1827. 



PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. 211 



and if we can credit the charts of the Japanese, it has chap. 

 been inhabited some time, as several villages and tern- <. '^ 

 pies are marked therein. The Loo Chooans, how- May, 

 ever, could give me no information of it, or of any 

 other islands lying to the eastward of their own, and 

 were quite surprised at hearing a Japanese vessel* 

 had been cast away upon an island in that direction. 



The groups of islands seen in the distance to the 

 westward of Loo Choo are called by the natives Kir- 

 rama and Agoo-gnee. Kirrama consists of four 

 islands, Zammamee, Accar, Ghirooma, and Toocast- 

 chee, of which all but the last are very small. Agoo- 

 gnee consists of two small islands, Aghee and Homar. 

 Both groups are peopled from and are subject to Loo 

 Choo. Kirrama has four mandarins, one of the higher 

 order, and three inferior ; and Agoo-gnee two of the 

 latter. The islands are very scantily peopled : in 

 Toocastchee, which is the largest, there are but five 

 hundred houses. The small coral islands off Napa- 

 kiang are called Tzee. 



To the northward of Loo Choo there are two 

 islands, from which supplies are occasionally received ; 

 Ooshima,-|~ of which I have spoken before as being 

 subject to Loo Choo, and Yacoo-chima, a colony of 

 Japan. Ooshima produces an abundance of rice, and 

 as in dry seasons in Loo Choo this valuable grain some- 

 times fails, Yacoo-chima junks, which appear to be the 

 great carriers to Loo Choo, go there and load. Ya- 

 coo-chima is said to be an island of great extent, but 

 the chart which An-yah drew to show its situation 



* See Ksempfer's History of Japan. 



t Probably O-foushima of Supao-Koang, situated in latitude 

 300 N. 



P 2 



