I DO NOT KNOW who was the first Englishman to land in Ezo or Hokkaido, but among the first to pass the shores of Hokkaido were the British explorers of the Pacific in the late eighteenth century. Among these was Captain William Robert Broughton who, in 1797, surveyed the Ryukyu Islands, the south coast of Kyushu and the coast of Honshu as far as the Tsugaru Straits. Before this, the British, the Europeans and the Americans, and most Japanese too, had little idea of the geography of Northern Japan. They thought of Matsumae as a small island and Ezo as perhaps part of the Asian Continent!

The British officially came to Hokkaido in October 1859 when the first British Minister, Rutherford Alcock, accompanied to the post of Hakodate the first British Consul, Mr. Pemberton Hodgson, and his family. The British party arrived in HMS Highflyer. They found Hakodate a bleak fishing village with about a thousand houses and 6,000 inhabitants, mostly very7 poor. The main street was little more than a collection of huts and shops, mostly one storey buildings with roofs held down by pebbles and boulders. There were only four temples. Three were already occupied by Russians and the fourth was destined for the new Governor. Alcock and Hodgson were unwilling to accept the hut offered them and eventually obtained a lease on the temple destined for the Governor who was forced to share with his predecessor.

Hodgson records that at the British Minister's dinner with the Governor, the British band played various martial tunes but also Annie Laurie and Ye Banks and Braes. These had ‘a wonderful effect’. The Governor, who beat time with the music, said that he had never heard such music before. Local inhabitants crowded round to hear the barbarian orchestra.

Alcock was reasonably optimistic about the commercial value of the treaty port of Hakodate. There was a secure and accessible harbour and a good anchor age. He found the people friendly and quiet. There was plenty of salmon and potatoes, as well as pheasant and wild duck. Bear, otter, and deer skins were for sale and there was sulphur and lead. William Keswick of Jardine Matheson & Co. who had visited Hakodate earlier was less optimistic.