Bonin Islands  Source  Whalesite

TRANSACTIONS

OF

THE ASIATIC SOCIETY
OF JAPAN.

VOL. IV.

From 20th October, 1875,

TO

12th July, 1876.

(Reprint of the Original Edition,
Edited by the Council.)

(REPRINTED AT THE "HAKUBUNSHA," TOKYO.)

1888.

THE BONIN ISLANDS.

BY

RUSSELL ROBERTSON, Esq.

      The Bonin Islands which lie between the parallels of 26.30 and 27.45 North are situated almost due South of Yokohama at a distance of about 500 miles, Port Lloyd situated in Lat. 27.5.35 N. and 142.11.30 East Longitude being distant 516 miles — the longitude of Port Lloyd has been fixed by a later authority at 142.16.30.

      The Islands consist of three groups, the Northernmost and Southernmost of which are known respectively as the Parry and Bailey or Coffin groups. The centre group is made up of three Islands: Stapleton to the North, Peel Island to the South and Buckland Island in the centre. This middle group is 9 1/4 miles in length, 4 1/4 of which are taken up by Peel Island.

      Hillsboro' the largest of the Bailey or Coffin group is 7 1/2 miles long and 1 1/4 miles broad.

      From Japanese records it would appear that these Islands were known to Japan in the year 1593, if not before that, when they were held as a fief by the Daimio Ogasawara Sadayori and communication was maintained with them up to 1624. In Kaempfer's work the following mention is made of the Islands,

"About the year 1675 the Japanese accidentally discovered a very large island,

one of their barks having been forced there in a storm from the Island Hachijo, from which they computed it to be 300 miles distant towards the East. They met with no inhabitants, but found it to be a very pleasant and fruitful country, well supplied with fresh water and furnished with plenty of plants and trees, particularly the arrack tree, which however might give room to conjecture that the Island lay rather to the South of Japan than to the East, these trees growing only in hot countries. They called it Bune sima or the Island Bune and because they found no inhabitants upon it they marked it with the character of an uninhabited Island. On the shores they found an incredible quantity of fish and crabs, some of which were from four to six feet long."

      The turtle that abound at the Bonins were probably taken by the Japanese for enormous crabs.

      A blank in the history of the Bonin Islands then follows until 1728, when communication was again established by a descendant of Sadayori's, Miyanouchi Sadayori by name, of short duration however, for after a long interval we find no further mention of the Islands in Japanese records until the close of 1861, when Japanese Commissioners were sent to Port Lloyd, the visit resulting in the establishment of a small colony under the governorship of Mr. Obana Sakusuke. The attempt was however a failure. Several of the colonists returned to Japan after a brief stay and the remnant was withdrawn early in 1863.

      The Islands known to most of us by name have during the past few years excited not a little curiosity from the reports that have reached us from time to time as to the condition of the settlers there, and from surmises as to what steps might eventually be taken to establish them as the territory of one or other of the countries which it was supposed had claimed them.

      In November of last year, 1875, the Japanese steamer Meiji Maru, having on board four Japanese officers as Commissioners, proceeded to Port Lloyd, and in the same month and simultaneously with the Meiji Maru the

Islands were visited by H.M.S. Curlew, Commander Church, R.N. on board of which vessel I was a passenger. The Bonins figure on some charts as the Arzobispo Islands, but again on others the Arzobispo appear as a distinct group. It is contended that the word Bunin is a corruption of the Japanese words Munin "uninhabited," and this appellation would tend to confirm their first discovery by Japanese. Any way they are known generally as the Bonins, the slip from Bunin to Bonin being easily accounted for, though to Japanese they are more familiar as the Ogasawara-shima, or Ogasawara Islands.

      From the name Arzobispo it is not improbable that the Islands were known to the Spaniards long since, the more so that they are not so very far from the Marianas or Ladrones group now settled by the Spaniards and known to navigators early in the 16th century. The object of this paper is not however to settle disputed points about prior occupancy, and I therefore pass on to the time when the Islands became more generally known to the outer world.

      In the year 1823 they were visited by an American whale ship the Transit, Captain Coffin; whence we arrive at the name Coffin applied equally with Bailey to the Southern group. It is not clear however that the Transit visited either the centre or the Northern group. In 1825 the Supply, an English whaler, touched at Port Lloyd and left a record of her visit by nailing a board to a tree, afterwards found there by Captain Beechey R.N. of H.M.'s S. Blossom which vessel anchored in Port Lloyd on the 9th June 1827. It is to Captain Beechey that we are indebted for the admirable chart of the harbour of Port Lloyd now in use, and for much of the published information about the Bonins. H.M.S. Blossom a sloop carrying 16 guns and a complement of 122 all told had been dispatched from England on the 19th May 1825 with instructions to cooperate with Franklin's and Parry's Arctic Expeditions. Captain Beechey's instructions were that he should be at Behring's Straits in the autumn of 1826, and if he failed to meet

either Franklin or Parry he was to leave Behring Straits in October of the same year, repairing there again in the autumn of the ensuing year 1827 — the intervals to be employed in cruising in the Pacific Ocean; at the close of 1827 the Blossom was to leave on her return voyage to England.

      Captain Beechey, having sailed as above narrated on the 19th May 1825, rounded Cape Horn, and touching at Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands reached Behring's Straits in July 1826. In October the Blossom, failing to meet Franklin, left Behring's Straits and proceeded to San Francisco where she anchored on or about the 6th November. On the 28th December 1826 Captain Beechey sailed from San Francisco and again visited the Sandwich Islands, proceeding from there to Canton and Macao at which latter place he arrived on or about April 30th 1827. After a brief stay the Blossom again set sail, making for Loochoo, and in due course, some time in May 1827 she anchored off the town of Napha, the capital of those Islands.

      From here Captain Beechey took his departure on the 25th May, and shaping his course to the Eastward, he reached on the evening of the 7th June the situation of the Bonin Islands as marked in Arrowsmith's chart, in use at that time. The following day, the 8th, no land was in sight, and Captain Beechey was on the point of giving up the Islands as having no actual existence, when, after a few hours sail to the Eastward, several islands were seen extending in a North and South direction as far as the eye could discern. These were the Bonins. A full account of the Blossom's visit is formed in Captain Beechey's narative, published in two volumes.

      It will suffice if I narrate here that the Blossom anchored in Port Lloyd on the 9th June 1827, having first attempted to fetch the southernmost group, but finding wind and current against the ship and discovering in the nearest land an opening which appeared to give promise of a good harbour, Captain Beechey made for this and

anchored in Port Lloyd to which he gave this name, out of regard to a late Bishop of Oxford.

      Captain Beechey was much surprised to find here two Europeans who turned out to have been two of the crew of the English whaler William, which vessel had been wrecked in Port Lloyd some eight months previous to the Blossom's arrival. The name of one of the men was Wittrein; that of the other is not given.

      According to the statement of these men, it appears that after the wreck of the vessel the crew set to work to build a small schooner in order to find their way to Manilla, as the chances of their being picked off from Port Lloyd were somewhat remote; to their surprise, however, a whale-ship, the Timor, appeared, and took off the crew of the wrecked vessel with the exception of these two men, Wittrein and his companion.

      The Blossom remained at Port Lloyd for six days, and the time was fully taken up with surveying the harbour, making excursions in the immediate neighbourhood, and in circumnavigating the Island. To the Island in which Port Lloyd is situated Captain Beechey gave the name of Peel Island, in compliment to Sir Robert Peel, then the Secretary of State for the Home Department; and to the other two of the cluster he gave the names Stapleton and Buckland, the last mentioned after the then Professor of Geology at Oxford. A large bay at the South East angle of Peel Island is named Fitton Bay, after a late President of the Geological Society, whilst a bay to the Southwest angle of Buckland Island is called Walker Bay, after Mr Walker at that time one of the officers of the Hydrographical Department.

      To the Southern cluster of Islands Captain Beechey gave the name of Bailey, after a former President of the Astronomical Society, but they are equally known as Coffin Islands from the name of the master of the American whaler Transit, who it was believed was the first to visit them, excepting visits said to have been made by Japanese.

      To the Northern group Capt. Beechey gave the name of Parry, after the former Hydrographer to the Admiralty.

      Capt. Beechey has pronounced Peel and surrounding Islands to be volcanic in their nature, which is borne out by Commodore Perry of the United States Navy, who when visiting the Islands later in 1853, writes of Port Lloyd as follows!

"It would appear that Port Lloyd was at one time the Crater of an active volcano, from which the surrounding hills had been thrown up, while the present entrance to the harbour was formed by a deep fissure in the side of the cone through which a torrent of lava had poured into the sea, leaving after its subsidehce a space into which the waters subsequently were emptied, bringing with them their usual deposits, which together with the coral formation now forms the bottom and sides of the harbour."

      After leaving Port Lloyd on the 15th June, Captain Beechey made another attempt to reach the southern group, the Bailey or Coffin Islands, but, finding the wind adverse, he bore away to the north and fixed the position of the Parry Group.

      This officer's remarks about the Bonins, which appear in full in the work to which I have previously alluded, furnished the only comparatively full information about them up to 1853, when they were visited by Commodore Perry. The narrative of the Blossom's cruise is a book seldom met with out here, and I am indebted to Captain St. John of H.M.S. Sylvia, for the loan of the work which has thus enabled me to give certain particulars about the Bonins without which this paper would have been incomplete. The sailing directions and notes with regard to the Bonins appearing in that valuable work the "China Pilot" are taken from the narratives of Beechey and Perry.

      Before leaving, Captain Beechey affixed to a tree a sheet of copper nailed to a board, and on the sheet of copper the following words were punctured: —

"H.M.S. Blossom, Captain Beechey, R.N., took possession of this group of Islands in the name and on

behalf of His Majesty King George, the 14th June, 1827."

      On the occasion of our visit in the Curlew, Captain Church and I came across this board in the house of one of the settlers, who parted with it for a trifling consideration. It was in a fair state of preservation, and the inscription as given above could be deciphered after a little trouble; the date appeared to us to be June 17th, but as the Blossom left on the 15th, the proper date is probably the 14th.

      According to Captain Beechey, in the Japanese accounts of the Bonin Islands as appearing at that time in Mr. Klaproth's "Mémoire sur la Chine," and by Mr. Abel Remusat in the "Journal des Savans" for September, 1817, it is said that the Islands of Bonin sima or Munin sima consist of eighty-nine Islands, of which two are large, four of middling size, four small and the remainder of the group consists of rocks. The two large Islands are said to be inhabited, and temples and villages appear in the Japanese chart published in the "Journal des Savans." Further, it is stated that these Japanese accounts, or I should more correctly say the translations of them, depict the Islands as extremely fertile, producing vegetable and all kinds of grain, sugar, cocoanuts, lofty palm trees; sandal-wood, camphor and other trees.

      From this description, Captain Beechey throws doubts upon the Islands visited by him as being identical with the Bonin sima of the Japanese, and to use his own words, says "it may be doubted whether Bonin sima is not an imaginary Island."

      In Captain Beechey's opinion the Islands correspond with a group named Yslas del Arzobispo in a work published many years ago in Manila, "Navigacion Especulativa y Pratica," and so much indeed that he has retained on the chart the name Arzobispo which was mentioned at the commencement of this paper, equally with that of the Bonins. It must be remembered, however, that neither the Northern nor Southern cluster, the Parry and Bailey or Coffin groups, were visited by Captain Beechey

(by visiting I mean landed upon), and Japanese have informed me that it was on the Southernmost group Bailey or Coffin, that the early Japanese settlers took up their abode, and where it is believed the remains of a few shrines are still to be found. Making allowance for exaggeration in the description appearing in the early native records, and considering, too, that vegetables, sugar cane, cocoa nuts, pine apples, &c., are now grown on Peel Island, also that among the trees there are palm and sandal wood, it is not unlikely that the Islands visited by the Blossom are the veritable Bonins or Munin sima of the Japanese.

      We are now to witness the influence of the Blossom's visit to these Islands. Before taking leave of this little vessel, with whose name and that of her Commander the Bonins cannot but always be associated, I should record that after leaving these Islands, Captain Beechey, in pursuance of his original instructions to be at Behring's Straits in the autumn of 1827, again made for the Polar Seas, where he arrived in due course; but finding no trace of Franklin at the different rendezvous agreed upon, he reluctantly left for England by way of San Francisco and Cape Horn and anchored at Spithead early in October 1828, after an absence of three years and a half during which the ship had sailed over 73,000 miles.

      The Bonins now seem to have attracted attention at the Sandwich Islands, where the news of the Blossom's visit was not long in reaching, and from whence a party of colonists sailed for Port Lloyd in 1830, Captain Charlton, then British Consul at the Sandwich Islands, taking a lively interest in the expedition.

      The party as far as I can ascertain consisted of the following: Mateo Mazarro said to have been a native of Genoa, but I am inclined to think recognized as a British subject, John Millichamp an Englishman, Nathaniel Savory, born in Massachusetts, United States, Alden B. Chapin, also an American, and Charles Johnson, a Dane. They had with them some Sandwich Island natives as labourers, some live stock and seeds, and, landing at Port

Lloyd, hoisted an English flag which had been given them by Captain Charlton.

      Little is now heard of the Bonins until 1842, though doubtless in this long interval of 12 years Port Lloyd was frequently visited by whalers and communication of some kind was thus kept up. In 1842 Mazarro returned to the Sandwich Islands. He described the settlement at Port Lloyd as flourishing, stated that he had hogs and goats in abundance and a few cattle, that he grew Indian corn and many vegetables and had all kinds of tropical fruits. Mazarro returned to Peel Island and eventually died there. His widow, to whom I shall hereafter refer, is still living at Port Lloyd.

      I now pass over another interval of seven years until the year 1849 or 1850, when I find that Port Lloyd was visited by the U.S. Surveying Brig Dolphin, but she only made a brief stay of four or five days. The next man-of-war to come was H.M.S. Enterprise, Captain Collinson, in 1851, which vessel also made but a short stay of about a week. The Enterprise was a companion ship with the Investigator both vessels being in search of Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition. The former had parted company from the Investigator, and had probably taken the Bonins on her way up to Kamschatka and the Arctic.

      Thomas H. Webb, a British subject who had arrived at Port Lloyd in the American Barque Japan of Nantucket in 1849, and where he is still a resident, has a lively recollection of Captain Collinson's visit, and it is to Webb, that I am indebted for much of the information I am able to give in respect to the visits of ships to Port Lloyd from the year 1847 up to the time of the Curlew's visit in 1875, excepting of course the visit of Commodore Perry in 1853 of which a full account has been published elsewhere.

      In 1852 H.M.'s surveying brig Serpent touched at Port Lloyd and remained there some eight days.

      We now come to Commodere Perry's visit in 1853, an important one to the settlers on Peel Island.

      On the 14th June, 1853, the U.S. men-of-war Susquehannah and Saratoga dropped anchor in Port Lloyd, having left the port of Napha in the Loochoos on the 9th of the same month. At this time, of the original settlers who came in 1830, and whose names are mentioned at the commencement of this paper, only one, Nathaniel Savory was left, but there were now on Peel Island in all 31 inhabitants, made up as follows; four English, four American, one Portuguese, the rest being natives from either the Sandwich, the Ladrones, the Caroline or Kingsmill Islands, together with children actually born on the Bonins.

      The stay of the Susquehanna and Saratoga was limited to four days, the ships leaving on the 18th June, and returning to the Loochoos which they reached on the 23rd of the same month, but the time was fully taken up in exploring both Peel and Stapleton Islands.

      To the exploration of the first mentioned two parties were told off from the Susquehanna, one headed by Mr. Bayard Taylor which took the South, while Dr. Fahs, Assistant-Surgeon of the ship, with his party, went overt he [sic] North of the Island. They started early on the morning of the 15th June and did not return to the ship till 10 p.m. of the same night. A full account of this day's proceedings, and indeed a very full account generally of the Bonins is given in chapter X, volume I, of the narrative of Commodore Perry's expedition to China & Japan, published by order of the United States Government.

      I do not quote at length from the account therein contained because the work is one of modern date, and is within reach of any one who cares to procure it.

      It will be sufficient if I note that not only are the Bonin Islands prominently mentioned in the work above alluded to, but on his return to the States the Commodore placed in the hands of the compiler some further notes on the subject of these Islands and submitted a scheme for their colonization. He appears to have thought that their situation was most advantageous as forming a point on a proposed mail line, which, starting from San Francisco would touch at Honolulu and the Bonins for coal and supplies

and then on to Shanghai as its terminus. The importance that Yokohama was to attain to as a place of call for mail steamers could not then of course be foreseen, considering too that the scheme of a mail line across the Pacific to China, although attracting attention, had not then been developed.

      It was during the visit of the Susquehanna and Saratoga at Port Lloyd that Commodore Perry recommended the settlers to draw up a code or rules of governance for themselves, rather than that they should live under what he described to one of the settlers as Club Law. No mention is made of this in his book, but an organization scheme was drawn up. It consisted of three articles and thirteen sections, and was called "organization of the settlers of Peel Island." It provided for the election of a Chief Magistrate and Council of two persons to be elected by and from amongst the settlers, the chief Magistrate and Council to have Power to enact rules and make Regulations for the Government of the Island, such rules and regulations to be binding on the residents provided the concurrence and approval of two-thirds of the whole number of residents had been obtained.

      A copy of the organization scheme has been placed at my disposal, and the manner in which it came about was narrated to me on the Island.

      Under these rules Nathaniel Savory was elected as Chief Magistrate and James Motley and Thomas H. Webb as Councilmen. The document was signed by Nathaniel Savory, Thomas H. Webb, James Motley, William Gilley, John Brava, Joseph Cullen, George Brava and George Horton.

      The rules, however, were never enforced, and the existence of the scheme is now scarcely remembered on Peel Island.

      It is of importance that I should follow up the fate of those whose names appear appended to the documents.

      Nathaniel Savory died in 1874.

      Thomas H. Webb is now living at Port Lloyd.

      James Motley died on the Bailey Islands in 1870.

      William Gilley was killed at Port Lloyd thirteen years ago, by a man named Jack Spania said to be an Englishman.

      John Brava and George Brava are still living on the Bonins.

      Joseph Cullen died in Port Lloyd two years ago.

      George Horton was removed to Japan in 1862 by the Japanese, and handed over to the U.S. Consul at Kanagawa. Horton died, I believe, shortly after arrival in Japan.

      To some of the above names I shall have again occasion to refer.

      Before taking leave of Commodore Perry I should state that he left on Peel Island four head of cattle, and on one of the other Islands five Shanghai sheep and six goats.

      I enquired at Port Lloyd what had become of this stock, and was told that the cattle had disappeared, having probably been lifted by the crews of the whalers that were in harbour either at that time or that came shortly after Perry's visit. The sheep died, but the goats have multiplied to such an extent that the islands now swarm with them.

      Not long after the Susquehanna and Saratoga's visit the U.S. man-of-war Plymouth came to Port Lloyd. Her stay was marked by a most unfortunate accident. One of her cutters with fourteen men had gone outside the harbour in the face of a somewhat rough sea and was never more heard of, there being no doubt that she capsized with all hands, not one of whom ever reached shore.

      The place is a very dangerous one for boat work, which should be avoided as much as possible outside the harbour. Much anxiety was felt while I was at Port Lloyd on account of a party of Japanese that had put off one morning from the steamer Meiji Maru, and rounding the southern headland of the harbour was lost to sight from the ship. At 6 o'clock p.m. of the same day, and night setting in, there were no signs of the boat; a gun was fired and a rocket sent up from the Meiji Maru; but it was not until 10 p.m. of the same evening that some of the missing ones

returned with the report that the boat had been beached the other side of the headland close to the Frenchman Leseur's holding. The boat was eventually recovered, but Leseur said it was a marvel she had ever escaped for she was lifted in on the top of a raging surf right over the rocks and landed close to his own dwelling.

      The next visit of men of war after the Plymouth was that of four Russian ships which came to Port Lloyd in 1854. This squadron consisted of a frigate, a corvette, a store ship and a small steamer. Their visit was followed by that of the U.S. Frigate Macedonian, Captain Abbott, on her way to Manilla. The Macedonian had left the U. S. Flag ship Powhattan in Yedo Bay. Commodore Perry entrusted to Captain Abbott's care implements of husbandry and seeds to be distributed amongst the settlers, in a letter to one of whom the Commodore writes

"it must be understood that the sovereignty of the Bonin Islands has not yet been settled, and the interest taken by me in the welfare and prosperity of the settlement has solely in view the advantages of commerce generally."

      In the ensuing year 1855 the U.S. Man-of-war Vincennes visited Port Lloyd and remained 10 days.

      In 1861 an attempt to colonize Peel Island was made from Japan, and in November or December of that year a Japanese steamer was despatched to Port Lloyd from Yedo, having on board a Commissioner, subordinate officers and about 100 colonists.

      Rules and Regulations for the governance of the settlers, inclusive of foreigners, and harbour Regulations so called were drawn up in English by the Commissioner and his assistants. They appear never to have been enforced, and the present settlers seem for the most part ignorant of their existence. I have however a copy by me from which I extract the following somewhat unintelligible rules.

      "Article 3. — It shall be unlawful for any vessel or vessels that may be come into this port to discharge any of the cannon that will hurtful for the fishing.

      Article 4. — Any vessel or vessels may come into this port or harbour said the vessel shall to pay to the pilot amount of the established pilotage.

      Article 5. — If any person or persons come on shore from any vessel that may be come into this port who shall have pleasure hunting and waste upon the land of any inhabitants and also committed any of such he or they shall be seized and transported to the Captain of their vessel."

      Communication would appear to have been kept up with Port Lloyd from Japan from time to time during 1862, for it is recorded that the colonists soon wearying of the enterprise, left Port Lloyd in batches, until early in 1863 the Commissioner himself withdrew, taking with him the few Japanese that had for some fifteen months cast their lot upon the Islands.

      The Japanese settlement was situated on the South side of the harbour and one of the houses erected by them still remains. Close to this house a large stone has been erected which records that the Bonins were first visited in the time of Iyeyasu by Ogasawara Sadayori and that in 1593 they received the name of Ogasawara-jima, that they were again visited in 1828, that they are Japanese territory, that they were re-visited in 1861 and that this tablet was erected as a perpetual memorial.

      From time to time whalers arriving at Yokohama have been reported as from the Bonins, and in 1872, 1873, and for some time in 1874, a small schooner, the Tori, under American colours made trips between Yokohama and Port Lloyd, taking stores and cheap piece-goods from this, and returning with turtle shell, turtle oil, lemons and other Island produce.

      In 1874 the U.S. man-of-war Tuscarora while engaged on her line of soundings visited Port Lloyd and made a brief stay, and in November 1875, we have the visits of the Japanese steamer Meiji Maru and H.M.S. Curlew.

      Later on, and since my return, the Bonins have, I believe, been visited by the Russian man-of-war Hydamack and the German frigate Hertha.

      I have given prominence to the visits of men-of-war, but it is not to be concluded that the settlers were dependent on these alone for their glimpses of the outer world. Port Lloyd has been the frequent resort of whalers, mostly under American colours, in some instances flying the French or Hawaiian Flags. In one year the arrivals at Port Lloyd have been as many as 15 vessels, but lately the sight of a whaler has been somewhat rare, as may be judged from the fact that last year 1875, but one vessel, a whaler, had touched there prior to the arrival of the Meiji Maru and Curlew.

      In 1849, the year of the rush to California, several vessels, so I was informed by one of the residents, touched at Port Lloyd on their way from China to San Francisco; these ships varied in size from 300 to 1,000 tons, and so far as I can learn must have been coolie passenger ships. That same year, 1849, is also a memorable one in the annals of the settlers, for in the autumn a lorcha and schooner under Danish colours and a cutter with the British flag came to Port Lloyd and made a stay of some two months, during which the vessels were hove down and repaired. They then left in company, but after a few days the lorcha and cutter returned and their crews made a raid on the place, offering no personal violence but carrying off every thing they could lay hands on. The two vessels then quitted Peel Island and were seen no more.

      I have thus briefly sketched the history of the Islands down to the time of my visit, but I shall probably in the course of this paper have to refer to past dates in order to complete, as well as can be done in the limits of a paper of this nature, the history of Peel Island and its settlers up to the present time.

      H.M.S. Curlew anchored in Port Lloyd on the morning of the 26th November, having left Yokohama at 10 a.m., of the 22nd, the voyage being principally made under canvass.

      The Japanese steamer Meiji Maru with the Japanese Commissioners on board, left Yokohama on Sunday the

21st November at noon, and arrived at Port Lloyd early on Wednesday the 24th.

      As we made slowly, in the early morning, for the entrance of the harbour, the approach to which is clearly marked by two conspicuous crags known as "the Paps," the Islands presented a fertile appearance, and the palm trees twisted this way and that by the action of the winds were a conspicuous feature in the vegetation.

      The approach to the harbour is marked by bold rocks, and a sheer wall of dark rock rising up at the South side of the harbour dwarfed almost to miniature the Meiji Maru, which vessel we descried at anchor well up the harbour. A canoe propelled by three men was noticed about a mile astern of the Curlew, but as no signal was made to us Captain Church did not think it advisable to stop, but proceeding on to the anchorage let go close to the Japanese steamer in about 22 fathoms of water. It turned out that the canoe had on board a Frenchman, Leseur by name, the self-constituted pilot of Port Lloyd, whom Captain Peters of the Meiji Maru had thoughtfully sent out with a letter to the Curlew, in order that Leseur's services might be availed of if required.

      The harbour of Port Lloyd open to the south-west is about a mile and half in length, and has a breadth varying from half a mile to a mile.

      At the upper end of the harbour, and on its northern shore, a coral reef extends for some distance, terminating in a pinnacle rock. Westward of this, and but a short distance from the beach, there is a depth of ten fathoms, the spot styled by Captain Beechey of the Blossom as "ten fathom hole"; from this the water deepens rapidly towards the mouth of the harbour.

      The general character of the scenery as observable from the harbour is hilly, with here and there bold crags; the cliff line rising straight from the water's edge, notably so on the Eastern side of the anchorage, while the western and north-western shore is marked by a line of yellow sandy beach to the rear of which the ground is flat for a short distance, backed by hilly slopes and steep

ascents. A fringe of trees hides the level ground and forms a natural boundary between the plots of cultivated land and the sea shore.

      The hills are covered with verdure, but the luxuriant and almost tropical nature of the vegetation is not fully realized until after landing.

      The ordinary palm and cabbage-palm trees abound on the rising ground which surrounds the anchorage.

      A solitary hut at the head of the harbour, in front of which the American flag was hoisted shortly after our arrival, a few canoes drawn up on the beach, and a canoe or two with small white sail flitting across the anchorage, constituted the only outward signs of life visible from the Curlew.

      It is not within the scope of this paper to give in detail a narrative of what occurred on each day of my stay, which occupied exactly a week, my time, moreover, was for the most part taken up with matters which would have but little general interest; but I will endeavour to give a faithful picture of the condition of the present settlers and to note such matters of interest as will convey to those who are desirous of knowledge on the subject as much information as I myself possess derived from actual observation.

      It must be remembered that in 1830 the little colony which in that year first settled at Port Lloyd consisted of Mazarro, Millichamp, Savory, Chapin and Johnson; that of these Millichamp is now living at Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones group, and the rest are dead; Savory having died as recently as the l0th April, 1874, at the age of 79, leaving a widow and six children, now residing on Peel Island. Mrs. Savory was the widow of Mazarro above mentioned, and was married to Savory after Mazarro's death, having also buried another husband in the interval.

      In 1853, the time of Commodore Perry's visit, there were residing at Port Lloyd in addition to Sandwich Islanders and natives of other groups, eight foreigners — Savory, Webb, Motley, Gilley, the two Bravas, Cullen

and Horton. What befell the majority of these has before been stated. These with the other Islanders made up in 1853 a resident population of thirty-one.

      The settlers now number sixty-nine, of whom sixty-six reside on Peel Island, and three on the Bailey or Coffin group, of these thirty-seven are males and thirty-two females, and out of the whole number about twenty are children whose ages vary from one to fifteen. Amongst the present settlers there can only be said to be five whites, namely, Thomas H. Webb, an Englishman born in Wallington, Surrey; Leseur a Frenchman who hails from Brittany; Allen a German who comes from Bremen; Rose, about whose nationality I am uncertain, some calling him a German others a Dutchman; and John Brava whose real name is Gonsalves, a Portuguese, born in the Island of Brava, one of the Azores.

      Of these John Brava, born in 1811, and consequently now 65 years of age, was the first to come to Port Lloyd where he arrived in 1831 in the British whaler Partridge.

      He remembers Millichamp, Savory and Mazarro being there when he came, as also another foreigner, probably either Chapin or Johnson, whose name, however, he has forgotten. He married at Port Lloyd a Sandwich Island woman, since dead, by whom he had two sons George and Andrew Brava, the latter of whom is dead, as is also his wife; two of his children, however, Francis and Lucy Brava are still living. The other son, George Brava, a man now close on 40 years of age, lives close by his father; he married a daughter of Savory's, who died leaving three children, Jose, Rosa, and Andrew Brava now living with their father.

      Thomas H. Webb came, as I think I have before mentioned, to Port Lloyd in the American Barque Japan, of Nantucket, some time in 1847, and has thus been nearly thirty years a resident on Peel Island. He married the daughter of an Englishman — Robinson by name — she is living with him now and they have a family of eight children.

      George Robinson, about whose ultimate fate there is

much uncertainty, arrived at Port Lloyd in the whaler Howard some time in 1849 and took up his residence with Webb, whose home was at that time shared by a man named Gilley (afterwards murdered). Robinson did not remain long at Port Lloyd but removed to Hillsboro' Island, the most important of the Bailey Group, where he cleared and planted out a considerable portion of ground. After a residence of a few years he left with his family for Guam and Seypan and in his absence Motley, of whom mention has before been made, went and occupied his clearing on Hillsboro' Island.

      Robinson eventually returned and appears to have arranged amicably with Motley for a joint occupation of the clearing. Robinson on his return had brought with him some natives from the Kingsmill Group and discontent soon manifested itself amongst them, fomented, so it is said, by a woman named Kitty in the employ of Motley. This appears to have engendered a quarrel between Robinson and Motley, for they separated, the Islanders above mentioned leaving Robinson and taking service with Motley. An Englishman, known as Bob, who had run away from a whaler and found shelter with Motley, left the latter and went over to Robinson. At this time Robinson's family consisted of his sons John, Henry and Charles, and his daughters Eliza, Caroline and Susan. There was living with him as nurse to the children a woman, Zipher by name, a native of Raven Island.

      Notwithstanding the separation of Robinson and Motley, matters appear to have gone from bad to worse, and scenes of bloodshed ensued, over which I will not linger. It is sufficient to say that one morning, (the event occurred some time in 1861) an attack is said to have been made by the Kingsmill Islanders on the elder Robinson, who with his children John, Henry and Eliza fled in one direction, his daughter Caroline, then a girl of 19, taking with her the younger sister Susan and her brother Charles, flying in another. In the fight that ensued the man Bob was killed, whether by or at the instigation of Motley is not accurately known. Motley has since died

and is buried on Hillsboro' Island. His name will be remembered as one of those appended to the organization scheme.

      It is said that George Robinson and the children with him were picked off by a passing whaler, the Montreal, Captain Sole; the rest of his family fled to the opposite side of the Island, and making their way to the sea-shore, subsisted there for a period of eleven months living on shell-fish and berries, until attracted by the smoke of a fire, the captain of a passing whaler the E.L.B. Jenny, hove to off the land, and, going ashore in a boat, found the two girls Caroline and Susan Robinson with their brother Charles and the nurse Zipher in a most pitiable condition, as may well be imagined. Taking them on board, he proceeded to Port Lloyd, close by, where the family were sheltered by Webb, who subsequently married the girl Caroline, Susan later on becoming the wife of a man named Pease, said to have been an American, and whose disappearance at Port Lloyd in the autumn of 1874 is generally well known. Mrs. Pease, Charles Robinson and the woman Zipher are now living on Peel Island.

      John Robinson is reported to be living at the Sandwich Islands, which would go to confirm the supposition that with his father they had made good their escape from Hillsboro'. The woman Kitty is still living at the Bailey group, with the man Rose and a Kanaka boy, making up the three residents on those Islands.

      The next to arrive at Port Lloyd is the Frenchman Leseur, better known on the Islands as Louis. He came in the Hawaiian whaler Wyola in 1862 or 1863, but he had made several visits to the Islands before that in different whalers. In one of the years, however, above-mentioned he took up his residence at Port Lloyd where he has since, with the exception of a visit to Guam, continued to dwell. He is a stout hearty-looking Frenchman of about 55 years of age, speaking English remarkably well — his present wife, Pidear by name, is a native of Grigan, one of the Ladrones group, and is the

widow of a man known as John Marquese, a native of the Marquesas.

      By a former wife, who is buried at Port Lloyd, Leseur has three children, Albert, Lousia, and Phillis, who are still living. I may here mention that it was at Leseur's house we found the copper plate and board put up by Captain Beechey in 1827. Leseur said he had found it in an outhouse on the clearing he now occupies.

      We next come to the German Allen who arrived with Leseur in 1862 or 1863. He appears to be a man of fifty and upwards and has taken to wife a Sandwich Island woman, Poconoi by name. They live on Peel Island about a couple of miles from Port Lloyd and midway between the dwellings of Leseur and Webb.

      As regards the man Rose, now living on the Bailey Islands, it is uncertain when he actually came to reside there. All that is known of him at Port Lloyd is that he made his first appearance there in the French whaler Gustav in 1852. He was left there sick, but shipped again, and made his appearance at Port Lloyd from time to time in successive whalers. He was eventually found residing on Hillsboro' Island, but the precise date of his arrival there, or indeed how he got there at all, is not known.

      The settlers other than those of whom I have made particular mention consist of men and women from the Sandwich Islands; from Grigan, or Agrigan, as it is sometimes called; from the Caroline Islands; and from the Gilbert or Kingsmill groups, — there is also one man from Bermuda, Robert Myers by name, claiming to be a British subject; a Manilla man named Sino, and two Japanese women, the wives respectively of Sino and Myers. Of the 66 settlers now on the Bonins 35 have been born on the Islands. The nomenclature is curious, for I found in the list of residents that I procured when at Port Lloyd the following names, Thomas Tewcrab, and his wife Bosan, Charley Papa, Friday, Bill Boles, Samuel Tinpot, Zipher, Hannah

Poconoi, Samuel Tinpot, Pidear, Mrs. Tinaree, and Mrs. Fanny and Mrs. Betty.

      Miscegenation has brought about rather curious results. In the male children the white parentage is very distinct; light olive complexion, dark eyes and clear cut features, in the females the Micronesian blood is unmistakeable, and I found in many cases the flat face and coarse features of the Pacific Islanders — on the other hand, in some cases the women are in appearance very closely akin to the Hindostanee.

      The men dress for the most part simply in shirt and trousers with broad brimmed Panama hat, a cotton shirt being replaced by a flannel one in the winter months. The women in print gowns with a bright colored kerchief on the head.

      The two Japanese women above referred to were taken from Yokohama in the schooner Tori some time during 1873; four or five others also were passengers, but they elected to return to Yokohama.

      Having thus conveyed a general idea of how the resident population is made up, I proceed to describe their dwellings, their occupation and mode of life.

      Each family has its holding or clearing of cultivated land close to which the dwelling and outhouses are erected, these are situated for the most part round the harbour, but screened from view by a fringing of hummock trees.

      Webb, Allen and Leseur have their clearings away from Port Lloyd to the south and west of the harbour in each case close to the sea.

      To the holdings are given distinct appellations. Thus, commencing from the left hand, or north western side of the harbour, there is Yellow Beach on which the Bravas, father and son, the Tewcrabs, a family numbering some 15 members, and Charles Robinson have their clearings; continuing along the shore a site known as the Cove opposite ten fathom hole is reached; then a spot known as Jackson, unoccupied. From this it is but a step to the Head of the harbour, as the location of the Savorys is

called, and continuing along the eastern and southern shore, we come to Bull Beach, the dwelling of the Manilla man Sino and his Japanese wife, and but a short distance beyond this the site known as Aki, the present residence of the widow Pease and former site of the Japanese colony established at the close of 1861 and broken up early in 1863.

      Leaving the harbour and coasting round the sea shore, but bearing to the south, Leseur's place of residence known as Blossom or Clarkson's village is reached; further on is Poconoi the dwelling of William Allen, and beyond this Little Liver where Webb and his family reside; to each of these a land track leads, starting from Aki, but the road is a rough one, and they are more easily reached by canoe, provided the weather suits.

      The dwelling houses resemble one another closely and to describe one is to describe all. They consist of two rooms, constructed with wooden uprights, and each has a solid wood flooring; the sides and roof are thatched with the leaf of the cabbage palm neatly secured to the rafters with thin wooden slips. Kitchens and outhouses are all separate from the dwelling. Of furniture there is of course not a very large display; a rough deal table, a few chairs and a seaman's chest go to make up the furniture of one room, while the bedroom opening out from it is supplied with a plain wooden bedstead.

      Each cabin, for so it may be called, is supplied with a clock — a few cheap and highly colored prints adorn the walls and from the ceiling hang rifle and fowling piece. A few shelves with plates and crockery-ware neatly arranged complete all that is seen in the interior or[sic] these dwellings. Everything is scrupulously clean, from floor and woodwork to linen and crockery.

      Of books, with the exception of a few, I saw in Webb's house, there are none, and, Webb excepted, no one on the islands can either read or write.

      In the cultivated ground which surrounds each dwelling are seen patches of garden vegetables, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, and wherever there is a little running water,

taro, from which the article of diet so well known in the Sandwich Islands under the name of poi is made.

      The dwellings are all with but one exception, that of the widow Pease at Aki, situated on low ground and to the back of the cabins the sloping ground is in some cases laid out with Sugar cane, Maize, and a few Cocoa-nut plantations. Plaintains thrive and are grown close to the homesteads, and lemons of excellent quality abound throughout the Island.

      Pigs, geese, ducks, and fowls are kept by the settlers, and appear to thrive well. What with wild goats, wild and tame pigs, poultry, fruit and vegetable produce afforded by the shore and excellent fish and turtle from the harbour, the settlers are not so badly off for food. It happens, however, at times that violent hurricances play sad havoc with the vegetation and now and then there is actual distress for food, one family that I came across being reduced to Indian-corn meal alone for diet.

      The occupation of the settlers can very easily be imagined. Rising at dawn, work is done either in the garden or about the house until breakfast, which is taken about eight a.m. The meal varies according to season, and consists of whatever the family may have at hand either fresh or salted turtle, fish, corn meal, taro or vegetables. After breakfast work is resumed; one will go after turtle, which, when in season in April, May and June are turned over in great numbers — one man securing perhaps 50 a day. Another will go fishing, or perhaps, taking his gun, look after a wild goat or pig; firewood has, to be cut or a neighbour wants a helping hand to repair his house or erect a new one.

      The evening meal is taken shortly before dusk, it is probably the same in materials as the breakfast, perhaps with the addition of goat's flesh or pork. And after supper to bed — and so on from day to day, an existence varied only by the occasional visit of a whaler, now apparently very rare. In addition to the products of the Island already noted, I should mention that arrowroot of

      very good quality is grown, and that the soil seems eminently adapted both for this and for tapioca.

      Of running water there seems no lack.

      The settlers have of course an eye to trade, though they seem more inclined to barter than to accept money; and naturally so, for money is of little or no use amongst themselves and they can only hope to pass it off with the next in-coming whaler unless perhaps it is hoarded.

      Their wants are notably piece-goods of any description, provided they are of light texture and suitable for clothing, stores, salt (much used in salting down turtle for winter consumption) soap, tobacco, hardware, nails, knives, tools of different kinds and ammunition. Against these they are ready to barter turtle, turtle-shell, turtle-oil, bananas, lemons, poultry and garden produce. If, however, the purchaser prefers to pay in cash the following are the island rates: Turtle, each $2; turtle oil $10, $15 and $20 a barrel; turtle shell, 50 cents per pound; lemons, $2 a hundred.

      It can be understood, however, that the wants of the settlers, which are in themselves comparatively few, are easily supplied to so limited a population. The Meiji Maru took down presents in the shape of blankets, piece-goods, tea, spirits, cigars and a few miscellaneous articles, and Captain Church of the Curlew, not unmindful of the settlers' wants, made up for each of those who required them a packet containing shirts, flannel, shoes, knives, aoap and other useful ships' stores.

      As I personally visited the dwelling of each settler, and is in so doing I had to cross the southern portion of the Island in order to visit Leseur, Allen and Webb at their respective holdings, I was enabled to get a very good idea of the character of the scenery, the vegetation and the general resources of the Island. It is not until landing that the more tropical nature of the vegetation is apparent Palms, what appeared to be a species of wild pineapple, and luxuriant ferns grow in rich profusion: the hill sides are clothed with verdure and the valleys are filled

      with a description of wild bean, with here and there patches of taro.

      The following are the principal trees and plants. I give their names as known among the settlers, — in some cases probably Hawaiian appellations have been adopted.

      Tremana; a beautiful wood and largely used by the settlers. Whalers are in the habit of taking away quantities of this wood, which is sold to them at twenty-five cents a foot, and on one occasion a schooner took away from the island a full cargo of it.

      Mulberry; used on the Bonins for the uprights of houses and generally for building purposes.

      Cedar, so called, furnishes a beautiful wood of which the floorings of the dwellings are nearly all made.

      Tea tree and poison wood tree; used for making the hulls of canoes.

      Spruce; used only for fuel.

      Rose wood tree; in use for binding down the thatch of the dwellings.

      Shaddock; the wood of which is used for roofing purposes.

      Yellow wood; no particular use.

      Hake wood and white oak; both employed in dwellings.

      Lohala tree. Mats are made of the leaves and fibre of this tree — the fruit makes a good food for pigs.

      Milk wood, red iron wood and white iron wood; in use for building purposes.

      Black iron wood; used only for fuel.

      Soft Hao wood; of which the hulls and canoes are made.

      Swamp hao wood and mountain hao wood; used for making the arms of canoes with which the outrigger is attached to the hull.

      Narrow leaf hao tree; the wood of this is used for the handles of hatchets and for garden implements.

      Kehop tree or shrub; a beautiful plant resembling an aloe and bearing a sweetly scented flower; the leaves of this are much in request by the settlers as they are supposed to contain certain healing qualities; they are

made soft by heating before a fire and are then applied to bruises and sores.

      In addition to the above mentioned and those already noted there are on the Islands, wild plum and cherry, orange, laurel, juniper and box wood tree, sandal wood, marmotiao, wild cactus, curry plant, wild sage and celery. Mosses, lichens and various kinds of parasitic plants abound.

      Of minerals upon the Islands none are known to the settlers, unless I except iron pyrites, specimens of which are found on Peel Island.

      The shores are covered with coral, and these, together with the reefs, are strewn with shells some of which are very beautiful.

      Earthquake shocks and tidal waves are frequent, the peculiarity of the latter being that no bore rushes up the harbour, but the water suddenly rises just in the manner as described to me by a settler as water is raised in a bowl by inserting an inverted tumbler, when the water has attained a certain height, it as suddenly recedes. The climate is more tropical than temperate. At the time of our visit during the latter end of November the thermometer at noon stood at 70° and 75° and after Yokohama seemed oppressively warm. Sickness is almost unknown amongst the settlers, the only thing they complain of is that on the changes of season from heat to cold, and from cold to heat, they are liable to chills resulting in violent colds.

      I noticed no signs of intemperance, nor did I see in any of the houses either beer, wine or spirits.

      To those who visited us on board the Curlew beer seemed to recommend itself most, but only to the older men, the younger refusing to take anything but water with their meals, when entertained on board the ship. The use of tobacco is general.

      I have before remarked that on our arrival at Port Lloyd the American flag was run up close to a cabin at the top of the harbour. This turned out to be on the holding owned by the widow Savory and her family

though the dwelling itself is obscured from the anchoiage by trees.

      I had a long chat with this old lady, who received Capt. Church and myself surrounded by her family, one or two of the other settlers also being present.

      She explained that the hoisting of the flag was out of compliment to us, and that one of her husband's dying wishes had been that the flag should be so displayed whenever a vessel arrived or on any exceptional occasion.

      I asked Mrs. Savory if she had any ideas on the subject of protection by any particular Power, but the family all gravely shook their heads at this, and said they wanted to be regarded as Bonin Islanders, by which I understood them to mean that they wished to be left alone in undisturbed possession of their holdings, and the less that was said about nationality or protection of any kind the better. Close to the house is Savory's grave, and indeed in most of the enclosures the resting places of the dead are conspicuous features surrounded with neat palisades and in some cases a headstone recording in English the name and date of death of the deceased. While on this subjpct I should not omit to record that one of the settlers told me he had, when digging near the shore a few years back, come across the skeleton of a child apparently about ten years of age; the bones fell to pieces at the touch and on exposure to the air, from which it is conceived that they had been there many years.

      I have not before noted that English is spoken by all the settlers, unless I except some half dozen from the Kingsmill group, who speak their own language.

      There is however no attempt at education on the Islands, nor is there indeed any one there who could improve this state of things, Webb being the only one who reads or writes, and this indifferently well. Religion has with perhaps the exception of Webb, no name amongst them; the marriage and burial services are, however, always read by Webb when occasion requires.

      When speaking to Mrs. Savory about her husband's death, I asked if his end had been peaceful. She replied

"quite so; that he had given certain directions with great clearness." But when following up my question by asking if he had expressed himself in any way about a future state, the question did not seem to be understood and was received with blank looks. Mrs. Savory rather amused me when in reply to a question I put as to what possible charm there could be in such an existence as she and her family were leading she replied, "Well, I guess we pay no taxes here."

      From Mrs. Savory, her son Horace, a young fellow of two or three and twenty, from Webb, Leseur, Charles Robinson and the Bravas, Captain Church and I received much kindness and attention.

      It now only remains for me to make some concluding remarks. Popular rumour had ascribed to the Bonins a colony of semi-savages, murdering one another and altogether leading a barbarous existence. I found a small colony of settlers, living to all outward appearances in decency and order, cleanly in their attire, civil in their address and comfortable in their homes. Such is the bright side.

      The dark picture is the utter apathy of the settlers; their indifference to anything outside of what goes to satisfy their immediate wants; their suspicion in some cases of one another. No religion, no education, old men and women hastening to their graves without the one, children growing up without the other — and there is a darker picture than this. This paper records the fact of two men Gilley and Bob (so called) having fallen by the hand of their neighbours. On the 9th October, 1874, Benjamin Pease, a resident at Port Lloyd, disappeared, and it is believed met with a violent death, while on the 11th June 1875 a negro, Spenser by name, strongly suspected of having been Pease's assassin also disappeared, receiving his death blow it is said at the hands of one of the residents. I was informed by a settler that during his stay on the Bonins, now extending over 25 years, no less than 11 men had met with violent deaths. I would not have it assumed, however, that these tragedies are to be

ascribed altogether to the bona fide resident population, if indeed, the word population can be ascribed to such a little band.

      It must be remembered that the component parts of the population are a few old residents, a few comparatively new, some born on the Islands and now getting on in years, runaways from whalers and men perhaps purposely left behind, and these latter we may be sure not the most orderly of the crew.

      I trust that if communication comes to be established with these islands with anything like regularity that the claims of the settlers on the sympathies of the foreign communities of Yokohama and Yedo will not be overlooked, and that an attempt at ameliorating their condition will be made from one or both these settlements if not indeed generally from the open ports in Japan. I can vouch for it that kindly sympathy expressed either in word or deed will not be inappreciated there, and that in spite of many drawbacks, there are as warm hearts on the Bonins as any that beat amongst ourselves.

Source:

Russell Robertson.
"The Bonin Islands."
      Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,
Vol. IV. (1875-1876),
pp.111-142.

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