Thus Loo Choo, like almost every other nation, has been disturbed
by civil wars, and the state has been endangered by foreign invasion •
her towns have been plundered, her palaces consumed, and her citizens
carried into captivity. Situated between the empires of China and
Japan, she has been mixed up with their quarrels, and made subservient
to the interests of both; at one time suffering all the miseries of
invasion, and at another acting as a mediator. Allied by preference to
China, and by fear and necessity, from her proximity, to Japan, she is
obliged, to avoid jealousy, to pay tribute to both, though that to the
latter country is said to be furnished by the merchants who are most
interested in the trade to that empire. Their conduct to strangers
who have touched at their ports has ever been uniformly polite and
hospitable ; but they would rather be exempt from such friendly visits :
and though extremely desirous of obtaining European manufactures,
particularly cloth, hosiery, and cutlery, they would oppose any open
attempt to introduce them. The most likely means of establishing a
communication with them would be through Chinese merchants at
Canton, who might be persuaded to send goods there in their own
names and under the charge of their own countrymen.
Whale-ships have occasionally touched at Loo Choo when distressed
for provisions. It is satisfactory to find that these interviews
have been conducted without giving offence to the natives. It is to
be hoped that any vessel which may hereafter be under the necessity of
touching there will preserve the same conduct, and give the inhabitants
no cause to regret having extended their hospitality to foreigners.
I have perhaps entered more minutely upon several questions connected
with Loo Choo than may be considered necessary, after what
has already been given to the public; but it appeared desirable to
remove doubts upon several points of interest, which could not perhaps
be effectually accomplished without combining my remarks with a short
notice of the history of the country.
C H A P T E R X Y H I I .
Passage from Loo Clioo eastward—Arrive at Port Lloyd in the Yslas del Azobispo—
Description of those Islands-Passage to Kamtchatka—Arrival at Petrapaulski—Notice
of that Place—D e p a rtu re -P as s Beering's Strait—Enter Kotzebue Sound—Prosecute
the Voyage to the Northward—Stopped by the Ice—Return to the Southward Discover
Port Clarence and Grantley Harbour—Description of tliese Harbours—Return
to Kotzebue Sound—Ship strikes upon a Shoal.
Ok the 25th of Jlay we took our departure from Loo Choo, and gHAP,
iMay,
1S27.
steered to the eastward in search of some islands which were doubt-
fully placed in the charts. On the third day we arrived within a few
miles of the situation of Amsterdam Island without seeing any land,
and passed it to the northward, as near as the wind would permit.
The weather was very unfavourable for discovery, being thick and rainy,
or misty, with very variable winds. On the 3d of June we regretted
exceedingly not having clear weather, as the appearance of plover,
sandlings, flocks of shearwaters, and several petrel and albatrosses,
created a belief that we were near some island.
Three days afterwards we were upon the spot where the Island
ofDisappointment is placed in the latest charts. The weather was
tolerably clear, but no land could be seen ; and as w'e were so near the
situation of a group of islands which, if in existence, would occupy
several days in examining, I did not wait to search for Disappointment
Island, which is said to be very small. I have since been informed
that this island, which in all probability is the same as the island of
Rosario, was seen by a whaler, which, not being able to find it a second
time, bestowed upon it the name of Invisible Island. It is said to lie
3 u