250 
WE VISIT THE SHIPWRECKED RUSSIANS. 
tiling, — even what the treaty expressly provided for; and 
the only way we ever got along was to do 'vvhat we 
washed to wdthout asking any questions, and then refer 
them to the treaty for our authority. 
So, if we expected to accomplish any thing by our visit, 
we had to act just as if w’e had full authority from the 
emperor, or make up our minds to do nothing at all ; and, 
as w'e had already sailed several thousand miles to get at 
this w'ork, w^e couldn’t well go away wuthout accomplish- 
ing it. So, at it we went^ commencing the southern end 
of our survey at Iley-da, on the island of Nipon, and 
ending at the towm of Tomari, on the northern extremity 
of the island of Jesso, — a coast-line of over a thousand 
miles, accomplished through all kinds of weather, and 
aMiiist all manner of obstacles that w’cre throwm in our 
w^ay by the cunning of the Japanese. But let us return 
to Iley-da and the shipwrecked Tiussians. 
On the morning of the 24th of May, 1855, avc left Si- 
mo-da before a light land-breeze, and, under all sail and 
low steam, worked our w^ay slowly to the soutlnvard, 
keeping w^ell in with the land and sketching in its wind- 
ings from point to point. Several Russian officers, who 
had crossed the mountains on foot to Si-mo-da to pay the 
squadron a visit, took passage with us, and added to the 
interest of the trip by pointing put and naming various 
villages that w'C passed, and indulging us wdth accounts 
of their experience among the Japanese. 
These accomplished officers and gentlemen mostly 
spoke French fluently, and some of them even under- 
stood our own language quite well. I had always regarded 
Russian officers as rather illiterate and boorish than other- 
