re sunk. Of nine auxiliary cruisers, four were sunk
and one was captured; while, of nine destroyers, one, the _Biedovy_, was
captured with Admiral Rojdestvensky, seriously wounded, on board, and
four were sunk. Twenty-six of the thirty-eight craft which composed the
much-vaunted Baltic Fleet were thus accounted for. Of the remaining
twelve, three--the small cruiser _Almaz_ and the _Grosny_ and _Bravy_,
destroyers, succeeded in making their way to Vladivostock, while the
remainder escaped to Manilla, Shanghai, and Madagascar, where--with the
exception of the auxiliary cruiser _Anadyr_, at Madagascar--they were
duly disarmed and interned.

I had fully made up my mind that with the destruction of the Russian
Baltic Fleet the war must of necessity come to an end. But I was
mistaken; no overtures of peace were made by Russia, and it was not to
be expected that, after her signal triumphs on land and sea, Japan would
jeopardise her prospects of securing a satisfactory settlement by being
the first to open negotiations; therefore, in pursuance of their land
campaign, it was decided to attack the Russians from the north by way of
the great river Amur, which the Japanese had ascertained was navigable
by light-draught vessels for at least a thousand miles during the late
spring, when the thaw and the spring rains caused the river to run full.
But in order to utilise the Amur it was imperatively necessary that
Japan should have control of the island of Sakhalin; accordingly, on
24th June a fleet of warships, under Admirals Kataoka and Dewa,
assembled at Yokohama, from whence a few days later they sailed,
convoying a fleet of transports, aboard which were one of the newly
raised army divisions, under the command of General Haraguchi.

My ship, the _Yakumo_, was one of the warships detailed for this
expedition, and naturally I went with her. Space does not permit of my
giving the details of this expedition, which was not at all of an
eventful character; suffice it to say that it attained its object,
Sakhalin becoming ours on 31st July 1905.

Meanwhile, however, after the result of the battle of Tsushima became
known, President Roosevelt decided that the time had arrived when the
friendly intervention of a perfectly disinterested Power, such as the
United States of America, might be welcome to both belligerents;
accordingly, on 8th June, he opened negotiations by dispatching an
identical Note to the Emperor of Japan and the Tsa