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Edited by James Murdoch. 2 volumes. [iv], III, 346, [4 blank & errata]; [ii], 254, [4], V, [3, blanks and colophon] pp., errata slip tipped in at rear. Full page and in-text engraved illustrations in Volume 1; 6 collotype plates (numbered I-II, IV-VII), facsimile letters and illustrations from photographs in Volume 2. (8vo) 8½x5¾, original red cloth (Vol. 1) and brown cloth (Vol. 2), lettered in gilt on spines and front covers. First Editions.

Joseph Heco [Hamada Hikozo] (1837-1897), a native of the province of Sanyodo, went to sea in 1850. When his ship was dismasted, he and other members of the crew were rescued by an American ship which took Heco to California, and the young Japanese did not return to his native land until 1859. The narrative contains Heco's reminiscences, based on diaries that he began to keep as soon as he had mastered English. In the first volume, he describes his boyhood in Japan and the voyage that brought him to America; a trip to Hong Kong; and a return voyage to San Francisco, where a local businessman sponsors Heco's education and travels to New York and Baltimore. This volume concludes with Heco's return to Japan in 1859 and work as interpreter for the U.S. Consulate and a second trip to America, 1861- 1862. Vol. 2 (1895) contains Heco's reminiscences of his adventures, picking up the story shortly after Heco's return to Japan after his second journey to America in 1862. His later experiences in Japan include an eyewitness account of key events in the Revolution of 1868. "His experiences were unique. He saw the Gold Rush through wondering eyes. He became an American citizen, visited Washington and met the President, and thereafter returned to Japan to serve as an official interpreter of the American Mission." - Wheat, Books of the California Gold Rush 94. "Heco, in these amazing reminiscences recorded the only published account of a Japanese in the Gold Rush. On a trading expedition in 1850, he set sail in his father's junk, was caught in a storm, and drifted helplessly in the ocean. Eventually, an American ship picked up Heco and his shipmates and took them to San Francisco. Heco, after a year's stay, went on another voyage and returned to San Francisco in June 1853. There he obtained employment in the Customs House and, in that capacity, met Senator Gwinn. The remainder of the narrative recorded the Japanese adventurer's travels to the East Coast of the United States and return trips to San Francisco. Heco's story has little to do with the Gold Rush but does offer a glimpse of San Francisco in the 1850s from an entirely different perspective." - Kurutz, The California Gold Rush 325a. Not in Cordier, Bibliotheca Japonica. Tipped into Volume 1 is a gelatin silver print of Heco with an ink note below stating that this print was copied in 1897 from an old albumen print, dated 1871. Volume 1 with the ownership signature of Chas. D. West on front pastedown. West, an Irish engineer, was invited by the Japanese Emperor to teach at the University of Tokyo in 1882 where he remained until his death in 1907. West is one of only 5 non-Japanese professors honored with a bronze statue on the University grounds. Volume 2 is inscribed on the front free endpaper " To W.K. Burton, Esq. With comps. of the author." William Kinninmond Burton was also a professor of engineering and the University of Tokyo during the late 19th century.