198 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



barques having been forced, in a storm, from the island Fatscyo, from which place they computed 

 it to be three hundred Japanese miles distant, toward the east. They met with no inhabitants, 

 but found it to be a very pleasant and fruitful country, well supplied with fresh water, and 

 fiirnished w^th plenty of plants and trees, particularly the arrack tree, which, however, might 

 give room to the conjecture that the island lay rather to the south of Japan than to the east, as 

 these trees grow only in hot countries. The Japanese marked it as an uninhabited place, but 

 they found upon its shores an incredible quantity of fish and crabs, ''some of which were from 

 four to six feet long." The description of Ktempfer, as well as that of an original Japanese 

 writer, given in the note below, was found by Commodore Perry to correspond exactly with the 

 present appearance of the island. The arrack, or areca tree, alluded to in the extract, is found 

 upon Peel Island.* 



* Extract from Klaprotli's translation of San Kokp Tsoir Ran To Sits. 



" The original name of these islands is O-gasa-wara-sima, but they are commonly called Mon-nin-sima, (in Chinese, Wu-jin- 

 ton,) or the islands without people, and this is the name which I have adopted in my work. That of O-gasa-wSra-sima, or the 

 O-gasa-wara islands, was given to them afler the navigator who first visited them, and who prepared a map of them. In the 

 same manner has the southern part of the New World been called Magalania, (Magellan,) who first discovered it some two 

 hundred j'ears since. 



" The Bonin islands are found 270 ri to the southeasterly of the province of Idsu. From Simoda, in that principality, it is 13 

 ri to the island of Myake; from thence to Sin-sima or New island, seven ri; from Sin-sima to Mikoura, five ri; from thence to 

 Fatsicio or Fatiho, (Fatsisio,) 41 ri; and, lastly, from this to the most northern of the uninhabited islands, it is reckoned to be 

 180 ri; and to the most southerly 200 ri. 



" This archipelago lies in the 27th degree of north latitude. The climate is warm, and makes the valleys lying between the 

 high mountains, watered by rivulets, to be very fertile, so that they produce beans, wheat, millet, grain of all kinds, and sugar 

 cane. The tree called Nankin, faze or tallow tree (Stillingia sebifera) grows there, and likewise the wax tree. The fishery is 

 good, and might be made very productive. 



" Many plants and trees grow in these islands, but there are very few quadrupeds. There are trees so large that a man can- 

 not embrace them with his arms, and which are frequently thirty Chinese fathoms in height, (or 240 feet.) Their wood is hard 

 and beautiful. There are also some very high trees resembling tlie siou-ro-tsoung-liu, or chamarops excelsa, cocoa nuts, areca 

 palms, that tree whose nuts are called pe-eouan-tsy in Chinese, the katsirau, the red sandal wood, the tou-mou, the camphor, 

 tub figs of the mountains, a high tree whose leaves resemble those of the ground ivy, the cinnamon tree, mulberry, and some 

 others. 



" Among the plants the smilax China, (or China root,) called san-ke-rei, the to-ke, a medicinal herb called assa-ghion-keva, 

 and others are to be reckoned. 



" Among birds there are different species of parokeets, cormorants, partridges, and some resembling white sea-mews, but 

 more than three feet long. All these birds have so little wildness that they can be taken with the hand. 



" The chief productions of the mineral kingdom in this archipelago are alum, green vitriol, stones of different colors, petri- 

 factions, &c. 



"Whales are found in the sea, also huge crawfish, enormous shells, and echini, which are called 'gall of the sea.' The 

 ocean here is unusually rich in various products. 



"]n the third year of the reign Ghen-Fo, (1675,) Simaye Sagheraon, Biso Saghemon, and Simaye Dairo Saghemon, three 

 inhabitants of Nagasaki, took a sea voyage to the principality of Idsu. They were embarked in a large junk, built by a skillful 

 Chinese carpenter. These three men were well acquainted with astronomy and geograph}', and accompanied by Fatobe, tlie 

 chief sliip-carpenter of the port of Yedo, who dwelt in the lane of nets. The vessel was xuanaged by thirty sailors. Having 

 obtained a passport from the imperial marine, tliey left the harbor of Simoda, the 5th day of tiie 4th moon, and steered for the 

 island of Fatsio. From thence they sailed towards the southeast and discovered a group of eighty islands. They drew up a 

 map and an e.\act account of them, in which are some curious details respecting the situation, climate, and productions of this 

 archipelago. They returned the 20th day of the 6th moon, in the same year, to Simoda, where Simaye published an account of 

 his voyage. 



"It is singular that this writer makes no mention of the swift current, kuro-se-gaw, which is experienced between the islands 

 of Mikura and Fatsio. Its breadth exceeds twenty matze, (about half a ri,)and it flows with great swiftness from east to west,(o) 

 about one hundred ri. This omission would be inexplicable if this current was not much less rapid in summer and autumn than 

 it is in winter and spring. Simaye, in his passage to the Bonin islands, passed it in the first part of the intercalary month, 

 which succeeds the fourth moon ; on his return, the latter part of the sixth moon, he should have found the currents less rapid, 

 and thus his attention was not called to this dangerous passage." 



" The largest of the eighty islands is fifteen ri in circuit, and thus is a little less than Iki island in size. Another is ten ri in 

 circumference, and about the size of Amakusa island. Besides these two there are eight others which are from two to six and 



(ri) The writer In deecrtbing the direction of the omTent Ii miBtalcen. 



