_Exploration of the Northern Japanese Seas—First Russian Mission to Japan—Professorship of Japanese at Irkutsk—New Restrictions on the Dutch—Embarrassments growing out of the War of the French Revolution—American Flag at Nagasaki—Captain Stewart—Ingenuity of a Japanese Fisherman—Heer Doeff, Director at Deshima—Suspicious Proceedings of Captain Stewart—Russian Embassy—Klaproth’s Knowledge of Japanese—Doeff’s First Journey to Yedo—Dutch Trade in 1804 and 1806—An American Ship at Nagasaki—The British Frigate “Phaeton”—No Ships from Batavia—The Dutch on Short Allowance—English Ships from Batavia—Communication again suspended—Dutch and Japanese Dictionary—Children at the Factory—A. D. 1792-1817._ Till comparatively a recent period Europe was very much in the dark as to the geography of northeastern Asia. Through the explorations and conquests of the Russians, Kamtchatka (long before visited by the Japanese) first became known to Europeans, about the year 1700. The exploration of the Kurile Islands, stretching from the southern point of that peninsula, led the Russians towards Japan. In 1713, the Cossack Kosierewski reached Kunajiri (the twentieth Kurile, according to the Russian reckoning, beginning from Kamtchatka), close to the northeastern coast of Yezo, and claimed by the Japanese. In 1736, Spagenburg, a Dane in the Russian service, visited all the southern Kuriles, coasted the island of Yezo, made the land of Nippon, and entered several harbors on its eastern coast. These explorations were renewed by Potonchew in 1777; but it was not till 1787 that La Perouse obtained for Europe the first distinct knowledge of the outline of the Sea of Japan, of the relative situations of Sakhalin and Yezo, and of the strait between them, which still bears his name. In 1791, the “Argonaut,” an English ship employed in the fur trade on the northwest coast of America, made the western coast of Japan, and attempted to trade; but she was immediately surrounded by lines of boats; all intercourse with the shore was prevented, and she was dismissed with a gratuitous supply of wood and water. In 1795-97, Captain Broughton, in an English exploring vessel, coasted the southern and eastern shore of Yezo, sailed among the southern Kuriles, and touched at several places on the southern part of Sakhalin. Besides the natives, he found a few Japanese, who treated him with much attention, but were very anxious for his speedy departure. Japanese officers came from Yezo, expressly to look after him, to restrict his communications, and to send him off, with all civility indeed, but as speedily as possible.