222 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



Lew Ctew did not appear to be Chinese, and the common language of the country is not that 

 of the celestial empire, though Chinese is understood and spoken by some of the Lew Chewans 

 who are educated. As to any rights Japan may have, all we can say is, that the Japanese 

 commissioners informed Commodore Perry at a subsequent period, when he met them in con- 

 ference on the proposed points of a treaty, "that Lew Chew was a distant dependency, over which 

 the crown [of Japan] had limited control." It is also certain that most of the trade to Lew Chew 

 is carried on by Japanese junks. The testimony of the Lew Chewans themselves is contained in 

 the following extract of a letter addressed to Commodore Perry by the officials of Napha : ' ' Since 

 the days of the Ming dynasty it has been our great pride to be ranked as one of the outer depen- 

 dencies of China, and she has for ages given our king his investiture, and we have returned 

 whatever we could prepare for tribute ; nothing of great importance to our nation has trans- 

 pired but it has been made known to the Emperor. Whenever the time came for us to send up 

 the tribute, we there [in China] jjurchased silk and pongee to make suitable official robes and 

 caps for ourselves, and selected medicines and other things for the use of the state ; and if they 

 were not enough for our own use, then through the island of Tuchara we have intercourse 

 with a friendly and near nation, and exchange for our productions, as black sugar, saki, grass- 

 cloth, and other articles, things which we send to China as tribute." The friendly and near 

 nation alluded to is Japan. 



Dr. Bettelheim, who lived some years in Lew Chew, believed, for several good reasons, that 

 " the country, though independent to a certain extent, (its ruler being permitted, for a good 

 contribution to Pekin, to assume the high-sounding title of king,) yet is, to all ends and pur- 

 poses, an integral part of Japan." His reasons were briefly these : 



1. "There is a Japanese garrison quartered in Napha." It must not, however, be under- 

 stood that they show themselves openly, for the Lew Chewans pretend that they are an unwar- 

 like people, without military arms or accoutrements ; but Dr. Bettelheim accidentally came 

 upon a part of the garrison employed in cleaning their arms. 



2. The trade of Lew Cliew is entirely with Japan. If the island were a Chinese dependency 

 this would not be so. Japan sends annually thirty or forty junks to Lew Chew, of about four 

 hundred and fifty tons each ; only one Lew Chewan junk goes annually to China, and every 

 alternate year one more, said to carry tribute, but not a single Chinese junk is ever allowed to 

 enter Napha. 



3. The Japanese are to be found in numbers in Lew Chew, and stroll about as uninterruptedly 

 as the natives ; they intermarry with the Lew Chewans, cultivate lands, build houses in Napha, 

 and, in short, seem to be perfectly at home. But a Chinaman is as much hunted and spied 

 after, and pelted, and insulted as any other foreigner. This is strikingly confirmed by the 

 journal of one of our officers, who remarks, from facts that he was witness to : " They [the Lew 

 Chewans] are evidently quite as much opposed to intercourse with China as with all other nations, 

 notwithstanding the similarity, if not the identihj, of their religion, literature, and many of their 

 manners and customs. Indeed, they are de facto and de jure a part of Japan, and their motto 

 is, 'uncompromising non-intercourse with all the world.' " 



4. In all Dr. Bettelheim's intercourse with the Lew Chew authorities there were always 

 present, at least, two individuals, who, it was obvious, had the management of the meeting and 

 controlled the Lew Chew officials. These he conjectured to be Japanese inspectors. 



5. The language, dress, customs, virtues, and vices of Lew Chew correspond to those of Japan, 



