PACIFIC AND BEERING'S STRAIT. IQl 



Japanese. In other respects they resemble the Chi- 

 nese. The hatchee-matchee and the hair-pins are, 

 I believe, confined to their own conntry, though smaller 

 metal hair-pins are worn by the ladies of Japan*. On 

 the whole they appear to be a more amiable people 

 than cither the Chinese or Japanese, though they are 

 not without the vices natural to mankind, nor free from 

 those which characterise the inhabitants of the above 

 mentioned countries. They have all the politeness, 

 affability, and ceremony of the Chinese, with more 

 honesty and ingenuousness than is generally possessed 

 by those people ; and they are less warlike, cruel, and 

 obsequious than the Japanese, and perhaps less sus- 

 picious of foreigners than those people appear to be. 

 In their intercourse with foreigners their conduct ap- 

 pears to be governed by the same artful policy as that 

 of both China and Japan, and we found they would 

 likewise sometimes condescend to assert an untruth 

 to serve their purpose ; and so apparent was this 

 deceitfulness, that some among us were led to impute 

 their extreme civility, and their generosity to strangers, 

 to impure motives. They are exceedingly timorous and 

 effeminate, so much so that I can fancy they would be 

 induced to grant almost any thing they posssess rather 

 than go to war ; and, as one of my officers justly 

 observes in his journal, had a party insisted upon en- 

 tering the town, they would probably have submitted 

 in silence, treated them with the greatest politeness, 

 and by some plausible pretext have got rid of them as 

 soon as they could. 



They appear to be peaceable and happy, and the 

 lower orders to be as free from distress as those of any 



* See LangsdorfF's Travels, vol. ii. 



