The New York herald., 1851-11-06
Singular and Fortunate Discoveries In
Japanese Literature.
From the Courier and Enquirer


From the Courier and Enquirer
WASHINGTON, October 30, 1851.
IL will be remembered that several months since,
an American ship of war, cruising in the Eastern
seas, picked up a boat containing number Of men,
who proved to be the Off oers and crew Of Japanese
vessel which had been wrecked. This circumstance
may lead to important consequences The follow
ing letter relating to it has been communicated to
J. &. G Kennedy, Esq, the actiye and able Secre-
tary Of the National Institute, by the Hon. Secre
tary OF the INTERIOR
UNITED STATES REvE.vr CUTTER Polk
Ban Francisco, August Ii, 1851.
Hon A. II II. STEWART, Secretary of the Interior;
in the Japanese language with the the officers
and men board, who shipwrecked and
brought this port thinking they might be object of
curiosity and worthy Of small space in the National
Institute.
These shipwrecked mariners very intelligent and
well many other citizens Of the opinion that
they to take tour through the United States to
obtain idea OF its extent and greatness would
their return to their own have most beneficial effect
in opening the doors OF that to us unknown portion OF
Gods creation.
Twill send you, as soon as possible daguerreotype like
connection with the enclosed.
With feelings Of the highest esteem, have the honor
WM A. TENNIsoN, Lieut.. U. &. .RM.
Accompanying this letter is a copy of the Japa-
nese alphabet, executed apparently by hand, but
with SO much skill that the work might readily be
mistaken for lithography; list of the ma mes Of the
japanese sailors, with their autograph signatures
in the Japanese character; representation of the
compass found with them, and the Japanese nume-
rails These papers are objects Of rational curiosity,
and will so continue, should We hear nothing fur
ther of the individuals who are thus provdentially
made our guests; but should Lieut.. Tennisons sug-
gestons be carried OUT they will attract the highest
public interest. | will briefly describe them:-
The Japanese alphabet, as represented by Lieut..
Tsnnison's diagram, contains 45 characters, which
consist of straight, Oblique parallel, crooked, and
angular lines and marks, resembling thick and
think, no circles, no ovals, and but one curve in
the forty eight signs The names Of these letters,
written, take it, SO as to give as near as may be
hee, ho, hey, on, ehee, ID, ntoo co,c o. catc, caw,
y0u than, dag, sour, tSoo may, nan Urac, moo, 90,
+. No, o, koo, yaD, MON, X, foo, ko'c, Il, thea,
an sam kee yoi mag, nee, Z, d, ghee, n,o,o, sag,
occurs twice, and once in addition, followed by
the same letter in smaller size. The repetition is
no doubt susceptible Of expana ton consistent with
the assumption that thsy are separate letters. In
this representation of the alphabet, in the lists
Of the numerals and the proper names, and 1t is OBJ
servable that the letters numbers, and names stand
in perpendicular columns; that the place of begin
ming is at the right hand, upper corner Of the page,
at what would be with us the head of the last
columns that the order of reading or writing Is from
the top to the bottsm Of the column, and from the
right to the left side Of the page, after the manner
othe Chinese, and directly the reverse Of our own,
who write and read horizsntally, and from left to
right. The name Of the captain is Months, which
is neither very foreign to our ears, nor harito be
pronounced. some OF tne Otners SOUND almost
familar-as Jim Potch,a connection, very possibly,
of our Sam Patch, who moistened his unlucky clay
in the Genesee; Sim Pay, Thametho, Hecko.ho.
and You am Tho. 800" "the," and "tho"
separately, are, perhaps, surnames. The CALI
graphy Of these signatures looks grotesque enough,
but not more so, probably, than the autographs Of
the President and cabinet, for example, would to
the most enlightened Japanese.
The numerals afford decisive proof Of the advance
ofthis mysterious people in mathematics, science,
the cultivation Of which is always an accompaui-
ment Of high civilization. Their system for the
Arabic and Roman methods. They do not appear
to have attained the noble and comprehensive sim
plicity of the Arabian numerals, with their manner
ofanangement, by which the least and the atest
of conceivable quantities are expressed by the
Of not more than ten cardinal signs; but they are
far in advance Of the Romans, who had no better
plan Of enumeration than the employment of a less
or greater number Of signs representing fixed guam
titles. Lieut. Tennison gives all the characters
used by the Japanese, as numbers from one TO q
hundred The method Of combination Is ne arly
identical with that which we have borrowed from
the East, and call Arabic, snly, perhaps, because
rection, that is-by units and decimah The units
are :-sthoats, aams, 2; meets, ;yoqfs, rec
stools, 'nootS, o ; nMnants, yots, 81; coco, 3;
Will tSs sos
past the point Of the multiplication Of decimals,
follows '-i~ eehy, ii ~ smshee, IL Jnsomg, IL
yu-shee, IA Jw CO. ID Jwroqxce, 10 Ju-,saes. IL
J,.hotshy, Is lnocc, ~ nee 'he, ~ Ills obvious
that the hrst r...oie, ~, In each Of these words,
mes-s ten and that the chief difference in their
mode Of expressing by words the numb bers between
ten and twenty, from ours is that they put the ten
before the unit, and place il after that number
Thus, to express three and ten We say thur
ting the lesser number first in the combination. The
Japanese say Jn-sopg, ten and three, putting the
greater number first. And above twenty, also, the
difference Of form Is not material. The Japanese
term ShOo, seems to be compound Of two words,
each meaning ten. equivslen. to ten and ten. -
Onr word tlcny is formed by the esion of tro into
ten, and is literally two tens. But from twenty to
thirty, the Japanese express given number by
o compound formed OF the syllable "nees, the root
in twenty, and q word sgnfying a number from
eleven to nineteen. Instead Of saying, as we do
twenty. one Literally two tens aud one-they say
nees-r oochy, or, one ten and eleven, and so on to
aos-hscoo one ten and nineteen, and soushoo thirty
The arrangement Of the figures expressing these
terms, more resembles the Roman than the Arabic
! ard Is consequently more awkward and comp pcated
and less efficient than the latter The figure /:
| though not quite so. Two and three arc repre-
sented by two three marks, respectively, perpen
dicularly under each other. -Four has an arbitrary
sign, and so has each number up to and including
ten. From this to twenty they follow the Roman
! method Of notation, with some simpl6cations an,
improvements. For any number above the powe
Of two decimas, they employ At least three charac
ters and seldom more until they reach hundred
Thus, to write thirty four in figures, they plac
first, the figure three, second the figure ten, whic
gives them three tens, or thirty, and thirdly tn
figure four. The same figures, arranged in tn
same order, with us, would give three hundred an
four. But for ne number under one thousand d.
they require more than four signs. IL will be see
that this msdc Of expressing numbers or quantitie
"a combination Of the principles Of transpostio
and repetition Of signs.
The compass is represented by two circular lines
surroun ding rude figure of an arrow, probably il
tended for the needle and the circumference Of tn
outer circle is divided of into astronomical signs
indicated by figures Of rat, COW, tiger, rabbi,
snake, small snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster
dog, and an animal not specifically named, bu
about the size OF q dog.
IL is evident, from these particulars, that tn
Japanese are people among whom learning hs
long been cultivated; and should the suggestion
Of Lieut.. Tennison be adopted by our government
il is not unlikely that theinsigni6cant circumstanc
Of the rescue Of these shipwrecked mariners may b
| Lrinairr clnsa md frianilu nto.