INHABITANTS OF TEE KURILS. 17 



Russians, " who had landed on Yetorup in hopes of being allowed to 

 trade," * so irritated the Russians, that reprisals, taking the form of 

 raids upon Yetorup and Saghalin, were entered upon. 



In one of these raids the castle of Shana was captured and 

 burnt, the stores and treasures carried away, and also some 

 prisoners. The two Russian ships were under the command of 

 Lieut. ChivostofF. The Japanese garrison made little or no resist- 

 ance, and fled into the hills, where the officer in command com- 

 mitted hara-lciri to wipe out his disgrace. 



The islands to the north-east of Yetorup, when under Russian 

 rule, were more or less peopled with Ainu tribes, with whom were 

 mixed a few Aleuts and natives of Southern Kamchatka. 



In 1878, when I first visited these northern members of the 

 Kuril chain, I found natives living on Urup, Ushishir, Rashau, and 

 Shumshir. Previous to that time several more of the islands were 

 inhabited. There are old villages containing from ten to thirty dwell- 

 ings on Simushir, Matau, Kharimkotan, Shiashkotan, Onekotan, and 

 Paramushir. Besides these, there are the remains of a few pit 

 dwellings or yiirts on Ketoi, Ekarma, and Alaid; these, however, 

 were probably only used by hunting-parties from the larger settle- 

 ments, and were not permanently occupied. 



When the exchange of these islands for Southern Saghalin 

 took place, those natives who wished to remain Russian subjects 

 were removed to Russian territory ; those who elected to remain 

 on the islands in their old homes became subject to Japan. 



All these northern natives, besides their own language — an Ainu 

 dialect said to be similar to that of the Saghalin Ainu — spoke 

 Russian more or less fluently. All were professedly Christians 

 belonging to the Greek Church. Russian priests now and then 

 visited them, and on Shumshir, at the village of Mairuppo, there 

 was a church built of pine boards brought from America. At this 

 village there was, in 1878, a substantial storehouse built of wood. 



* On one of my northern cruises, I fell in with a native of the island of Urup who 

 spoke English fairly well. He had made a voyage to San Francisco in a trading 

 vessel which happened to visit his island on one occasion. He told me, amongst other 

 things, that many years before the Urup nations used to make trips across to Yetorup 

 to hunt sea-otters, which were very numerous there. These expeditions were objected 

 to by the Yetorup people, and occasional fights took place. Some of the Urup natives 

 were captured and held prisoners. These probably were the " fourteen Russians who 

 landed in hopes of being allowed to trade." 



C 



