"Our visitors asked the name of the king of Holland, as well as that of the family to which he belonged; in answer, I informed them that he was formerly prince of Orange, and had returned home after a residence of about twenty years in England. His age and that of his son were asked, which led to the mention of the marriage of the latter with a sister of the emperor of Russia. The name of the king of France, and the present abode of Napoleon were inquired for, and if the English still kept possession of the Cape of Good Hope and of Java. I told them that we did not now own the island; and they wished to know if such had not been the case; to which I replied, that we had occupied it and all the other Dutch settlements, while the French overran Holland, but had restored them when the Dutch regained their independence. Reference having been made to the return of Napoleon, and to the battle of Waterloo, our visitors were much interested in the account of that engagement, and an enumeration of the different states who were there combined against France. The interpreters remarked, that they had heard of the appointment of captain Golownin to be governor of Ochotsk this year, and wished to know if their information was correct: from the desire exhibited to ascertain this point, I am inclined to think the Japanese rather dread the neighborhood of one so intimately acquainted with their northern possessions, and natural character and resources. On entering the cabin, the interpreter asked if I had a barrometer; I had not one on board to show him, but exhibited the instruments I had, and found them well acquainted with their names and uses; they observed that instruments were made much better in London than elsewhere.

"The next morning a supply of fresh water was bronght alongside for the purpose of filling up our water-casks, which I looked upon as an omen of our approaching departure. The casks had been guaged previously to this, and I imagined the Japanese now wished to ascertain more correctly the number of days we had been at sea, particularly as the number of buckets handed on board was counted; had it not been for this consideration I would have declined the water, wishing it to be most clearly understood that my only object in visit. ing Japan was to obtain permission to trade. The persons who accompanied the water were more talkative than usual. They showed me a string of beads used like the rosary as a help to devotion; and read the Chinese characters on a tea-chest; they told me the Japanese names of many articles, and spoke much of the manufactures of London, which place they seemed to consider as the scat of the arts.

*

"About noon, the interpreters repaired on board, and after the usual compliments, produced some papers, and said in an official manner: 'You have applied for permission to trade to Japan; we are desired by the governor of this place to inform you that this permission cannot be granted, as the laws of Japan interdict all foreign intercourse, with the exception of that which exists already at Nagasaki, with the Dutch and Chinese; and that the governor consequently desires you to sail with the first fair wind.' After a little desultory conversation, they remarked by way of explanation from another paper, and in a demi-official manner, that in August, 1803, an American ship had arrived at Nagasaki, and in the following November, an English ship from Calcutta had visited the same port, with views similar to our own; also that in 1806, the Russian embassy [under Resanoff] had been at Nagasaki, since which time another ship of the same nation had visited that port; a third Russian vessel had also applied at Matsumai in 1813, all of which had been dismissed, and we too could not be admitted; therefore it was 'better not to return as we could get nothing by it.' The bluntness of this caution would have displeased me, if I supposed they were aware it bore a threatening import, but as it was it only excited a smile. An offer was made of boats to tow us out of the bay when ready for sea; and I was asked what flag I would hoist as a signal when ready. Having no other at hand than the ensign and jack, which I did not

We accidentally came across what perhaps may be another notice of this visit, in the 16th vol. of the Quarterly Review, page 71, in a review of the Life of Archibald Campbell, a sailor on board the ship Eclipse of Boston;-we say 'perhaps' because there is a discrepancy between the dates in the review and captain Gordon. We give the account as we find it. not being aware that a full narrative of the voyage has ever been publihed. "On the 16th June they entered the bay of Nagasaki, under Russian colors, and were towed to the anchorage by an immense number of boats. A Dutchman came on board and advised them to haul down the colors, as the Japanese were much displeased with Russia; and it was thought prudent to keep the Russian supercargo out of sight. The American produced his trading articles, but the Japanese told him they wanted nothing from him; and desired to know what had brought him there? He replied, want of water and fresh provisions; and to prove that this was the case, he ordered several butts to be started, and brought empty on deck! The next day a plentiful supply arrived of fish, hogs, and vegetables, and boats filled with water in large tubs, which the captain emptied on deck, 'stopping the scuppers, and allowing it to run off at night. For these supplies, thus fraudulently obtained, and wantonly wasted, he knew the Japanese would ask no payment. On the third day, when O'Kean found that nothing was to be gained in the way of trade, he got under way; the ship was towed out of the bay by nearly a hundred boats; and, on parting, the Japanese cheered them, waving their hats and hands-but, as they stood along the coast, the inhabitants made signs as if to invite them to land: the editor thinks, and we agree with him. that Campbell is here mistaken, and that these indication were meant to repel them. as captain Laris was, with 'Core core cocori ware,'-' Get along, you falsehearted fellows!!"

like to display, surrounded and guarded as we were, I said I would hoist a boat's sail instead of a flag; this appearing strange to them, they asked why I would not hoist the flag, to which I merely replied that I could not as we were then situated. The name of the governor of Ochotsk was again asked; and so suspicious did the Japanese appear to be of the intention of Russia respecting their detention of captain Golownin, that were I to assign any specific cause for not being allowed to trade, independent of the national policy, it would be the wish on the part of the government not to give umbrage to Russia by conceding to others a favor which had been denied to them; indeed this was assigned as the true cause of our dismissal in a mnner almost official. Expressing a hope that I would be allowed to leave some trifling remembrance with the interpreters, they answered that the laws of the empire were so strict that they could not receive anything whatever.

"In the afternoon our arms, amunition, rudder, &c., were returned on board; and the following morning, having made the signal agreed upon, we were towed out of the bay by about thirty boats. As none of the gun-boats weighed, I hoisted the colors for the first time as soon as clear of the bay, and, when fairly out, dismissed the tow-boats, and our friends who had accompanied them, with three cheers. While leaving, the shore was not only thronged with spectator, but many hundreds came by water from the neighboring coasts, to gratify their curiosity by a sight of the strange vessel. We were scarcely quitted by the tow-boats when some of these persons approached, and at length accepted an invitation to come on board, which they did in such multitudes that the deck was thronged to excess, and I was glad to see a guard-boat pull toward us for the purpose of dispersing the crowd. As soon as the the people recognized the boat they fled in every direction, but many of them quickly returned; and when we pointed out a guard-boat afterwards, some would merely laugh and say, they did not care for them, whilst others would quit and give us to understand that they were afraid of being destroyed. In the course of that and the following day, there were not less than two thousand persons on board, all of whom were eager to barter for trifles. I had the pleasure of obtaining, amongst other things, some little books and other specimens of the language; and distributed two copies of the Chinese New Testament, together with some Chinese tracts. If inclined to set any value on ideas which can be formed concerning the hearts of men, especially of men accustomed to disguise their feelings as we are informed the Japanese 75

VOL. VII. NO. XI.

are, I would confidently say that our dismissal was regretted by all; this opinion does not arise so much from anything which has been said, as from a remembrance of the eager satisfaction with which everybody used to examine the several articles of my dress, particularly such as were of a fine quality, and the desire very generally expressed of purchasing similar articles on our return."

The next vessel on our list was an English colonial brig, called the Cyprus, which sailed from England in August 1829, for New South Wales, with thirty-two convicts on board, and a military guard, commanded by lieutenant Carew in the English navy. While the captain and some of the passengers and crew were ashore at Research bay in New Holland, the convicts rose upon the crew, and took possession of the vessel, which they carried to New Zealand, and there landed the soldiers, passengers, and such of the convicts as desired to be put ashore. The remainder, eighteen in number, sailed from thence to the Sandwich Islands, where nine more were left, and the other nine started for Japan. They were fired upon by the Japanese and proceeded on to Canton, but at the "Ten Thousand Islands," four of the mutineers quitted her; and when off Formosa, she sunk in consequence of making water, owing to the injury she had sustained from being fired upon by the Japanese, and the five remaining men reached Canton in the long-boat. They were here examined by the Select Committee, in consequence of their extraordinary relations, and sent to England in one of the Company's ships, consigned to the care of the Admiralty Board, by whom they were tried and convicted. This is all we know of the visit of the Cyprus, which is taken from the United Service Journal for Nov. 1830, and, although bearing suspicious marks, and resting only upon the statements of mutineers and convicts, is still worthy of notice. The unexplained part of the story is that we do not know of any group in that region called the Ten Thousand Islands. We wish, however, they had told us where they were fired upon; for when the Morrison was in the bay of Kagosima, the Japanese on board of her were told, that, two or three years before, a vessel had touched at Tanega I. lying off the mouth of the bay, from which foreigner ad debarked, and violently carried off some cattle; and that these foreigners had been carried to Nagasaki; the people on the mainland, too, supposed the Morrison to be that vessel returned. These may, from first to Jast, be idle stories; but some unknown transactions, it appears to us, of a flagrant nature, must have taken place on that coast, to have caused the Japanese to treat two vessels in a manner so diametrically opposite as they did the Brothers and the Morrison.

W.

ART. IV. Notices in Natural History: 1, the sze tzse; 2, the hoo or tiger; 3, the maou or cat, and other feline animals.

Taken from Chinese authors.

1. In a country so thickly inhabited, and cultivated for so long a time, as China, we should not expect to find many of those large feline animals which are so numerous in India, seeing that in the former country comparatively few of those jungles and wastes occur which in the latter afford them such secure retreats. Our information concerning them is vague, being derived rather from the negative silence of native authors implying their rarity, than from any positive statements respecting their numbers. The hills and jungles of Yunnan, and other western provinces, are said to harbor the Bengal tiger, while the mountains of Tartary afford lynxes, wild cats, a small species of tiger, and perhaps some others of the feline family. It is not impossible that the mountains of Shantung and Fuhkeën are also the resort of some of the smaller species of the same exten sive genus, but our information is too meagre to enable us to determine with any great degree of certainty.

The lion, although known to Chinese naturalists, must be almost a fabulous animal to them; specimens may have reached Peking from some of the Indian countries, but we have seen no records proving that it has ever been a native of China. On the contrary, Le Shechin say, “The sze tsze is found in all countries on the west. It resembles the tiger; its skin is of a light yellowish red color, not unlike gold; its head is large, as hard as copper, and the forehead like iron; the tail is long, of an azure hue, and the male has a tuft on the end as large as a quart measure; the claws are like hooks, the teeth like the teeth of a saw; the ears are pendant, and the nose upturned; the eyes glisten like lightning, and the roar resembles thunder; the male has a shaggy beard. In one day it will travel 500 le. It is superior to all hairy animals; when angry its majesty lies in its teeth, and when placid in its tail. At its roar, all the beasts of the forest crouch, and so great is the dread of the horse that he passes blood. Some authors say the lion devours all other wild animals, and that by its breath, hair and feathers fall off. Even when dead, tigers and leopards dare not devour its carcass, nor a fly alight on its tail. The people of the west sometimes get the cubs seven day after birth,