 By the mid-18th century, Qing officials had registered 56 surname groups; of these, Qing sources note that six clans and 148 households were those of Ainu and Nivkh who came under the Qing administrative umbrella.However, since the Chinese government did not have a military presence on the island, Japanese attempts at colonization continued.In an early colonization attempt, a Japanese settlement was established at Ōtomari on Sakhalin's southern end in 1679.