220 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
windlass being now useless, I arranged to leave a 
full hunting-party (eighteen) on the cape, whilst I 
ran down with the vessel to Hakodate to get the 
windlass fixed. After landing spare sails for tents, 
and plenty of bedding, warm clothes, provisions, and 
ammunition, we left with a spanking fair wind. The 
previous day we spoke the schooner Rose with three 
otters. She reported that the American whaling- 
barque Europa had been driven ashore on Kunashir 
by the ice, and was a total wreck. The icefields 
had been carried south, and driven in on the coast 
by easterly winds. 
We arrived in Hakodate on May 27, where the 
Customs authorities tried to make trouble by sealing 
up our skins, on the plea that an order had been 
issued prohibiting the bringing of sea-otter skins into 
the port, except under certain conditions. These 
regulations were absurd, and did not apply to foreign 
vessels, anyhow. Next day I applied to the British 
Consul, who caused the seals to be removed, and I 
got our skins packed in a case ready for shipment to 
Yokohama. However, the Customs refused to grant 
a transhipment permit, and brought a charge, 
through the British Consulate, against the vessel for 
infringing the regulations, whilst I put in a counter¬ 
charge against the Customs. The Consul decided 
there was no case whatever against the Nemo , and 
requested the authorities to place no further obstruc¬ 
tion in the way of the vessel’s business. I received 
notice that the affair was finished and the skins could 
be transhipped. We did not leave Hakodate until 
June 5, and two days later put back on account of 
head-winds. On the 8th I made another start, going 
to the westward, and up through the La Perouse 
