Japan and the Japanese

SARIS' VISIT TO JEDO. 169
knee, it may be presumed), the king's letter, which the emperor
took and raised toward his forehead, telling the interpreter to bid
them welcome after their wearisome journey, and that in a day or
two his answer would be ready. He invited them in the mean tune
to visit his son, who resided at Jedo.
The country between Suruga and Jedo, which were two days'
journey apart, was found to be well inhabited. They saw many
temples on the way, one of which contained a gigantic image of
Buddha, made of copper, hollow within, but of very substantial
thickness. It was, as they guessed, twenty-two feet high, in like-
ness of a man kneeling on the ground, and seated on his heels,
clothed in a gown, his arms of wonderful size, and the whole body
fn proportion. The echo of the shouts of some of the company, who
went into the body of it, was very loud. Some of the English left
their names written upon it, as they saw was customary.
Jedo was found to be a city much larger than Suruga, and with
much handsomer buildings, making a very glorious appearance as
they approached, the ridge tiles and corner tiles, and the posts of
the doors, being richly gilded and varnished. There were, however,
no glass windows, but window-shutters instead, opening in leaves,
and handsomely painted.
From Jedo, where our travellers were received much as they
had been at Suruga, they proceeded some forty miles, by boats, to
Oringa, an excellent harbor on the sea-side, whence, in eight days,
they coasted round a projecting point of land back to Suruga, where
they received the emperor's answer to the king's letter, also an en-
grossed and official copy of certain privileges of trade, a draught of
which they had furnished to the -emperor's secretary, and which,
having been condensed as much as possible, to suit the Japanese
taste for brevity, and thus reduced from fourteen articles to eight,
were expressed in the following terms :
" 1. Imprimis. We give free license to the subjects of the king of Great
Britain, namely, Sir Thomas Smith, governor, and the company of the East
India merchants and adventurers, forever, safely to come into any of the
ports of our empire of Japan, with their ships and merchandises, without any
hindrance to them or their goods, and to abide, buy, sell and barter, accord-
ing to their own manner, with all nations : to tarry here as long as they think
good, and to depart at their pleasures
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