148 The First Visit of an American Ship to Japan, 



trade and missionary effort. But the rescued sailors were 

 not permitted to land and on commnnication with the 

 capital, the vessel was driven off by a vigorous cannonade 

 and returned to Macao ; not one of her objects having been 

 attained. 



The next attempt, which is the subject of this paper, was 

 more successful. It was made in 1845 by Capt. Mercator 

 Cooper, in the whale ship Manhattan of Sag Harbor, L. 1. 

 Capt. Cooper was born in Southampton, L. L, in the year 

 1803. When a young man he engaged in the whale 

 fishery and rapidly rose to the command of a ship, and at 

 the time of his visit to Jajian, it would be difficult, from 

 the evidence of seafaring men to find his superior in sea- 

 manship and in a thorough knowledge of all the minute 

 details of theory and practice that pertain to his profession. 

 The first week in April, 1845, found the Manhattan off St. 

 Peter's, a small uninhabited island, a few leagues to the 

 southeast of Niphon. Upon landing here to capture some 

 turtle discovered on the shore, they found a number of 

 Japanese sailors who had been shipwrecked with no means 

 of returning to their homes. Capt. Cooper communicated 

 to them by signs his willingness to take them to Japan and 

 accepting the offer they embarked and the ship took up 

 her course for Jeddo. Aside from feelings of humanity, 

 and besides a strong personal desire to enter a port and 

 behold the mysteries so long guarded from the world, 

 Capt. Cooper hoped by this act of kindness to make a 

 favorable impression upon the Japanese in respect to the 

 civilization of the United States and its friendly disposition 

 towards them. These considerations led him to steer 

 boldly for the capital, notwithstanding the well known re- 

 gulations prohibiting the entrance of all foreign vessels 

 into that harbor. 



As if to add emphasis to this errand of humanity, on the 

 second day out from St. Peter's a dismasted Japanese junk 



