Attack on the British Minister in Japan.
The attempt to murder the
British Minister to
Japan, on the 5th of July, of which we have already published a brief telegraphic notice, was a deliberate and skillfully planned affair.
The assassins entered the old temple near Yeddo, inhabited by the Legation, at a late hour of the night, when nearly all of the dozen members of the household had retired.
Mr. Oliphant, the
Secretary of Legation, was about going to bed, when he heard a noise in the court.
On stepping out from his room he was confronted by a man in armor, having a drawn sword in his hand, with which he wounded
Mr. O. in the arm. The latter called for help, and discharged a pistol at his assailant, but the ball fell back flattened from the cuirass which the latter wore.
A second assailant then struck at the
Secretary, slightly wounding him on the forehead.
The whole household was now aroused, and assembled in one room, prepared to meet their fate, for their side arms were not immediately at hand.
The New York
Tribune's correspondent describes the events that followed:
‘
"The band of assassins, who appear to have entered the house at different points, were now heard in the bed-rooms, with loud outcries, cutting and slashing at everything within reach.
Lamps were knocked into fragments, mosquito nettings slashed into ribbons, the mattresses pierced through and through, and even the bed-posts hewn asunder in their attacks in the dark upon, as they hoped their still sleeping victims.
"An apartment's breadth and paper screens only separated them from these intended victims.
The household guards furnished by the Japanese, of whom there are in all nearly three hundred, were now aroused from their stations in and about the premises, and for the first time in two years experience, came to the rescue of the foreigner.
The attention of the assassins was now directed to their assailants.
A short, sharp, and fierce conflict ensued between the guards and assailants, carried on with long, powerful two handed swords, and which resulted in the repulse of the latter and their expulsion from the premises, leaving two of their number dead, and a third mortally wounded.
‘"It appeared subsequently that this band of desperadoes numbered fourteen.
On the day following the attack information was received that four of the assailants who had been wounded were at a tea-house in the Sinagawa suburbs.
A police force proceeded thither and surrounded the house.
The men seeing all hope of escape cut off attempted
hari Kari.--Three succeeded in ripping themselves open, but the fourth was arrested before effecting his purpose.
One of this party had his forearm lopped off in the fray of the night previous."’
’
