434 CAPTAIN COOK'S VOYAGES 



along the Kuriles, and examine more particularly the 

 islands that lie nearest the northern coast of Japan, which 

 are represented as of a considerable size, and independent 

 of the Russian and Japanese governments. Should we be 

 so fortunate as to find in these any safe and commodious 

 harbours, we conceived they might be of importance, either 

 as places of shelter for any future navigators who may be 

 employed in exploring these seas, or as the means of open- 

 ing a commercial intercourse among the neighbouring 

 dominions of the two empires. Our next object was to 

 survey the coast of the Japanese Islands, and afterwards 

 to make the coast of China, as far to the northward as we 

 were able, and run along it to Macao. 



" This plan being adopted, I received orders from Captain 

 Gore, in case of separation, to proceed immediately to 

 Macao ; and, at six o'clock in the evening of the 9th of 

 October, having cleared the entrance of Awatska Bay, we 

 steered to the south-east, with the wind north-west and by 

 west. At midnight we had a dead calm, which continued 

 till noon of the 10th. Being in soundings of sixty and 

 seventy fathoms water, we employed our time very pro- 

 fitably in catching cod, which were exceedingly fine and 

 plentiful ; in the afternoon a breeze sprung up from the 

 west, with which we stood along the coast to the southward. 



" After experiencing very blowing weather and adverse 

 winds, which put us out of the course originally intended, 

 at day-break of the 26th we had the pleasure of descrying 

 high land to the westward, which proved to be Japan. 



" We stood on till nine, when we were within two leagues 

 of the land, and saw the smoke of several towns or villages, 

 and many houses near the shore, in pleasant and cultivated 

 situations. 



" On the 29th, at nine o'clock, the wind shifting to the 

 southward, and the sky lowering, we tacked and stood off 

 to the east, and soon after saw a vessel close in with the 

 land, standing along the shore to the northward ; and 

 another in the offing, coming down on us before the wind. 

 Objects of any kind, belonging to a country so famous, and 

 yet so little known, it will be easily conceived must have 

 excited a general curiosity, and accordingly every soul on 

 board was upon deck in an instant to gaze at them. As the 

 vessel to windward approached us, she hauled farther off 

 shore ; upon which, fearing that we should alarm them by 

 the appearance of a pursuit, we brought the ships to, and she 

 passed ahead of us, at the distance of about half a mile. 

 It would have been easy for us to have spoken with them ; 

 but perceiving by their manoeuvres that they were much 

 frightened, Captain Gore was not willing to augment their 



