“Japanese junks have been blown to sea, and finally stranded with their occupants upon remote islands, and have reached even the continent of America, in the 46th degree of north latitude.” (Jarves)

“Canoes, crowded with occupants of both sexes, are annually picked up at sea, long distances from their places of departure, and drifting about at the mercy of the weather.”

“The continent of Asia, from the numerous intervening islands, affords more facilities for reaching Polynesia in this manner, than America, though stragglers from the latter have doubtless from time to time added to the population, and thus created a mixture of customs, which, to some extent, indicate an origin from both.”

“The probabilities are greatly in favor of Asia, both from certain affinities of tongue, and from striking resemblances in manners, idols, clothing, and physical conformation.”

“All conclusions, with the present light upon this subject, must necessarily be speculative, and of little practical utility. China was known to Egypt more than two thousand years before the birth of Christ, and a commercial intercourse maintained between the two countries.”

“Africa was circumnavigated by the ancient Egyptian mariners; among the relics of their primary high condition of civilization, cultivated science and literature, indications of an acquaintance with the continent of America are to be traced.”

“Upon further development of the history of the earliest records of our race, it may be found that the geography of the world was better known than we are at present aware of – and the peopling of isolated positions, and the migrations of nations, to have been performed with a definite knowledge of the general features of the globe. “

“This, as well as their purer forms of faith, became obscured in the night of ages, when darkness and ignorance settled like a pall upon the nations of the earth; and, after a lapse of four thousand years, glimmerings only of the truth are revealed, in the fables of a multitude of distinct tribes of me; the coincidence of which is a striking proof of a common parentage.” (Jarves)

Hawai‘i had its share of Japanese contact, directedly in the Islands, as well as by sailors at sea. “Captain Alexander Adams, formerly pilot at Honolulu, relates that March 24, 1815, in latitude 32° 45′ N., longitude 126° 57 ‘ W., when sailing master of brig Forrester, Captain Piggott, and cruising off Santa Barbara, California, he sighted at sunrise a Japanese junk drifting at the mercy of the winds and waves.”

“Her rudder and masts were gone. Although blowing a gale, he boarded the junk, and found fourteen dead bodies in the hold, the captain, carpenter, and one seaman alone surviving …”

“… took them on board, where by careful nursing they were well in a few days. They were on a voyage from Osaka to Yedo, and were 17 months out, having been dismasted in consequence of losing their rudder.” (Brooks)

“December 23, 1832, at midday, a junk in distress cast anchor near the harbor of Waialua, on the shores of Oahu. She was from a southern port of Japan, bound to Yedo with a cargo of fish; lost her rudder and was dismasted in a gale, since which she had drifted for eleven months.” (Brooks)

“They cast anchor about mid-day, and were soon visited by a canoe, as the position of the junk, being anchored near a reef of rocks, and other circumstances, indicated distress.”

“Four individuals were found on board, all but one severely afflicted with the scurvy; two of them incapable of walking, and a third nearly so. The fourth was in good health, and had the almost entire management of the vessel.”

“This distressed company had been out at sea ten or eleven months, without water, except as they now and then obtained rain water from the deck of the vessel.”

“When the people saw the junk, and learned from whence it came, they said it was plain now from whence they themselves originated.”

“They had supposed before that they could not have come from either of the continents; but now they saw a people much resembling themselves in person, and in many of their habits – a people, too, who came to their islands without designing to come. They said, ‘It is plain now that we came from Asia.’” (Bates)

“Five out of her crew of nine had died. December 30th, she started for Honolulu, but was stranded on a reef off Barber’s Point on the evening of January 1, 1833.”

“The four survivors were taken to Honolulu, where, after remaining eighteen months, they were forwarded to Kamschatka, whence they hoped to work their way south through the northern islands of the group into their own country.”

“This junk was about 80 tons burden. According to the traditions of the islands, several such junks had been wrecked upon Hawaii, before the islands were discovered by Captain Cook.” (Brooks)

“Later still, the 6th of June, 1839, the whale ship James Loper, Captain Cathcart, fell in with the wreck of a Japanese junk in lat. 30° N., and long. 174° E. from Greenwich, about midway between the islands of Japan and the Sandwich Islands. Seven of the crew were rescued, and brought to these islands the ensuing fall.

“Again, three Japanese sailors were rescued from a wreck in the North Pacific (June 9th, 1840), in lat. 34° N., long. 1740 30’ E., more than 2500 miles from their homes. They were bound to Jeddo, and, driven beyond their port by a westerly gale, had been drifting about for one hundred and eighty-one days when found.” (Bates)

“Another Japanese Junk Picked Up – The whaler Frances Henrietta, Poole, of New Bedford, now in port, in May, fell in, in lat. 42 N., 150 E. long., with a Japanese junk, of about 200 tons, dismasted, rudder gone and otherwise injured in a typhoon seven months previous. She was bound to Jeddo.”

“The original number of crew was 17, but when Capt. Poole discovered them, they were reduced to 4, in a most pitiable state, more dead than alive from famine.”

“The crew had drawn lots for some time past as to who should be killed and eaten. The one on whom the lot fell, if able, fought and sometimes killed one of the others; in that case the murdered man was first eaten.”

“Those rescued were shockingly scarred with dirk and knife wounds as if their lives had been often attempted by their companions, but they had succeeded in beating them off or killing them.”

“Capt. Poole kept them on board his ship for thirty days and then put them onboard some fishing boats close in shore in about 40 north. They were exceedingly grateful to every one on board the whaler and manifested much emotion in leaving.”

“They wished the captain to send his boats ashore, promising to load them with rice and pigs but he declined. On reaching the fishing boats, they purchased all the fish and sent them to Capt Poole.”

“The junk had not much of a cargo on board, or was in such a disgusting condition that the crew of the Frances Henrietta did not like to examine her minutely.”

“They obtained however a number of interesting curiosities, such as books, idols, swords, pictures, fans, boxes, china war, green, black, red, gold and silver gilt japanned ware, some of which specimens are very pretty. They have been scattered about among residents. There are other interesting particulars that we have not yet obtained.” (Polynesian, December 11, 1847)

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Japanese Junk