less subject to the visits of
vandals from Europe than any. If I am correctly informed it is now close
on thirty years since a ship of war put in to Little Loo-Choo, and
certainly never before such a squadron as the present.

But two visits of consequence have taken place during the present
century; that of Captain Maxwell in the "Alceste," in 1817; and that of
Commodore Perry, of the U.S. navy, in 1853; so that the little we do
know of this _ultima thule_ is derivable from these sources. Strangely
enough, the two accounts are broadly opposed to each other. Captain
Maxwell found the people gentle, simple, and courteous; possessed of no
money, no arms, without police, or punishments; whilst the land, he
said, was an earthly paradise. I have in my possession an old print
entitled "the voyage of the 'Alceste,'" written by the surgeon of that
ship; and that part of it which refers to this visit is most pleasurable
reading. The commodore, on the other hand, endeavours to shew many of
Captain Maxwell's eulogies to be erroneous. It is certain, says he, that
the Loo-Chooans possess and understand the use of both money and arms;
and that they have a very severe and cruel code of punishment. So far as
we are able, let us judge which of the two descriptions comes nearest
the truth.

The Loo-Choo group of islands lies in the North Pacific, and forms a
semi-circle, extending from Japan to the island of Formosa. The
inhabitants number under three millions, perhaps. The two principal
islands of the group are known as Great and Little Loo-Choo. It is to
the latter that the following remarks must be understood to refer. This
island is almost intersected by a narrow arm of the sea reaching far,
far away inland amongst the richly clad hills and mountains. This,
according to the charts, is Hancock bay, up which we are steaming.
Nature is looking her best as we pass, and wafting off to us her
sweetest smells; a green summer mantle clothes every eminence and gentle
slope; and the nestling villages have such a quiet, peaceful look, that
it seems almost a pity to disturb them--as we certainly shall--from
their dream-like repose. Each village possesses its water mill or mills,
so that the natives are not entirely ignorant of mechanics.

Hundreds of canoes, of the rudest construction, crammed with men, women,
and children, put off to us when we came to anchor. Though it is said
they are of mixed Chinese and Aino origin; the people are of cast