404 
A VOYAGE TO 
1779. 
November. 
felves, by our reckoning, upward of fifty leagues from the 
land; which circumftance, together with the very extraor¬ 
dinary effect of currents we had before experienced, the 
late feafon of the year, the unfettled ftate of the weather, 
and the little likelihood of any change for the better, made 
Captain Gore refolve to leave Japan altogether, and profe- 
cute our voyage to China; hoping, that as the track he 
meant to purfue had never yet been explored, he fhould be 
able to make amends, by fome new difcovery, for the dis¬ 
appointments we had met with on this coaft. 
If the reader fhould be of opinion that we quitted this 
objedt too haftily, in addition to the fadts already flated, it 
ought to be remarked, that Kaempfer defcribes the coaft of 
Japan as the moft dangerous in the whole world*; that it 
would have been equally dangerous, in cafe of diftrefs, to 
run into any of their harbours ; where we know, from 
the beft authorities, that the averfion of the inhabitants to 
any intercourfe with ftrangers, has led them to commit the 
moft atrocious barbarities ; that our fhips were in a leaky 
condition; that our fails were worn out, and unable to with*- 
ftand a gale of wind ; and that the rigging was fo rotten as 
to require conftant and perpetual repairs. 
As the ftrong currents, which fet along the Eaftern coaft 
of Japan, may be of dangerous confequence to the navi¬ 
gator, who is not aware of their extraordinary rapidity,, I 
lhall take leave of this ifland, with a fummary account of 
their force and direction, as obferved by us from the ill to 
the 8th of November. On the ift, at which time w r e were 
about eighteen leagues to the Eaftward of White Point, the 
current fet North Eaft and by North, at the rate of three 
miles an hour; on the 2d, as we approached the fhore, we 
* See Ksempfer’s Hift. of Japan, Vol. I. p. 92, 93, 94, and 102. 
found 
