Note 98 — Chapter XLIII
Reading edition
These released Japanese were sent to Matsumae, and, after remaining about a week, were forwarded to Yedo. The shipwrecked men did not give, so Golownin was informed, a very favorable account of their entertainment in Kamtschatka. Ryōzayemon praised Irkutsk, but represented eastern Siberia and Okhotsk as a miserable country, where scarce anybody was to be seen except beggars and government officers. He thought very meanly of the Russians, a few individuals excepted. From their military spirit, even the boys in the street playing soldier, he thought they must meditate conquest, probably that of Japan.