CORRESPONDENCE TOUCniNG THE BONIN ISLANDS. 305 



The following are the copies of the letter of the Navy Department and the Commodore's 

 answer, which latter was necessarily hurried, as it was written and dispatched by the pilot after 

 the squadron was fairly under way and standing out of port: 



Secretary of the Navy to Commodore Perry. 



Navy Departmex-t, October 28, 1853. 

 Sm: For some months past, the department indulged the hope of being able to dispatch a 

 steamer to China, to be at the service of the commissioner representing our government, and to 

 afford him facilities for accomplishing the great purposes of his mission, rendered much more 

 interesting and important by the startling revolutionary movements in that covmtry. The 

 United States steamer Princeton was especially set apart for that purpose. But the steamers 



abundance and a few cattle ; tiiat he grew Indian corn and many vetjetables, and had all kinds of tropical fruits; that, in fact, 

 he could supply fresh provisions and vegetables to forty vessels annually. 



" Mr. Mazarro, who, in virtue of his first arrival, receives the appellation of governor, finds the task of governing even this 

 little colony no easy matter. He applied to me for assistance in this task, and thankfully received the following document, 

 which I drew up for his assistance and moral support; 



"'I hereby certify that Mr. Matthew Mazarro was one of the origmal leaders of the expedition fitted up from this port, 

 under the protection of Richard Charlton, esq., her Majesty's consul, to colonize the Bonin Islands; and I would intimate to 

 the masters of all whaling vessels touching at that group, that the said Mazzaro is a sober and discreet man, and recommend 

 them to support him by all means in their power against the troublers of the peace of that distant settlement, recommending, 

 also, to the settlers to receive Mr. Mazarro as their head, until some officer directly appointed by her Britannic Majesty is 

 placed over them.' 



"ALEX. SIMPSON, 

 " H. B. M. .Acting Consul for the Sandwich Islmids. 



" God save the queen. 



"A small body of enterprising emigrants would find this group a most admirable place for settlement. Its colonization, 

 indeed, I consider to be a national object." 



True copy : H. N. LAY. 



United States Steam Frigate Susquehanna, 



Hong Kong, December 23, 1853. 



Sm : Referring to the conversation which I yesterday had the honor of holding with your excellency, as also to your written 

 communication, with accompanying papers, this moment received, I beg to remark that the account given by Mr. Simpson is 

 far from being correct. 



That gentleman has omitted to name all the white persons who embarked in the enterprise to form a settlement upon Peel 

 Island. The names and places of birth of these men may be enumerated as follows : 



Mateo Mazarro, the leader, a native of Genoa ; Nathaniel Savory, born in Massachusetts, United States ; Alden B. Chapin, 

 also a native of Massachusetts ; John Millechamp, a British subject, and Charles Johnson, a Dane. 



These five men, accompanied by about twenty-five or thirty natives of the Sandwich Islands, male and female, landed at Port 

 Lloyd in the summer of 1830. Of the whites, Nathaniel Savory is the only one remaining on the island. Mazarro, Chapin, 

 and Johnson, are dead, as I am informed ; and Millechamp is now residing at Guam, one of the Ladrone group. 



It would, therefore, appear, that so far as the nationality of the settlers could apply to the question of sovereicrntv, the 

 Americans were as two to one, compared with the three others, who were subjects of different sovereigns. 



Since the first occupation of the island, the early settlers have been occasionally joined by white persons landinn- from 

 whaling ships, some few of whom have remained ; and, at the time of my visit there were, I think, about eight whites in 

 the settlement. 



These people, after my departure, met together and established a form of municipal government, electing Nathaniel Savory 

 their chief magistrate, and James Maitley and Thomas H. Webb, councilmen. 



With respect to any claim of sovereignty that may be founded upon the right of previous discovery, there is abundant evi- 

 dence to prove that these islands were known to navigators as early as the middle of the si.steenth century, and were visited by 

 the Japanese in 1675, who gave them the name of " Bune Sima." — (See enclosed extracts.) 



In 1823, three years before the visit of Captain Beechey, in H. M. ship "Blossom," the group was visited by a Captain 

 Coffin, in the American whaling ship "Transit."* 



*I hare ascertained the name of this vessel from a Captain Morris, commanding an American whaling ship now in this port. 



,3 written 

 timony it 



39 J 



Since the above was written, the Commodore has taken pains to procure evidence, on oath, that Coffin was born in the United States. As to the ship 

 he haa no further testimony than that stated above. 



