SHIPWRECKED ON YETORUP 
113 
stolen, and again applied to be sent to Hakodate. 
Next day the Governor of Nemuro appeared on the 
scene, and we were put through the mill again, all 
the same old questions being asked and the same 
old answers given. One needs to be a philosopher 
with the patience of Job to endure Japanese pro¬ 
cedure in matters of this kind. 
We sailed at last on the morning of the 24th, 
arriving in Hakodate on the 26th. My friend 
Captain Blakiston came on board, and invited me 
to stay with him. On the 28th an inquiry into the 
loss of the vessel was held at the British Consulate, 
and a day or two after that the crew were shipped 
off and affairs were settled up. So ended my third 
venture. I am glad to say that subsequently the 
British Government recognized the kindness shown 
to us during our long stay on the island by the people 
of Yetorup, and sent presents to the value of £100 
to the Governor and a number of others concerned. 
In connection with the foreigners, whom I have 
mentioned as being found by the Japanese, wintering 
on the south-west end of Yetorup, the following 
story of them, told by J. C. Werner, and published 
in a Yokohama paper some years ago, may be found 
interesting. Poor old Werner was a most melan¬ 
choly-looking man—a man on whose face I never 
saw a smile, although he was endowed with a keen 
sense of humour. A very capable man, a good 
seaman and navigator, and not afraid of work, he 
yet never appeared to succeed in anything. He 
was a specimen of Nature’s unlucky ones. His only 
luck was of a negative kind, for he had served through 
the American Civil War without being shot, and 
suffered shipwreck and other maritime misfortunes 
