266 APPENDIX I. 



preferred to the field-pieces and go-ahead action of Commodore Perry. AVith 

 regard to the " wretchedness " of which the latter sjjeaks, I can only say that, 

 whatever may exist beneath the surface, none at least appeared to view 

 during our own visit. A more happy and laughter-loving people I have 

 rarely come across, and if the facial expression of the multitude is any guide 

 to its state of feeling, then the Liu-kiuans are probably, to use the expression 

 of a recent writer on the country, one of the few happy peoples still pros- 

 pering on the face of the earth. The question of absence of enforced labour 

 as a necessary factor in human happiness is best solved by those who are 

 acquainted Avith the present condition of the Southern States of America. 

 That it cannot always be answered in the affirmative, especially in the case 

 of races which are of an admittedly low type, is certain. Whether the Oo- 

 bang are ready for immediate emancipation is a different affair, but the 

 Japanese are not hard taskmasters, and as one of the most Eadical nations in 

 the world, are likely to render them such justice as they do not appear to 

 have experienced at the hands of their own literati. 



There have been many conjectures as to the origin of the present inhabitants 

 of the islands. To the possibility of a former race having existed I have 

 already alluded. The curious rock tombs discovered by the Americans 

 towards the north of the island were called by their guides " the houses of 

 the devil's men," and were apparently regarded as the work of some people 

 of whom they had no knowledge. The dug-out canoes still to be seen in the 

 islands are, without doubt, of Malayan origin, — a further corroboration of 

 which is evident from their being provided with wooden anchors weighted with 

 a large stone, which is a method identically similar to that emjiloyed in most 

 of the islands of the Malay Archipelago. The language at present spoken is 

 not siifficiently well known to prove the existence or absence of any words of 

 the Bisayan or other Philippine tongues. Broadly speaking, it appears to be 

 a dialect of the Japanese spoken in the Satsuma pro^dnce, — a district with 

 which intercoui"se is known to have been existent for centuries. Such at least 

 is Mr, Satow's opinion ^ after consulting a Liu-kiuan vocabulary ; and he also 

 mentions the fact that some of the embassy to Jajjan, with whom he had an 

 ojDportunity of conversing while in Yedo, spoke Japanese with perfect cor- 

 rectness. In Lieutenant Clifford's vocabulary given in Captain Basil Hall's 

 book, all the numerals, and many of the words, are certainly Japanese. 

 According to Li-Ting-yuen, private letters, accounts, and proclamations were, 

 in those days, written in the language of the country, — in Japanese characters ; 

 while the books on medicine, history, and science were in the Chinese 

 syllabary. We ourselves saw both characters employed, and in a Liu-kiuan- 

 Japanese phrase-book given to me during oiir visit the one column was in 

 ^ "Trans. Asiat. Soc. of Japan," vol. i. p. 8. 



