CORNWALLIS'S TWO JOURNIES TO JAPAN.*

THIS work of Mr. Kinahan Cornwallis professes to narrate his ob- servations and adventures during two visits to Japan, and a call at the Washington group in the Pacific ; though whether he means Washington Island m about 5 degrees of north latitude, and about 161 degrees West longitude, or a group which we believe the Americans have rechristened is not quite clear. The flashy and exaggerated rhetoric of this writer's style, or rather of his mind, does not induce that feeling of confidence in his descriptions, which is eminently necessary where strange and little known coun- tries are to be delineated. For some (as we think) cogent rea- sons to be presently mentioned, it were to be wished that on the present occasion Mr. Kinahan Cornwallis had been more particular in his account of the reasons which took him to Japan, and the circumstances which enabled him to get there. It would also have been as well had he favoured his readers with some informa- tion touching the American "sloop of war," in which he paid his first visit ; and the 'American steam-frigate" in which he paid his second. We have overlooked any more identifying information, if any more there be, than that "it was the twelfth of August eighteen hundred and fifty-seven," when he stood on the deck of the frigate in "the river Min near the city of Fow-chow," pre- paring to start on his second voyage ; as thirteen months before he had entered upon the denouement of his first. "On a bright and balmy day in the month of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-six, the long, dark hull of an American sloop of war rounded from the eastward the wooded heights of Cape Izu, and entered the picturesque but unprotected baylike harbour of Simoda, on the great island of Nipon, in the empire of Japan. I was on board that sloop."

Where did the sloop hail from ? Where did Mr. Cornwallis get on board ? What capacity did he fill in both vessels ? and how came he indeed to be on board at all ? are questions which should have been answered. As a matter of Inference, Mr. Kinahan Cornwallis would seem to have had his passages given to him with that frank hospitality which characterizes the United States naval officers in distant waters. And if this conjecture be the truth a very indifferent return he has made to kindness. According to his account, the officers conducted themselves as badly as any of the " diggers " with whom he was familiar, could possibly have done ; whether as regards the interests of the go- vernment employing them, or common consideration and polite- ness, or indeed humanity. We say nothing of the disregard alleged to have been shown to the wishes of the people in going about. All Anglo-Saxons are prone to break bounds, and our author was as forward in his way as his companions. But there are some grave offences charged upon the officers, one of which lead to a tragic result. Doubts of the anther of Yarra Yarra and the New El Dorado are excusable where we cannot follow him ; because where we can track him there is very little doubt at all. One of his climb- ing excursions at "Lew-Kew," has a resemblance to a similar exploit of Bayard Taylor's at Loo Choo ; but the same mountain stroll might lead to a like description. The general colouring and, a part of the adventures at the Washington group is some- thing very like a plagiarism from Herman Melville's well known

• Two Journeys to Japan 1856-57. By Kinahan Cornwallis, Author of the New El Dorado, or British Columbia," Ike. In two volumes. Published by Newby.

Typee or "Residence in the Marquesas." The following is something more than plagiarism ; extremely like piracy ; for a change of is not even a colourable change, especially when i

its object s to represent Mr. Kinahan Cornwallis as leading in the path of danger, which Melville more modestly transfers to his friend Toby.

These extracts might be continued, but it is needless ; and be it observed that this is not merely literary piracy—the writer is professing to describe a series of actual occurrences. Yet an author like this, whose best works are staringly exaggerated or untrustworthy, can get (for former publications) paneygrical notices by the dozen, from the "best of all possible instructors" some of them of "high class"; while our present Colonial Mi- nister grants permission for a dedication from Kinahan. Corn- wallis.

It is needless to enter into any detailed criticism on. such a book. The matter of Two Journeys to Japan may be olassed under two heads. That which consists of general observation bears a certain resemblance to previous accounts; though flowery, or "free and easy " in style and mixed with such incongruities as Japanese authorities getting drunk on punch and then taking a most elaborately minute, statistical, and scientific account of everything on board. The other part relates to the author's own adventures, some of which are "rich and rare." For example, he struck up a friendship with a Japanese merchant, and very in- timate they grew. So intimate that Mr. Cornwallis, on his de- parture, besides giving his friend, among other things, a volume of Byron favoured him with a dissertation upon the poet and British theology. The account, as it appears in the book, must, like Parliamentary speeches, have been improved in the reporting ; for Mr. Cornwallis had scant Japanese, and his mercantile friend, though a born linguist, not much of English, French, and Dutch.

"In addition to the four trifles mentioned, I carried in a small roll half- a-dozen steel engravings, embracing views of English scenery. These to- gether I delivered over to Noskotoska, with many expressions of regret that such was my poverty, I could do no better in the bestowal of a more worthy gift. I, however, made him acquainted with the genius and world-wide fame of Byron, several of whose works were encased in the volume before him.

"'The greatest poet that England and the world ever produced,' said I, here speaks to you. Yet, I am sorry to say, that Byron, now long dead, although his widow still survives, is excluded from a niche in the ranks of his brother poets, in a national sanctuary of ours, called Westminster Abbey.' "'Why is one so great not enrolled an their number?' he asked. "On the ground of mere class prejudice,' I replied."

And there is more of it, for which those who want it must con- sult the work.

KINAIIAN coniewsmas IN 1859.

" We approached the verge of the ca- taract, and looking down we observed, growing along the side of the ravine, a number of round gutta-percha-looking roots, some three or four inches in thick- ness and several feet long, which, after twisting among the fissures of the rock, shot perpendicularly from it, and ran ta- pering to a point in the air, hanging over the gulf like so many dark icicles. They covered nearly the entire surface of one side of the gorge, the lowest of them reaching to the water. Many were moss- grown and decayed, with their extremi- ties evidently snapped short off, while those in the immediate vicinity of the fall looked slippery with moisture. • • • • " Without uttering a word, therefore, I crawled along the dripping ledge until I gained a point from which I could just reach one of the largest of the pendant roots. I shook it ; it quivered in my grasp, and when let go it twanged in the air like a strong wire sharply struck. Thus impressed with its sufficient strength, I swung myself nimbly upon it, and, twisting my legs round it in sailor fashion, slipped down nine or ten feet, when its motion became like that of

aI did not like venturing further on the strength of this now slightly taper- ing root, so, holding on by one hand, with the other I tested the strength of all those around me by taking hold of and shaking them. After the lapse of a few moments, I transferred myself to one of these, and continued my descent."

HEILMAN suir.vnix IN 1846.

" With this he conducted me to the verge of the cataract, and pointed along the side of the ravine to a number of curious looking roots, some three or four inches in thickness and several feet long, which, after twisting among the fissures of the rock, shot perpendicularly from it, and ran tapering to a point in the air, hanging over the gulf like so many dark icicles. They covered nearly the entire surface of one side of the gorge, the low- est reaching the water. Many were moss-grown and decayed, with their ex- tremities evidently snapped off, while those in the ,immediate vicinity of the fall looked slippery with moisture.

•

" Toby, without uttering a single word, crawled along the dripping ledge until he gained a point from which he could just reach one of the largest of the pend- ant roots. He shook it ; it quivered in his grasp, and when he let it go it twanged in the air, like a strong wire sharply ,struck. Satisfied by his semi- tiny, my light-limbed companion swung himself nimbly upon it, and twisting his

i

legs round it n sailor fashion, slipped down eight or ten feet, when his weight gave it a motion not unlike that of a pen- dulum. He could not venture to descend any further; so, holding on with one hand, he with the other shook one by one all the slender roots around him, and at last finding one which he thought trustworthy, shifted himself to it and continued his downward progress."