The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-12-24
wANDERINGs OF A JAPANESE.
A Young Man Whose Career Was
Shaped by Shipwreck.

shaped by SnlpWreck.
A while ago Mr.. J. Heco, of Toxic,
published an account of his adventures
and experiences. A Stuttgart publisher
discovered the interesting little vol
ume, translated 1t, and has published
| IL in Germany under the title in Ger
man of "Recollections of a japanese"
Heco's life appears to have had an
unusually large element OF romance,
and his story is well worth telling.
In 1850, when he was thirteen years
old, he went to sea on japanese junk
bound for Yeddo. The little bark was
driven by storms out into the Pacific
Ocean its rigging was completely
swept away by the violence of success
sive gales, and finally the boat lay
adrift several hundred miles from land
without means Of propulsion and at
the mercy of the winds and currents.
Thus the hapless crew drifted around
for several weeks until an American
bark came in sight, and the seventeen
japanese sailors, whose friends at
home believed they had persisted in
he storms, were taken to San Fran
cisco This was before japan had en-
tered into intimate relations with 9TH
er nations, and the castaways thus
. thrown upon a foreign shore, of which
most of them had never heard, were
, great objects of curiosity in the
: young and thriving mining port of
San Francisco.
In those days no American vessels
= piled to Japan, and the poor stranded
= sailors did not know whether they
j. would ever be able to get home. FL
e nally young Heco, who had been pick
? ing up a meager living in San Fran
r cisco for two years, had an opportunity
2 to sail on an American warship tC
Hongkong. where he intended to watch
. his chance to secure passage fol
: Japan.
Q Arriving in Hongkong he waited
4 long for a vessel to take him home
$ At last II seemed to him that the op
o portunity would never come and so h
Q sailed back TO San Francisco. Herr
Z he worked now as a household servan
and then as a sailor on coasting YES
!: sells.
Il One day he met a kind gentleman
i who was much interested in his stor,
e and became his friend and patron. II
Il took the boy with him by the Panam
l. route around to Baltimore, where h
II placed him in school. Later tn
gentleman returned to San Francisc
II to live, taking Heco with him and tn
le boy completed his education in tina
p town. BY this time he was fair Eng
IA lish scholar, and had an excellen
Is knowledge of the language.
Then he entered a commercia
,e house in San Francisco. His bright
a ness was appreciated and he acquire
H. good knowledge of the business
10 Every day, however, he longed to re
"a turn to Japan and see whether hi
,s parents and other friends were "
n alive. Fortune favored him at la:
,g and he secured the position of seer,
no tary to the captain of a United State
surveying vessel that had been ordere
re to Asiatic waters. He did not kno
G. whether he would be able to reach II
In coast Of Japan after all, but when /
No arrived at Honolulu he heard the gre;
ne news that in a few months japan W;
nv to be opened to foreign commerce.
he at last he saw his native land agai
x. when twenty-one years old, eigl
he years after he had started on what
OF expected to be short journey; b1
n II had carried him beyond all know
ng edge OF his parents and friends.
Heco went home a naturalized Al
We erican citizen, and in the followil
tie year obtained a position in the Unit
CO States consulate at Yokohama. Havil
a. capital of a few hundred dollars
IN soon decided TO go into business in
To- small way as a merchant. In tho
an early days OF Japan's intercourse wi
his foreign nations many OF the peoI