Two Journeys to Japan 1856-7 - 1859 Author:Kinahan Cornwallis Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. The internal affairs of Japan, politically and socially, from this time up presenting no striking incidents that would be of interest to the gene... more »ral reader, I shall proceed to review the course of subsequent events with regard to European communication with the empire. In the year 1700, the Russians made the first European discovery of the peninsula of Kamtschatka, stretching from the southern point of which the Kurile islands were seen and explored, the discovery of Japan following in the train of consequences. In 1713 the Cossack, Kosierenski, reached Konashir, one of the Kurile group,lying off the north-eastern coast of Jesso, and under the control of the Japanese. In 1736 a Dane in the Russian service visited all the southern Kuriles, coasted the island of Jesso, and sailing on to Nipon, entered several natural harbours on its eastern coast. These explorations were renewed by Potonchew in 1777, but it was not till ten years later that La Perouse made his survey of the sea of Japan, and ascertained the relative positions of Jesso and Sagaleen, and of the strait dividing them, which now bears his name. In 1791 an English ship, the Argonaut, engaged in the North American fur trade, sailed close under the western shore of Nipon, and attempted to trade ; but she was surrounded by lines of boats, boarded by officials, and dismissed with a gratuitous supply of wood and water, no one on board being allowed to land. In 1795-7, Captain Broughton, in an English exploring vessel, coasted the southern and eastern shore of Jesso, sailed along the southern Kuriles, and touched at several places on the southern part of Sagaleen. Antecedent to the voyage last mentioned,Russia had made a first attempt at a commercial and diplomatic intercourse with Japan. The crew of...« less