were joined by the Japanese Naniwa and the British HMS Champion. On January 11, 1894, Willis revealed the invasion to be a hoax. After the arrival of the Corwin, the provisional government and citizens of Hawaii were ready to rush to arms if necessary, but it was widely believed that Willis's threat of force was a bluff. On December 16, the British Minister to Hawaii was given permission to land marines from HMS Champion for the protection of British interests; the ship's captain predicted that the U.S. military would restore the Queen and Sovereign ruler (Lili'uokalani). In a November 1893 meeting with Willis, Lili'uokalani said she wanted the revolutionaries punished and their property confiscated, despite Willis's desire for her to grant them amnesty. In a December 19, 1893, meeting with the leaders of the provisional government, Willis presented a letter by Liliuokalani in which she agreed to grant the revolutionaries amnesty if she were restored as queen. During the conference, Willis told the provisional government to surrender to Liliuokalani and allow Hawaii to return to its previous condition, but the leader of the provisional government, President Sanford Dole, refused, claiming that he was not subject to the authority of the United States. The Blount Report was followed in 1894 by the Morgan Report, which contradicted Blount's report by concluding that all participants except for Queen Lili'uokalani were "not guilty". On January 10, 1894, U.S. Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham announced that the settlement of the situation in Hawaii would be up to Congress, following Willis's unsatisfactory progress. Cleveland said that Willis had carried out the letter of his directions rather than their spirit. Domestic response to Willis's and Cleveland's efforts was largely negative. The New York Herald wrote, "If Minister Willis has not already been ordered to quit meddling in Hawaiian affairs and mind his own business, no time should be lost in giving him emphatic instructions to that effect." The New York World wrote: "Is it not high time to stop the business of interference with the domestic affairs of foreign nations? Hawaii is 2000 miles from our nearest coast. Let it alone." The New York Sun said: "Mr. Cleveland lacks ... the first essential qualification of a referee or arbitrator." The New York Tribune called Willis's trip a "forlorn and humiliating failure to carry out Mr. Cleveland's outrageous project." The New York Recorder wrote, "The idea of