24 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
later on at Shana, farther up on the north-west 
coast, where a sort of fort or castle was built. Forty 
years after this there was strife amongst the Ainu of 
the island, the northern natives fighting with the 
southerners, about some presents which had to be 
sent every year to the Ainu chief in Yezo. As re¬ 
cently as 1859 there were, according to his account, 
1,200 natives on Yetorup. The Japanese appear to 
have established themselves on the island without 
opposition from the Ainu. 
This account of the doctor’s, in some respects, 
agrees with that given in Mr. W. G. Aston’s paper, 
published in vol. i. of the Transactions of the Asiatic 
Society of Japan, entitled u Russian Descents in 
Saghalin and Yetorup in 1806 and 1807,” where I 
find: “ At this time (1807) the Japanese colony (on 
Yetorup) was in a tolerably flourishing condition. 
It had been established more than ten years before, 
and had then a population of more than 1,000 Ainu, 
and 300 to 250 Japanese, including five women. 
Most of the Japanese were, however, soldiers gar¬ 
risoned at Shana.” 
The reason of the Russian descents was to coerce 
the Japanese Government into agreeing to a com¬ 
mercial treaty with Russia, the Tycoon’s Govern¬ 
ment having persistently refused all friendly over¬ 
tures to that end, and ordered the Russian ships 
bearing a letter from the Czar to the Tycoon on this 
subject to quit the harbour of Nagasaki. This, 
together with the imprisoning of fourteen Russians, 
“ who had landed on Yetorup in hopes of being allowed 
to trade,” so irritated the Russians that reprisals, 
in the form of raids upon Yetorup and Saghalin, 
were undertaken. In one of these raids the castle 
