CHAPTER VI I .
Number and position of islands of Lew Chew.—Their supposed political relations to Japan and China.—
Description of the island of great Lew Chew, as seen on the first approach to i t—Visit of officials to
the Susquehanna.—Visit of Dr. Bettleheim.—Refusal of presents, and consequent mortification of the
Lew Chowans.—Exploration of the island resolved on by the Commodore.—Daguerreotyping on
shore.—Coral insect and its formations.—Second visit of the Authorities o f Lew Chew.—Regent of the
island received by the Commodore.—Friendly nature of the interview.—Surprise of the Lew Chewans
at sight of the steam engine.—Commodore announces to them his intention of returning the visit at
the palace ofShui.—Their evident embarrassment thereat.—Leave to go on shore.—Description of
Napha and its vicinity, by one of the officers.—Exploring party sets out, placed under the command
of the chaplain, Mr. Jones.—Mr. Bayard Taylor attached to it, with orders to take notes and furnish
a detailed report of the journey.—Negotiations with the Lew Chew authorities to obtain a house on
shore.—Their manifest opposition.—Commodore persists and succeeds.—Officers, when on shore, continually
watched by spies.—Captain Basil Hall’s account of the Lew Chewans somewhat exaggerated.—
Impressions made on the officers as to the character of the natives.—Hydrographic surveys.—
Boat exercise of the crews, and drilling on land of the marines.
N Thursday, the 26th
of May, the squadron
found itself quietly anchored
in the harbor of
Napha, the principal
port of the Great Lew
Chew island, and the
first point where the
expedition touched on
Japanese territory, if
Lew Chew (or, as the
natives call it, Doo
Choo) he indeed a dependency
of Japan.
The group of islands
known as the Lieou
Kieou, or Lew Chew, is said to be in number thirty-six, at considerable
distances from each other, and lying between the islands of Kioosioo and
Formosa; they are between 24° 10' and 28° 40' north latitude, and 127°
and 129° east longitude from Greenwich.
By some
j ; others
j on the
pan, and
jubtedly
f>, vices,
But
I, at the
I objects
phically
Iter, di-
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The
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made at
rho were
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for him,
er civil-
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dug the
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s which
tuanlike
[Messrs.
in the
i, aided
uts that
(3 could
jtion of
junica-
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sart of