The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1868-10-17
Rescue OF Japanese from So. Peters, Island.

Rescue of Japanese from So. Peters, Island.
MR. wHITxEY:-DEAR - cruising off st.
Peters Island, in the bark HIN. ROich, L thought L
would land, procure some albatroSs eggs, and see If
there was any guanO there, as 1 had been told there
was. So, in the afternoon of the 22d February
went in with three boats, pulled around to the y. t.
side of the island, aRd came 10 a small bay with q
stony beach, where we landed opposite a large alba
tross rookery. Thousands of young were met, but
no eggs. We saw some large sticks of cedar timber,
drifed ashore, with Japanese characters cut on
them. When about leaving we saw several mon
coming towards us. 1 went and met them, when
they Frustrated themselves upon the ground in a sup
plicating manner, and appeared to be frightened;
but made signs that they wanted TO go with Us
l took them on board at once, and got my Japan
csc, We had on board, to question them how they
came there. They answered that they had left
Osaka two years before, bound to Jeao. In 4 gale
thew lost their mast and sail, and after drifting i've
months, they lost their rudder. and the vessel soon
filed with water. They then left the wreck in their
small boat, 6 men and one boy and after ten days
landed on this island. They were so weak when
they reached the shore, they could not haul their
boat up, and she was stove in pieces by the sea, Il
saw the remains of the boat on the shore.) They
had been on the island Is months, had seen several
SuIlS pass " u CIV oA"N ~c
They had lived on birds eggs, in the season, some
fish, limpets, &c.
L took one of my japanese. and one of the wreck
ed men, and went on shore TO see where they had
lived. w landed, climbed up the steep rocks, about
one hundred feet, and got on the fat table land, well
covered with tall rank grass, as high as our heads.
We then followed their path, which was a good one
and well beaten, about two miles, when We. came to q
small valley, or gulch, where / was surprised to see
the remains of several large houses, with fire places
cut out of the solid rock. Passing up the valley a
short distance, we came to three bomb-proofs,'
about as large as a ships cabin, cut into the solid
rock. Each had a fireplace with sleeping hunks,
very neatly made of reeds and grass, and each con-
! tanned some hundreds of albatross eggs filled with
water, and n few with oil. A lamp or ere was burn
ing in each. There was also quite a quantity of
dried limpets and a few dried fish, grass baskets,
grass sandals, and some copper vessels, that they
found on the island. Near by were a number Of
inches cut into the rock, each containing several
smooth fiat stones with japanese writing on them.
My Japanese stopped and translated the inscriptions
for me: they were records of six different shipwreck-
ed crews that had been cast upon the island, some of
them a long time ago.
We next came to one with three stones set up in
it, which proved to be the record of Manjaras, who
was shipwrecked some 80 or 35 years ago. He was
taken off by Captain Whitfield Of the Wiiiiam &
Eliza, 1 think. He is well known in Honolulu.
From the large quantity of dead albatross skins that
lay about, 1 should think they had destroyed thou
sands. The only tools of any kind they had were q
small Japanese saw and an iron wedge fitted with a
handle to cut with. They caught fish from the rock,
and one man had been drowned while fishing, by
falling into the sea. Another died on the island,
leaving seven living.
The Captain was a fine, intelligent old man, well
educated, / think, as he had a small trunk full of
japanese books and papers. 1 took him into the
cabin and treated him as / would an American ship
master. He employed his time while on board Zone
month"; in reading, writing, and s~ketching the ship,
boats. sc. Every morning he would go on deck,
bow his head reverently to the sun, and say his
prayers. What could a Christian do more? About
the 18th of March, the Eagle, Capt. Loveland, and
the Ohio, Capt. Lawrence, called off the Bonin ISL
ands, bound TO Yokohama. They kindly offered to-
take them. So L put three ON board the Eagle, and
four on board the Ohio, and sent them on their way
rejoicing. The old Captain felt so grateful he cried
like a child upon leaving us, but he had the old
HIM. Rotch painted on canvas, with all her boats,
masts, and riggin. very carefully done, to hang up
in his house, to look at as long as he lived-as he
told me. They arrived at Yokohama all right, and /
hope got to their homes safely.
Yours, truly, f.. F. NYE,~
Master of bark Wm. Roich.
[REMARKs.-St. Peters. Island is some three thou
sand miles west of this group, in N. lat 3Oo 90,
and east long. 140o 10. Capt Nye certainly de-
serves credit for his care of the men, and his treat
ment of the japanese Captain, placing him on the
same footing as if he had been an American or Euro
pean, is praiseworthy. This incident shows how the
various islands of this ocean have been peopled.
This little rock has had no less than six or seven
japanese crews cast on it during a period of proba-
ably not over a century. The belief that the Hawaii
an islands were peopled from Japan gains strength,
the more that the similarity between the two races is
traced. Though it is probable that ~stragglers from
other countries, perhaps the American main or the
South Sea Islands, may have been cast on these
shores, and the offspring has become in this way
more mixed and less readily identified