Saturday Evening, September 30, 1820
for the boston intelligener
Miscellany.
Description of an almost unknown groupe of Islands, situate between
Japan and the Marianne Islands.
A Japanese Map, describing the countries near Japan, and published at Yedo, in 1785 — was brought into Europe by Mr. Pitsingh, formerly Ambassador to China. It contains, among other things, a Chart of a small Archipelago, not inserted in the European maps. The Japanese call them Bonin Sima, or the uninhablted islands, not that they are now actually destitute of inhabitants, but were so formerly.
M. Abel Remusat, M.D. a member of the French Institute, has given a compilation of the accounts from Japan, relating to these Islands — which, now that the commercial spirit of our countrymen, in seeking new lands in unknown seas, may prove useful as well as interesting.
After shewing that European geographers have only had a confused notion of this groupe of islands, and that no modern map has insetted them, he proceeds to demonstrate their existence upon Japanese authority.
Their position seems to be about eighty leagues from the island of Fatsisio, and in about the 27th degree of latitude. The different navigators of those seas have passed either too far north or south to fall in with the Bonin Islands.
"Kaempfer is the only author who has collected any particulars relating to them, but his statements are so inexact, that it is impossible to derive any advantage from them. About the year 1675, he says, the Japanese accidentally discovered a very large island, one of their barks having been forced there in a storm, from the island Fatsisio, from which they computed it to be three hundred 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 or plants and trees, particularly the arrack tree, which, however, might give room to conjecture, that the island lay futher to the S of Japan than to the East, these trees growing only in hot countries; they called it Bune Sima, or the istand Bune, and because they found no inhabitants upon it, they marked it with the character of an unhabited island. On the shores they found an incredible number of fish and crabs, some of which were from four to six feet long.
"There are many inaccuracies in this account, as we shall immediately show; — besides the position
of the discovered island being so vaguely indicated, that without additional information it would be impossible to make use of the discovery. This agrees with Capt. Burney's opinion expressed in his large and magnificent work on the history of the Pacific Ocean, where, after having cited the passage from Kaempfer, he adds — 'it would be useless to make any conjecture on the situation of this island, except that the miles are probably Dutch measure, fifteen to a league. The crabs, from four to six feet long, no doubt were turtle.' What an author so able and so profoundly versed in these subjects considers impossible, would certainly be so for any other person, and I should never have thought of examining this point in geography, if accident had not thrown the original chart I have mentioned into my hands, as well as the description accompanying it. I shall employ both in extending and rectifying Kaempfer's relation.
"In the first place, this learned traveller speaks but of one large island, while the Japanese geographer counts eighty-nine, the largest of which does not exceed the size of the island Fatsisio. — The relation of the German traveller places the island discovered the Japanese three hundred miles east of Fatsisio, and appears to connect itself with the fables reported of the gold and silver islands, which common opinion places in this direction. The original description places the Bonin islands exactly to the south of Fatsisio, at a distance of about eighty leagues, which confirms and justifies one of Kaempfer's conjectures. The name Bunesima is corrupted; it should be written Bonin Sima, or Mo nin Sima, that is uninhabited islands, literally islands destitute of men.
"According to Kaempfer, Fatsisio, where state criminals are confined, is the most southern Japanese isand on the eastern side. The green colour, which is appropriated to the Japanese possessions, is extended on my chart to some islets situated south east of Fatsisio, of which Ardo Sima, or the Blue Island, is the chief. From Fatsisio to the first islet marked red, that is belonging to the groupe of uninhabited islands, the distance to the south is estimated at one hundred and eighty Ri, making about eighty leagues. Eight Ri from thence to the second islet, then seven to the third, then three to an island without any particular name, although five Ri circumference. This island is mountainous, and overgrown with wood. To the south is another woody island, seven Ri in circumference, on whose western side is a stream of fresh water. From thence is a passage into the principal island called the Northern Island, whose very irregular contour is estimated at fifteen Ri, or seven and a half leagues. In the eastern part is a temple dedicated to the Spirits. On the northern side the coast advances, following a chain of mountains, with a large village on the west side, this habitation has no other name. Towards the middle of the isle, on the northern part, is a village named O-moula. The rest of the country is covered with trees and valuable plants, except a square and level tract, four ting in extent, on the western point. O-moula is situated in latitude twenty-seven and a half.
"From the northern to the southern Isle, twenty Ri is reckoned; this is ten Ri in circuit, and is exactly under the twenty-seventh parallel. It is mountainous in almost every part, and covered with very large trees, except toward the south, where there is an open plain. To the south and south east are two other inlands, one two, the other three Ri in circumference, both covered with trees — Besides these, there are a multitude of islands, whose magnitude and relative distance are not noticed; most of them are covered with wood, and many are merely summits of very high rocks — The number of islands called uninhabited, is eighty-nine, large and small. The Japanese description reckons two large, four of a moderate size, and four small. The rest are not particularly designated, merely consisting of shelves and very high rocks, such as our navigators have remarked in all those seas.
"According to the same description, in the ten islands of some extent already mentioned, there are a great number of trees and plants, and wherever the country is level, there are houses and inhabitants. In the seventy others (seventy-nine should be stated), the earth is too uneven and rugged, the mountains too steep, and vallies too confined for habitation; but there are small arms of the sea well supplied with fish, and the inhabitants of the adjacent islands visit them for collecting their productions; that is, to fish there.
"These islands, situated in the twenty-seventh degree, enjoy a mild temperature, which occasions the mountains and vallies to produce all kinds of legumes and gram, wheat, rye, small rice, &c. The wood, called black mortar wood by the Chinese, and Nasaki faze by the Japanese, is found there — Wax is also collected, and the fisheries and hunting are very abundant, and make large returns.
"The author of the description details the different kinds of trees and animals found on these islands. Among, the first is the Kan-mou or hard tree, which is the most precious; another very high tree, whose Japanese name I do not know; the Areka, Roycouyer, White Louan, Katsiyasi, Sandal, Camphor, a large tlee a with leaves shining as if varnished, and a number of others. He afterwards describes the principal plants, birds and fishes which are very abundant there, but which I deeme it unnecessary to notice.
"The author I have followed relates that a merchant at the province of Fitson, sailing from the point of Idsou, accidentally touched at these islands and thinking that their products would repay the expense of extablishment, returned afterwards with thirty men, and furnished with it patent or seal which guaranteed the possession to him. The only dificulty he experienced in going there from Idsou was a very rapid current setting from east to west, which sometimes changes its direction. This current, situated to the north of Fatsisio, betwween that island and the island Mikouri, is called Kourosigawa, or the black current.
"It appears that the colonists who are established in the Bonin islands devote themselves to fishing, the cultivation of the earth, and collection of the medicinal substances and valuable woods that grow there. The Japanese government has not taken possession of them formally, and the limits of the empire are still at Fatsisio; yet it is very probable that they would not see the establishment of Europeans there without displeasure. Better informed persons may decide, if the situation of these isles in the vicinity of a nation closed against commerce, may attach some importance to them. I thought that the preceding notice might at least be interesting to geographers. The peopling these islands at so recent a period is in itself an unimportant fact, yet calculated to assist in elucidating the peopling of the Oceanic islands, and of the new world.'
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