Previous to Broughton’s voyage, Russia had already made a first attempt at a commercial and diplomatic intercourse with Japan. The crew of a Japanese vessel, shipwrecked in the Sea of Okhotsk, had been saved by the Russians, about 1782, and taken to Irkutsk, in Siberia, where they lived for ten years. At length the governor of Siberia was directed, by the empress Catherine II, to send home these Japanese, and with them an envoy, not as from her, but from himself. Lieutenant Laxman, selected for this purpose, sailed from Okhotsk in the autumn of 1792, landed on the northern coast of Yezo, and passed the winter there. The next summer he entered the harbor of Hakodate, on the northern coast of the Strait of Sangar. From that town he travelled by land to the city of Matsumae, three days’ journey to the west, and the chief Japanese settlement on the island, the authorities of which, after communicating with Yedo, delivered to him a paper to the following effect: “That although it was ordained by the laws of Japan, that any foreigners landing anywhere on the coast, except at Nagasaki, should be seized and condemned to perpetual imprisonment; yet, considering the ignorance of the Russians, and their having brought back the shipwrecked Japanese, they might be permitted to depart, on condition of never approaching, under any pretence, any part of the coast except Nagasaki. As to the Japanese brought back, the government was much obliged to the Russians; who, however, were at liberty to leave them or take them away again, as they pleased, it being the law of Japan that such persons ceased to be Japanese, and became the subjects of that government into whose hands destiny had cast them. With respect to commercial negotiations, those could only take place at Nagasaki; and a paper was sent authorizing a Russian vessel to enter that port for that purpose; but as the Christian worship was not allowed in Japan, any persons admitted into Nagasaki must carefully abstain from it.” Laxman was treated with great courtesy, though kept in a sort of confinement; he was supported, with his crew, by the Japanese authorities, while he remained, and was dismissed with presents and an ample supply of provisions, for which no payment would be received.