resources of the island; introduced suitable methods of farming and stock-breeding; and supervised town-planning (as at Sapporo, which is a well laid-out city to-day), and the construction of roads and canals. The Commission was dissolved in 1851. Though, in part through inefficiency and in part through lack of funds, they certainly failed to carry out the ambitious schemes with which they commenced, they did make, in the decade of their administration, more progress than had ever been made before with the development of the island. It is interesting to see what results they were able to show.
Their first problem was to induce settlers to come to the Hokkaido, and, up to a certain point, they were successful. Immigrant farmers and artisans were materially assisted,* aud at first settlers arrived in fairly large numbers, even from such distant provinces as Hizen and Higo. Men of the Aidzu and Saga clans, and members of such families as Date, Katakura, &c., with their retainers, established themselves in the areas which had been placed under their ward and control when Enomoto was over- come. Deprived of that control in 1871, most of them left the island, since they had no longer the support of a vested interest; but some, such as the Date people, remained,
Thuse immigrating under Government auspices received, in the case of farmers, a house and furniture, farming implements, provisions for three years, and a payment for each tun of land broken up for cultivation. Artisaus received similar grants and independent immigrants were also helped.
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