MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



495 



from the shore, being fully re- 

 solved to obtain these articles by 

 force, in case the Japanese should 

 oppose the landing of Lieutenant 

 Rikord. But neither soldiers nor 

 any inhabitants were to be seen 

 in the village. Here Lieutenant 

 Rikord found only muddy rain- 

 water ; he, however, carried off 

 some wood, rice, and dried fish, 

 and left behind him various 

 European articles, which Alexei 

 declared to be far more valuable 

 than what he carried away. In 

 the afternoon curiosity induced 

 me to go ashore to try to discover 

 the plans of the Japanese, and I 

 was highly pleased to observe 

 that all the articles which Lieu- 

 tenant Rikord had left were re- 

 moved. The Japanese must, 

 therefore, have visited the shore 

 after his departure, and those who 

 occupied the fortress would thus 

 be convinced that plunder was 

 not our object. There were two 

 fishing villages on this side of the 

 harbour, and we observed every 

 necessary apparatus for fishing, 

 salting, drying and extracting 

 oil. The Japanese nets are ex- 

 cessively large, and every article 

 used by fishermen, such as boats, 

 buckets, vats for the oil, &c. were 

 all in astonishing good order. 



On the 8th of July we observed 

 a cask floating before the town ; 

 I immediately weighed anchor in 

 order to take it up. We found 

 that it contained a little box 

 wrapped up in several pieces of 

 oil-cloth. The box contained 

 three papers; one of which was a 

 Japanese letter which we could 

 not read, and the other two were 

 drawings. Both these sketches 

 irepresented the harbour, the 

 eastle, our sloop, the cask with a 



boat rowing towards it, and the 

 rising sun, but with this difference, 

 that in one the guns of the castle 

 were firing, whilst in the other 

 the muzzles of the cannon were 

 turned backwards. We were a 

 longtime occupied in considering 

 these hieroglyphics, and each 

 explained them after his own 

 way ; but this will not be thought 

 wonderful, as the same thing 

 frequently happens among greater 

 scholars. We all, however, agreed 

 in one thing, namely, that the 

 Japanese declined holding inter- 

 course with us. 



For my own part I interpreted 

 these drawings in the following 

 manner : I supposed the Japanese 

 to mean that, though they had 

 not fired upon us when they 

 observed us sending off the cask, 

 yet if we attempted to send out 

 another, they would immediately 

 fire upon it. We then got under 

 way and stood over to the mouth 

 of a little river on the western 

 side of the harbour, where we 

 cast anchor. I now sent out some 

 armed boats in quest of fresh 

 water. The seamen continued at 

 work all day on the shore without 

 experiencing any opposition from 

 the Japanese ; they merely sent out 

 some Kuriles from the castle, 

 who at the distance of about half 

 a werst observed the motions of 

 our crew. On the following 

 morning, the 9lh of July, our 

 boats again went ashore ; a Kurile 

 immediately came out of the 

 castle, and approached them with 

 a very slow pace, and an air of 

 extreme apprehension. In one 

 hand he held a wooden crucifix, 

 and with the other continually 

 crossed himself as he advanced 

 towards the shore. He had lived 



for 



