or returned to China. Its leader, Hsü Fu, evidently intended to found a colony. Schlegel traces it to the Philippines.[1] A tradition of the expedition exists in Japan, and is sufficiently strong to have led to the erection of shrines in honour of Hsü Fu[2] and to the association of some graves in Kii province with him and his followers.[3] Against too much credence being placed in the corroborative value of ancient Japanese tradition is the fact, pointed out by Chavannes,[4] that much of it is derived from Chinese sources.
Summing up the purely unimaginative side of this subject we find that, though hardly justified in claiming for the Isles of the Blest a close association with the origin of the Japanese race, we may with safety affirm that the conception powerfully stimulated early Chinese exploration and navigation of the seas. Whatever their faults, Taoist adventurers must share with Buddhist pilgrims the credit of having been pioneers in Chinese geographical discovery.
