NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN. 9 



the result of which I prepared for the press, and it was at that time published 

 in the Evening Bulletin, suggesting further linguistic investigation. 



The following examples submitted for consideration to the Academy, fairly 

 illustrate the subject in its various phases; — 



1. In Mr. Hubert H. Bancroft's unparalleled collection of ancient books 

 and valuable manuscripts relating to the early history of the native races of 

 the Pacific States, mention is made of several Japanese vessels reported in 

 some of the Spanish-American ports on the Pacific. In 1617 a Japanese junk 

 belonging to Magome, was at Acapulco. 



In 1613, June 10th, the British ship Clove, Capt. John Saris, arrived at 

 Nagasaki, having on board one Japanese, picked up from the island of 

 Bantam. 



2. "In 1685," w^e read, " the Portuguese tried for the last time to re-es- 

 tablish their trade by sending back a number of shipwrecked Japanese, 

 picked up adrift, to their own country. The Japanese did liot molest them, 

 but strictly prohibited their re-appearance on the Coast of Japan." 



3. In 1694, a Japanese junk from Osaka was driven by adverse winds 

 and weather and stranded on the coast of Kamschatka, at the mouth of the 

 river Opala, on the south of Bolschaia Keka. The only survivor was after- 

 wards taken to Moscow. 



Muller, in his " Voyages from Asia to America," published in 1761, re- 

 marks that when in 1696 the Eussians reported the above, they said: "we 

 have learned of several other instances of Japanese wrecks previously strand- 

 ed on the coast of Kamschatka." 



4. In 1710, a Japanese junk was stranded on the coast of Kamschatka, in 

 Kaligirian bay, north of Awatscha. Ten i)ersons landed safely, of which four 

 were killed and six taken captive in an encounter with Kamschadels. Subse- 

 quently four of the captives fell into Russian hands, and one named Sanima, 

 was sent in 1714 to St. Petersburg. 



5. On the 8th of July, 1729, a Japanese junk called the Waka-shiina of 

 Satsuma, in distress, after having been driven about at sea for six months, 

 was finally stranded on the coast of Kamschatka, south of Awatscha bay, and 

 17 of her crew were saved. She was loaded with cotton and silk stuffs, 

 rice and paper; the two latter articles shipped by Matsudaira Osumi-no-kami, 

 (Prince of Satsuma) were government property. 



A petty Russian officer named Schtinnikovv, desiring to plunder the cargo, 

 had fifteen of the survivors shot; for which crime he was subsequently con- 

 demned and hung. The two remaining, an old merchant named Sosa and a 

 young pilot Gonsa, were sent to Irkutz in 1721, and thence via Tobolsk, they 

 reached St. Petersburg in 1732, where one died in 1736, the other in 1739. 



6. In 1782 a Japanese junk was wrecked upon the Aleutian Islands, from 

 which the survivors were taken in one of the Russian-American Com- 

 pany's vessels to the town of Ochotsk, and thence to the inland city of Ir- 

 kutsk. In 1792, the Governor-General of Siberia ordered the transport Cath- 

 erine, then at Ochotsk, to return these men to their native country. The 

 Russian vessel, after wintering in a harbor at the north end of Yeso, pro- 

 ceeded to the port of Hakodate, where the Japanese officials politely but 



