![]()
Part I
Author's Preface to Part Part I1
The Empire of Japan is in many respects a singular country, and with regard to customs and institutions totally different from Europe, or, I had almost said, from any other part of the world. It has therefore been a subject of wonder to other nations and has been alternately extolled and decried. Of all the nations that inhabit the three largest parts of the globe, the Japanese deserve to rank the first, and to be compared with the Europeans, and although in many points they must yield the palm to the latter, yet in various other respects they may with great justice be preferred to them. Here, indeed, as well as in other countries, are found both useful and pernicious establishments, both rational and absurd institutions, yet still we must admire the steadiness which constitutes the national character, the immutability which reigns in the administration of their laws and in the exercise of their public functions, the unwearied assiduity of this nation to do and to promote what is useful, and a hundred other things of a similar nature. That so numerous a people as this should love so ardently and so universally (without even a single exception to the contrary) their native country, their government and each other; that the whole country should be, as it were, enclosed so that no native can get out nor foreigner enter in without permission; that their laws should have remained unaltered for several thousand years, and that justice should be administered without partiality or respect to persons; that the government can neither become despotic nor evade the laws in order to grant pardons or do other acts of mercy; that the monarch and all his subjects should be clad alike in a particular national dress;2 that no fashions should be adopted from abroad nor new ones invented at home; that no foreign war should have been waged for centuries past and interior commotions should be for ever prevented; that a great variety of religious sects should live in peace and harmony together; that hunger and want should be almost unknown, or at least known but seldom, &c. All this must appear as improbable, and to many as impossible, as it is strictly true and deserving of the utmost attention.
I have endeavoured to delineate this nation such as it really is, without on the one hand too highly extolling its advantages, or on the other too severely censuring its defects. I put down daily upon paper whatever came to my knowledge, but several subjects, such as their internal economy, language, government, public worship &c , I have since collected and drawn together from different parts of my journal for the purpose of treating of them in one place, and in order to avoid speaking of them separately on different occasions.
No country in the world, perhaps, undergoes fewer changes than Japan, which has been both well and amply described by the learned Doctor Kaempfer in his history of this country.3 Some, nevertheless, I have found and have committed to writing the few alterations which have occurred in matters of smaller moment, at least during the space of nearly a hundred years.4
But as natural history has in a particular manner engaged my attention, I have not only endeavoured diligently to collect the minerals, animals and plants of this country, but also to render them in some degree useful and advantageous to Europe, and the country that gave me birth.5 Oh, how great would be my joy, without the least tincture of arrogance, could I but in any measure arrive at this constant object of my most fervent wishes!
In a separate treatise, under the title of Flora Japonica, I have described such plants as I have found on the Nippon islands, and at the same time indicated their uses.6 But in this account of my travels I have made mention of such only as exhibit some remarkable use in in rural and domestic economy, and in the art of healing.7
![]()
1
Departure and arrival
June: Departure
On the 20th of June, 1775, I went on board of the Stavenise8, one of the three-decked vessels bound from Batavia to Japan. For some time past, the Dutch East India Company has sent two ships only to that empire, which ships are selected by the government in Batavia for this purpose, one of them, and generally both, being large three-deckers from the province of Zeeland, as the navigation of these waters is accounted the most dangerous in all the Indies.
I had engaged myself as principal surgeon on board of the ship during this voyage, and on my safe arrival at Japan was to remain there a year, and at the same time to accompany the Dutch ambassador on his journey to the imperial court at Edo, the capital of the country, in quality of physician to the embassy. This was my station in the Dutch East India Company's service, but I had, besides, at Amsterdam undertaken to collect for the Hortus Medicus9 there, and [for] some gentlemen of distinction, as far as I could get liberty and opportunity in this distant country, seeds and growing plants, particularly of shrubs and trees, to be sent to Europe by the returning ships for the purpose of trartsplanting. The ship was commanded by Captain Von Ess10, and on board of her now embarked M.Feith, in quality of consul, and likewise ambassador, for the fourth time, to the Imperial Court, who had brought him as assistant in the commercial line M.Haringa, the supercargo11, together with four writers.12
The other ship which lay ready to accompany us was somewhat less, and was called the Bleijenberg. It had on board a supercargo and a writer.
All the officers on board who were to remain a year at Japan carried with them one or more slaves, as servants during the voyage and their stay at that place. This had been allowed by the Japanese for more than one hundred years back, though the slaves are not suffered to go out of the factory13, or the adjacent town, Nagasaki.
On the 21st, about ten o'clock in the forenoon we weighed anchor, saluted14, and got underway in the road15 of Batavia, but came again to anchor for the purpose of putting everything in proper order previous to our intended voyage.
The chief16 allowed a free table for all the officers, both now and during the voyage, as also liquors, beer and wine, partly at his own and partly at the Company's expense.
On the 26th, in the morning, by the aid of a light breeze and the tide, we were in the Straits of Banca, which are nearly as broad as the British Channel. We saw the land of Sumatra to the left, the shores of which are even and low, and the land of Java to the right, both overgrown with wood.17
On the 27th, we remained at anchor, and waited the arrival of the other ship, which being a dull sailer, lagged behind.
On the 28th, we weighed anchor and got underway.
On the 30th, we got safe through the sound into the open sea, and were saluted by the Bleijenberg, which compliment being returned, we wished each other a safe passage.
July: En route
July 3rd, crossed the Line18.
On the 8th, saw the rock Pulo Sapato19, which at a distance appears like a ship, and on a nearer view like the hinder part of a shoe cut in two across the instep. Its name signifies ‘Shoe Island’: pulo in the Malay tongue signifying an island, and sapato a shoe. This island has been so called from its resembling the heel of a shoe.
On the 10th, saw the Chinese coast, which is a pleasing sight to every Japan trader, as it affords an evident proof that the vessel is pretty far advanced on its voyage.
On the 12th, a hard gale. In this latitude gales are very common. Our captain (who was a very careful and sagacious man) ordered immediately to shorten sail, lower the topmasts and take down the yards. This precaution was afterwards observed during the whole voyage when we were similarly circumstanced, and the event showed that it was extremely judicious. The Bleijenberg on the other hand, being astern of us all this time carried all her sail till the topmasts went, and during the gale she lost her lower masts also. In fine20, the ship, in consequence of its rolling, was so much shattered and proved so leaky that it was with the greatest difficulty that she was prevented from sinking, and carried into the port of Macao from whence she was afterwards taken to Canton in order to be repaired, being unable to proceed on her voyage to Japan.21 The cargo, which chiefly consisted of soft sugars, was almost entirely spoiled.
On the 17th, a most tremendous gale accompanied by severe hurricanes and a great deal of rain, which lasted for eight and forty hours, but no thunder.
On the 20th, the gale having abated, we saw a Chinese fishing boat with her keel upwards. The fishermen belonging to it were supposed to have been lost.
On the 22nd, saw again the Chinese shore. Four fishing boats came to us and brought with them several sorts of fish. Amongst others there was the beautiful and transparent shellfish called Ostrea pleuronectes, one of the shells of which is white and the other red, and on this account it is called by the Dutch maan-schulp, or moon muscle. There were likewise found among them several sepiae, some large crabs and the Cancer mantis.22 The whole of this we purchased with some rice and arrack23, with which the fishermen seemed highly pleased.
Since our leaving Batavia, the seamen had been very much troubled with intermitting fevers, but as soon as the cold weather and winds increased, the malady abated. Bontius observes that in his time agues were seldom heard of in the East Indies, but at present no species of fever is more common.24 The difference in the degrees of heat, however, was, in fine weather, not very remarkable. The thermometer stood at Batavia between eighty and eighty-six degrees, and in the northern latitude, in which we now were, it was at seventy-eight or seventy-nine degrees, by Fahrenheit's scale.25
The very heavy rains which accompanied the last gale were not less troublesome than the hurricanes, as everything we had was wet, and on laying them out to dry some articles were found quite useless. The crabs (canceres) and marine animals (sepiae) which I had collected for the purpose of drying and preserving, afforded me at night, as soon as it grew dark, a most delightful spectacle: the former of these in spots and the latter with almost the whole surface of their bodies, illuminating my little cabin with a bluish phosphoric light. The light proceeding from the crabs in particular was singular, as it appeared upon them in spots and not covering any part entirely, a spot, perhaps on the one side of the tail, giving a light when there was none perceptible on the other. The glimmering continued for the space of two days, and when the animal was brought up on deck and exposed to the open air in the daytime, it gave no light at all. With the naked eye I could neither discover marine insects nor anything else that might occasion this phenomenon, and when I scratched any of the shining spots with my nail the light neither disappeared nor was it in the least diminished.
The Chinese fishing boats are remarkably large and long, built of thin boards and decked, and bluff both at the head and stern. Abaft26 however, they are much wider; the deck is open where the rudder traverses, and they have only one mast and sail. In these, generally, four or five men to each boat go far out into the sea and there fish night and day. The officers of the ship who had been [on] several voyages, informed me that sometimes in fine weather such numbers of them were seen as to darken the horizon.
On the 23rd, a great number of the fish called pilots were this day seen.
On the 26th, passed the island called Med zyn Gatt and made towards Formosa Sound.27
On the 29th, saw the island of Formosa, which formerly belonged to the Dutch East India Company.28
This island is long, large and very fruitful. Formerly all ships bound for Japan touched at this place, which made the voyage more commodious and less dangerous, as in case of hard gales they have now no port to run into.
The citadel, called Zeeland, was surrendered in the year 1662 after a siege of nine months by the then governor, Coijet, to the Chinese rebel Coxinga, who had been driven out of China by the Tartars.29 The history of this transaction may be seen in Het verwaaloosde Formosa, by C.E.S, printed at Amsterdam, 1675.30 This island is at present in the hands of the Emp...
