268 
IN FORBIDDEN SEAS 
the iniquity of foreign vessels hunting in these so- 
called Japanese waters. Had it not been for the 
enterprise of foreigners in exploring these little- 
known and neglected places, including the unin¬ 
habited islands and rocks of this part of the world, 
comparatively nothing would probably have been 
known about them to this day, and the many benefits 
reaped by the Japanese from the knowledge gained 
would have been lost to them. Not only did the 
Japanese get the benefit of what was expended in 
the building, outfitting, and repairing, of hunting- 
vessels, of the wages and lays, or shares of profits, 
paid to Japanese crews and hunters, nearly all of 
which was spent in Japan ; but, what was of much 
more importance, some hundreds of Japanese sailors 
received a thorough training on board fore-and-aft 
rigged vessels just at the time when the Japanese 
were discarding their junks for foreign style fore-and- 
aft rigged schooners for the coasting trade. This 
training was most valuable to them, and many 
ultimately became captains, mates, and boatswains, 
on board their own new fore-and-aft craft, of which 
there were soon scores, quickly increasing to hun¬ 
dreds, and now thousands, probably, as they are 
found in every port in the country. 
The benefits did not stop at this. I have no 
hesitation in saying that the spirit of adventure and 
enterprise which now possesses the Japanese, par¬ 
ticularly in the way of fitting out schooners for 
fishing, hunting, and prospecting, all over the North 
Pacific Ocean and in the Okotsk and Bering Seas, is 
largely, if not entirely, due to the experience gained 
from the foreign sea-otter hunters and sealers whom 
at one time they so keenly denounced. At the 
