Bonin Islands  Source  Whalesite

NARRATIVE

OF

THE EXPEDITION OF AN
AMERICAN SQUADRON

TO

THE CHINA SEAS AND JAPAN

PERFORMED IN THE YEARS 1852, 1853, AND 1854,

UNDER THE COMMAND OF

COMMODORE M.C. PERRY,
UNITED STATES NAVY,

BY

ORDER OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

VOLUME II – WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

WASHINGTON:

A. O. P. NICHOLSON, PRINTER

1856

Bayard Taylor (1825–1878) 

REPORT MADE TO COMMODORE PERRY

UPON

THE EXPLORATION OF PEEL ISLAND:

BY

BAYARD TAYLOR, Esq.,

TEMPORARILY ATTACHED TO THE U.S. STEAM FRIGATE SUSQUEHANNAH

REPORT

UPON

THE EXPLORATION OF PEEL ISLAND.

BY BAYARD TAYLOR, Esq.

      Sir: I have the honor to submit to you, in accordance with your instructions, the following report of an exploration of Peel Island, in the Bonin group:

      It was arranged between Dr. Fahs and myself, that he should land at the northwestern extremity of Port Lloyd, and explore the ranges of hills which surround that bay, comprising the northern half of the island; while my party, landing at the watering-place, at the southeastern corner of the bay, should strike thence across the island to its southern extremity. I subjoin a sketch map^* of the island, showing the route I took, and the topography of the interior, so far as my observations extended.

      The party under my charge consisted of Mr. Heine, artist; Mr. Boardman, midshipman; Mr. Lawrence, assistant engineer; Mr. Hampton, purser?s steward; Smith, marine; Dennis Terry, seaman; and a Chinese coolie. We left the ship at 5 o?clock on Wednesday morning, the 15th instant, and were put ashore on the beach near Castle Rock. At this point two ravines descend into the bay – one from the eastward, the other from the southward. The latter was pointed out to me by one of the settlers as affording the easiest access into the interior of the island. We found a hut near the beach, inhabited by a Kanaka, who refused to accompany me as guide, but pointed out a small foot-path, which he said led across the hills to another Kanaka settlement, about three miles distant.

      We plunged at once into a wilderness of dense vegetation, which afforded a faint type of our experience for the rest of the day. The trail, so faint as hardly to be discerned, was steep and slippery; the plants were wet with a heavy dew, and the wild parasitic vines, which hung from tree to tree, continually caught us in their toils. The trees were principally palm, among which I noticed the true sago-palm, from which the sago of commerce is made. Further up, I found the areca, or betel-nut palm, and another variety resembling the cocoanut. The soil was a rich dark-red loam, composed of disintegrated trap rock and vegetable mould. The same soil prevails all over the island, except on the northern shore of Port Lloyd, where it is mixed with a greyish

      sand and gravel. Trap rock, of a coarse texture, appeared frequently on the steeper declivities of the ridge; and a variety of the hibiscus, with a large flower of a dull orange hue, grew abundantly in its crevices. The ground was in many places covered with a shower of white blossoms, which I afterwards found had dropped from a tree about thirty feet high, with a small glossy leaf, thick foliage, and a stout smooth trunk of a greyish color.

      The forest became more dense as we reached the summit of the ridge. The thick luxuriant crowns of the palms above our heads kept out every ray of the sun, and, combined with the creepers swinging from trunk to trunk, made a shade so impervious, that it was impossible to see more than fifteen or twenty yards in any direction. The multitude of large brown landcrabs that scampered out of our path was truly amazing. The ground was alive with them in the moist beds of watercourses, and the largest were fully six inches in breadth.

      The top of the ridge, an undulating tract furrowed with deep gullies, was about a mile and a half in breadth, after which we came upon a descent at so sharp an angle that we were obliged to swing ourselves down from tree to tree, to avoid tumbling into the bottom of the ravine. We found ourselves in a wild dell, completely shut in by precipitous mountains, every foot of whose sides, except the walls of naked rock on either hand, was covered with the richest foliage. A stream of good water trickled over the rocky bottom.

      This dell opened to the southward into a narrow valley, which showed signs of being inhabited. Crossing the stream, we came upon a patch of taro, the plants of which were the highest and most luxuriant I ever saw. They were fully six feet high, and so drenched with the night?s dew that we were soon wet to the skin. Finding the forest beyond impracticable, on account of its steepness and density, we followed the course of the stream, and soon reached an open space covered with patches of sweet potato, taro, pumpkins, tobacco, sugar-cane, and the sida, or Indian gooseberry, growing with unrivalled strength and luxuriancc. Two huts, thatched with palm-leaves, stood in the centre of the valley. Finding them both deserted, though exhibiting evidences of having been occupied that morning, we fired our guns, the report of which was answered by a hail. Presently a South-sea Islander, in a coarse cotton shirt and pantaloons, and with one-half of his face tattooed a light-blue, made his appearance. He said he was a native of Nuka-hiva, in the Marquesas, and named "Judge." He conducted us around the corner of the mountain, where the valley opened westward to the sea. The stream became a creek deep enough for canoes, in one of which the Judge had just arrived, bringing a large turtle with him. He appeared to be in good circumstances, since, in addition to his hut, his plantation, and his turtles, he had four dogs, and as many pigs, of the same lean, black breed as we found in Lew Chew. The banks of the stream were studded with a shrub about 12 feet high, and covered with large blossoms of a chrome-yellow color, to which he gave the name of "trao."

      "Judge" stated that the southern extremity of the island was three or four miles distant. There was no path, and he refused to accompany us as guide, but sent his boy for the owner of the other hut, who knew the way over the hills. The latter was a tawny native of Otaheite, and spoke very little English. He confessed that he knew the way, and was familiar with the wild-boar haunts, but refused to go unless the Judge accompanied him. To this the latter finally consented, and we set off again.

      The valley was bounded on the south by high mountains, which appeared to us impassable, on account of the lines of mural rock, rising one above another to their very summits. The main valley, however, was not that into which we had first descended, but ran away to the east-

      ward, whence the stream came down a long ravine between two peaks. The natives informed us that the sea was about half a mile distant, from which I should judge the entire length of the valley to be a mile and a quarter, with a breadth of a quarter of a mile at its base, expanding at its junction with its northern branch, and then gradually diminishing until it loses itself in the ravine. Its bed, therefore, comprises from 120 to 140 acres of the richest vegetable mould. All the vegetables planted by the settlers were unequalled of their kind, although no labor had been expended on their cultivation, beyond the mere planting. I saw several lemons in the Judge?s hut, which he informed me were produced in the valley. The tobacco was five feet in height, and had the same pale-green, velvety leaves, which characterizes the famous tobacco of Latakich. The stream of water is sweet and pure, and the supply is constant in all seasons.

      We proceeded in an E.S.E. direction into the ravine, which we ascended, following the watercourse. Large rounded masses of trap rock lay in its bed; and still farther we came upon nearly perpendicular cliffs of greenstone, from ten to thirty feet in height. This was the only place where I found the terraced form of the trap rock observed by Dr. Fahs on the northern side of Port Lloyd. In some places, beds of a coarse conglomerate, which had frequently an appearance of sandstone, rested upon the trap. But this evidently belonged to the same formation, since the only rock I found on the island was trap, running into greenstone occasionally, and taking a basaltic character in the vicinity of the sea, as in the caverns of the Southern Head, at the entrance of Port Lloyd.

      The forest was very dense, and, from the moist, unctuous nature of the soil, our progress was exceedingly toilsome. The Otaheitan informed us we were in the neighborhood of wild boars, and we crept forward in silence. Two of the party, who were in the rear, started a boar, and shot at him, but unsuccessfully. After leaving the watercourse, we climbed the southern side of the ravine, by clinging to the roots of trees and the tough cordage of parasitic vines.

      The party became scattered, owing to the absence of any path, and the impossibility of seeing more than ten yards in advance. Among the palms, I noticed here the latina, with the broad fan-leaves and leaf-stems, six to eight feet in length, the jagged edges of which wounded our hands. There was also a variety of the pandanus, with a single straight trunk, from near the base of which projected a number of sheets or props, which became roots after they reached the soil. There were frequently upwards of twenty or thirty of them, forming a conical basis to the slender column, which rose about fifteen feet in height, crowned with its leafy capital. We found several plants of a species of morus, or mulberry, with fruit six inches in length. The tree-ferns were of remarkable size and beauty. Some were upwards of fifteen feet high, with leaves eight to ten feet in length. In fact, the entire vegetation of the island is of a thoroughly tropical character, embracing many plants which are generally found in the neighborhood of the equator. Its dissimilarity in this respect to that of Lew Chew, which is one degree further south, must be owing to the fact of its being within the range of the north Pacific trade-winds, and without the influence of the cold currents and winds which sweep the coast of China.

      While halting on the top of a ridge, the dogs commenced barking in a ravine on the other side. Two of the party, following the sound, succeeded in shooting a boar, about a year old, and of a dark brownish-grey color, with a long snout, resembling a Chinese hog. One of the party, overcome by the laborious nature of the journey, was taken sick at this juncture; but, as the Otaheitan stated that we were but two miles from the southern extremity of the island,

      he determined to go on. In another half hour we had crossed the dividing ridge, and began to descend the other side. Through an opening in the foliage, I caught a glimpse of the sea, and climbed a tree to obtain a lookout. I found that we were on the brow of a very steep ridge, about fifteen hundred feet in height, looking down upon a small bay opening to the southeast. Beyond the southern promontory of the bay the sea was again visible, with the group of Bailly?s Islands in the distance, a little west of south. The mountains descended in precipices to the water, so that access was impossible, except near the head of the bay, where two abrupt ravines, or rather chasms, showed a speck of sandy beach at their meeting.

      The Otaheitan professed to know the way, and set off, creeping slowly down the steep, we following, until a sudden light broke through the leaves, and we found ourselves on the brink of a precipice, the height of which we could not estimate, though I afterwards saw that it must have been near two hundred feet. From its base, the mountain sloped away so steeply to the brink of other precipices below, that we seemed to swing in the air, suspended over the great depth which intervened between us and the sea. The guide, it was evident, had taken us too far to the right, and it was necessary partly to retrace our steps, in order to avoid the precipice. We clung to the strong grass which grew on the brink, and thus crept along for about two hundred yards, over a place where the least impetus would have sent us headlong hundreds of feet below. On this part of the mountain I found a shrub with a dark, glossy leaf, which diffused a powerful balsamic odor. In Klaproth's translation of the Japanese account of the Bonin Islands, it is said that a species of sandal-wood is found there, and it is possible that this shrub may have been mistaken for it. It appeared to me and to Dr. Fahs, who also found it, to be a variety of the laurus.

      Finally attaining a point where the precipice ceased, we commenced going downward at an angle of about sixty degrees. The soil was so slippery, and the vines and horny leaves of the palms hung so low, that the best way of descending was to lie flat on one?s back, and slide down until brought up by a thicket too dense to get through. With an infinite deal of labor we at last reached the ravine, or chasm, where the worst of our toils commenced. The ravine fell, by a succession of rocky steps, from ten to forty and fifty feet in perpendicular height, down which we clambered with hands and feet, often trusting the soundness of our bones, if not our very lives, to the frail branch of a tree, or to the firmness of a root dangling from the brink. As from the top of a tower, we looked down on the beach, lying at our very feet, and seemingly to be reached by a single leap, though still far below. Down, down we went into the depths of the chasm, in constant fear of reaching a wall which we could not pass, until, at the junction of another ravine, we came upon the hewn stump of a tree, and heard the roar of the surf at a few yards? distance. When I looked back, and saw from below the steep down which we had descended, I could scarcely believe it possible.

      The guides called the place "Southeast Bay." They stated that it was frequently visited by whalers for wood and water, which accounts for the stump of a tree smoothly cut off with a heavy axe, and the presence of a patch of tomatoes, which we found growing in a wild state along the bank of the stream. The fruit was about the size of a cherry, and very fresh and palatable. The bay was not more than a quarter of a mile in depth, and enclosed, except at the spot we reached, by perpendicular rocks. As it was noon by this time, and we had reached the limit of our journey, I halted for two hours, to allow all hands time to bathe, rest, and take dinner. The guides said that there was no other way of returning except the ravine by which We came. We all shrunk from the idea, but there was no alternative. We climbed the preci-

      pices again, in the heat of the afternoon, with not a breath of air stirring. The labor was so severe that Mr. Hampton became sick, and two other gentlemen of the party began to show signs of exhaustion. This obliged me to halt frequently, and we did not reach the native huts in the valley until six o?clock in the evening.

      Instead of returning to the watering-place by the route we had come, I employed the "Judge" to conduct me over the hills to the Kanaka settlement, at the southern extremity of Port Lloyd. We were obliged to ascend the intervening ridge at an angle of near fifty degrees. Under the thick clusters of sago-palms was a dense undergrowth 0f fern, in which we could gain no foothold, and were continually falling flat on our faces. After gaining the summit, we passed over an undulating tract for a mile or more, and came upon the western slope of the island, overlooking Southern Head, and the entrance to Fort Lloyd. I now saw that a deep, picturesque bight made in below the Head, to the mouth of the valley we had left, and that probably the shorter and more usual route of the natives between the two settlements was by water. The sides of the hills we traversed were covered with a deep, coarse grass, waist-high, and so thick that we fairly waded through it. Fortunately for us, there are no snakes on the island.

      It was dark when we reached the Kanaka huts, but, by climbing a cliff, and firing a few volleys, we succeeded in obtaining a boat from the ship. We were delayed a short time, waiting for one of the party who remained behind from exhaustion, and returned on board about 10 o?clock.

      Notwithstanding the unsurpassed fertility of the island, the luxuriance of its vegetation, and the existence of a constant supply of the best water, there is very little variety in the animals and insects found upon it. I noticed but three or four species of birds – one of which was a crow; another a wood-bird, of a mottled-brown color, not unlike the robin; and a third, a dove. Mr. Heine has since shot upon Stapleton Island another variety of the dove, as large as the Chinese pheasant. We observed no quadrupeds except the wild hogs, which are sprung from some animals placed upon the island prior to its settlement. The iguana is said to exist, but we found no traces of it. Snakes and venomous reptiles of all kinds are apparently unknown. The coast, however, abounds with fish, among which are many rare and curious varieties. During the summer the settlers catch a great quantity of turtles, which they salt down for their winter stores.

      According to the account given by the oldest residents, the climate is equable and exceedingly healthy. The Flora of the island struck me as being of more than ordinary interest; but as the flowering season of many of the plants and trees was just over, we were unable to procure many serviceable specimens.

   Commodore M. C. Perry, U. S. .N.,
        Commanding U. S. Naval Forces, East India, China, and Japan seas.

Bayard Taylor
(January 11, 1825 – December 19, 1878)

      See the article in Wikipedia for information about Bayard Taylor.

Source:

Bayard Taylor, Esq.
"Report upon the exploration of Peel Island."
      Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of commodore M. C. Perry, United States Navy,
Volume II.
    Washington: A. O. P. Nicholson, 1856
(33d Congress, 2d Session - House of Representatives - Ex. Doc. No. 97)
pp. 65-71

Bonin Islands  Source  Whalesite