Japan and the Japanese

CAPTAIN RIKOKD. 47l
be drunk in the day-time, or at any time, extraordinary festivities
excepted.
Late in the summer following the capture of Golownin and his
companions, the Diana, now under the command of Captain Rikord,
came back to Kunashir. Of the two Japanese seized by Chwostoff,
one had died. The other, who called himself Leonsaima, liikord
had on board, along with six other Japanese, lately shipwrecked
on Kamtschatka, hoping to exchange these seven for the seven
Russians. On reaching the bay where Golownin had been taken,
he saw a new battery of fourteen guns. All the buildings were
covered with striped cloth, the boats were drawn up on the shore,
and not a person appeared.
Leonsaima, in his six years' captivity, had learned some Russian,
and he was emplo} T
ed 1o write a short letter from Captain Rikord
to the commander on shore, stating his having brought
back the
seven Japanese, and requesting
the restoration of his countrymen.
From some circumstances, the good faith of Leonsaima was suspected,
and the contents of the letter written by him rather dis-
trusted ; still it was finally sent on shore by one of the Japanese,
upon whom the batteries fired as he landed, and who returned no
more.
Three days after, a second Japanese was sent, with a written
message in the Russian language ; but he came back, saying that
the governor had refused to receive it, and that he had been himself
thrust out of the castle. As a last resource, Leonsaima who
represented himself as a merchant, and a person of some consequence,
though, in fact, he had been only a fishing agent was sent
on shore, with another Japanese, on his promise to return with
such information as he could obtain. He did return, without the
other, and stated that the Russians were all dead. Sent on shore
to obtain in writing a confirmation of this verbal statement, he
came back no more.
Rikord now determined to seize any Japanese vessel that might
be entering or leaving the harbor. A large Japanese ship soon
appeared, from which, as the Russian boats approached her, several
of her crew, of sixty men, jumped into the water. Nine were
drowned, some escaped to the shore, and others were picked up by
the Russian boats. The captain, who was taken on board tha