clan of samuraithe source of the Bonin's Japanese nameare now known to be false. Similarly, accounts that Chichijima was discovered by the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre during his failed 1543 voyage are incorrect, De la Torre having at most seen a single island from the Hahajima group at the southern end of the Bonin chain and most likely not even that. Despite the Bonins lying near the northern return route used by the Spanish after , none are recorded landing or charting the islands with any certainty. Early history The first certain sighting of Chichijima was by the failed 1639 Dutch expedition sent in search of the phantom Islands of Gold and Silver under Matthijs Quast and his lieutenant Abel Tasman. A Japanese merchant ship carrying mikan (a kind of tangerine) from Arida was blown off course around 10 December 1669 and shipwrecked on Hahajima 72 days later, about 20 February 1670. The captain dead, the remaining six crew rested, explored, and rebuilt their ship for 52 days and then left (around April 13th) for Chichijima. They stayed there 5 or 6 days, visited Mukojima for a few days, and then reached Hachijojima in the Izu Islands 8 days after that. Once back on Honshu at Shimoda, they reported their (re)discovery in detail to the bakufu. The shipwrights at Nagasaki were then specially permitted to build an ocean-going junk of the "Chinese type", the Fukkokuju Maru. Shimaya Ichizaemon was allowed to use it to trade between Nagasaki and Tokyo for 4 years before being directed to undertake a secret mission to explore and chart the islands with a crew of about 30 in May 1674. The attempts in June 1674 and February 1675 both failed but after repairs and waiting for more favorable winds the reached the Bonins on April 29th. After erecting a shrine and mapping the chain including Chichijima, Shimaya departed on June 5th, reaching Tokyo with his maps and samples of the soil, plants, and animals that he had found. After notionally placing the islands under the jurisdiction of Izu, the sakoku isolationist policy was resumed: the crew was disbanded, the junk broken up, and no further activity was taken or allowed with the islands. It remained uninhabited until May 1830. Western ships visited the island on several occasions in the 19th century, including: The Beechey Pacific expedition on HMS Blossom in 1827 Naturalist Heinrich