Adventures of the Explorers 147 



and seven men, after landing, had been treated 

 with great cruelty. One of the number had been 

 tortured to death. The crew of the Lagoda, of 

 New Bedford, that stranded on that coast at about 

 the time of the loss of the Lawrence, were also 

 tortured, and one of these men killed himself to 

 escape further torment. The terrors that awaited 

 all who might be cast away in Japanese waters 

 were well known to the whalemen who sailed to 

 those waters, and yet when the Plymouth, of Sag 

 Harbor, was at work, on a pleasant day, within 

 sight of one of the islands, Ronald MacDonald, 

 one of her crew, asked for and received his dis- 

 charge. In lieu of his "lay," he took a boat 

 equipped for landing on the island. He carried 

 with him sundry books and utensils likely to be 

 interesting to the natives, and boldly sailed to the 

 beach. When he arrived he was seized, stripped 

 of his possessions, and imprisoned ; but because it 

 was apparent that he came desiring only that he 

 might be serviceable to the people, and because 

 he at once began teaching those who guarded him 

 the English language, he was not tortured. 



Some time after MacDonald's landing an 



