CHAPTER V 
EARLY ADVENTURES IN THE “ SNOWDROP ” 
The taste I had had of sea-otter hunting, notwith¬ 
standing the results, made me wish for more, so 
before leaving Hakodate I arranged with Messrs. 
Thompson and Bewick, compradores and ship¬ 
builders of that port, to build me a schooner of 
about 60 tons for the next season’s hunting. I then 
left for Yokohama to spend the winter. 
Whilst there, a young friend of mine and keen 
sportsman, whose engagement in the Japanese 
railways would shortly expire (the line between 
Yokohama and Tokyo had only been opened about 
a year), wished to make a trip otter-hunting. We 
came to terms—he to take a small interest in the 
vessel, and to head one of the boats. Another 
friend, a young Scotsman, but a naturalized American 
citizen, agreed to go as skipper and hunter, and also 
take a small interest in the venture. These two, 
with the mate and shipkeeper, who had been in the 
Cygnet the previous year, and myself, completed the 
foreign part of the ship’s company, while the rest 
were to be Japanese picked up in Hakodate. 
In Japan nothing is ever finished in contract 
time, and the building of the schooner was no 
exception to this rule. It was not until the middle 
of April that we got word to proceed to Hakodate, 
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