200 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



places respectively as Goat and Hog islands. When the English visited and took possession of the 

 Bonins, the date of the visit and the act of approjjriation were duly engraved upon a copper 

 plate which was nailed to a tree, but the plate and the tree are no longer there, and the only 

 evidence of British possession is the occasional hoisting of the English flag on one of the 

 neighboring hills, a duty that was originally delegated to a wandering Englishman who chanced 

 to be on the spot. It is now considered merely a signal to be hoisted on the arrival of a vessel. 

 No government is recognized by the inhabitants, who declare that they have no need of any 

 foreign control, as they can take good care of themselves. 



In the year following the visit of Captain Beechey, a Captain Lutke of the Kussian navy 

 arrived and went through very much the same ceremony of taking jJossession and of otherwise 

 aj)proj)riating as his English predecessor. 



It is quite clear that the Japanese were the first discoverers of these islands. They probably 

 settled and then subsequently abandoned them. It is possible that the early Spanish, Portuguese, 

 and Dutch navigators may have been acquainted with the Bonins, and in later years they have 

 been visited occasionally by the Americans, English, and Russians. The fact of a Spanish visit 

 would seem to be proved by the name of Arzobispo or Archbishop, by which the islands are 

 sometimes distinguished. One of the inhabitants reported that he recollected, on his arrival on 

 the spot, that there was a board on a tree which recorded the first Russian visit. Neither of the 

 European nations have as yet made any attempt at colonization. 



In 1830, several Americans and Europeans came to the Bonins from the Sandwich Islands, 

 accompanied by various natives — men and women — of that country. 



The leaders of this adventure were five men, two originally from the United States — 

 Nathaniel Savory and Aldin B. Chapin, of Massachusetts — one from England of the name of 

 Richard Mildtchamp, one Charles Johnson, of Denmark, and the fifth a Genoese known as 

 Mattheo Mazara. The only one of these remaining on the island during the visit of 

 Commodore Perry was Nathaniel Savory, an American. Mildtchamp still survives, but has 

 taken up his residence at Guam, one of the Ladrone islands. The Genoese, Mazara, is dead, 

 and Savory has married his widow, a jjretty and young native of Guam, by whom he has 

 offspring. Savory occupies himself with the culture of a little farm, which is tolerably 

 productive. He also carries on a trade in sweet potatoes of his own raising and in a rum of 

 his own distillation from sugar cane, with the whaling ships which frequent the place ; and he 

 had prosecuted his business with such success as to accumulate, at one time, several thousands 

 of dollars. These he deposited in the ground, when, some three or four years since, a schooner 

 arrived under the American flag, bringing a few worthless scoundrels, who ingratiated 

 themselves, under the pretence of great friendship, with the old man, who was thus induced 

 to make them the confidants of his success, and of its proof which he had stored away. These 

 villains, after living for several months on terms of great intimacy and confidence with Savory, 

 left the island, having first robbed their benefactor of all his money, despoiled his household 

 of a couple of young women, whom they took away with them, carried off his journal, and 

 wantonly injured his property. Fortunately for justice, the guilty party were afterwards 

 arrested at Honolulu, but the captive women expressed themselves quite contented with their 

 lot, and declared tliat they had no desire to return. As for the money, it was not learned 

 whether that was ever recovered or not. 



The islands of Benin are high, bold^ and rocky, and are evidently of volcanic formation. 



