Japan and the Japanese

170 JAPAX. A. D. 16111613.
" 2. Item. We grant unto them freedom of custom for all such merchan
discs as either now th?y have brought or hereafter they shall bring into oui
kingdoms, or shall from heticc transport to any foreign part ; and d author
ize those ships that hereafter shall arrive and come from England, to pro-
ceed to present sale of their commodities, without further coming or sending
up
to our court.
" 3. Item. If any of their ships shall happen to be in danger of shipwreck,
we will our subjects not only to assist them, but that such part of ship and
goods as shall be saved be returned to their captain or cape-merchant,* or their
build one house or more for themselves,
assigns : and that they shall or may
in any part of our empire where they shall think fittest, and at their depart-
ure to make sale thereof at their pleasure.
"4. Item. If any of the English, merchants or other, shall depart this
life within our dominions, the goods of the deceased shall remain at the dis-
and all offences committed by them shall be
pose of the cape-merchant :
punished by the said cape-merchant, according to his. discretion ; our laws
to take no hold of their persons or goods.
" 5. Item. We will that ye our subjects, trading with them for any of
their commodities, pay them for the same according to agreement, without
delay, or return of their wares again unto them.
" 6. Item. For such commodities as they have now brought, or shall here-
after bring, fitting for our service and proper use, we will that no arrest be
made thereof, but that the price be made with the cape-merchant, according
as they may sell to others, and present payment upon the delivery of the goods.
" 7. Item. If, in discovery of other countries for trade, and return of their
ships, they should need men or victuals, we will that ye our subjects furnish
them for their money as their need shall require.
" 8. And that, without further passport, they shall and may set out upon
the discovery of YcaJzo.t or any other p.vrt in anl about our empire." f
* This word, though not to be found in any of our dictionaries, was in cur-
rent use, at this time, in the signification of head merchant of a factory ship
or trading post, cope being, probably, a contraction of captain.
t Jeso, otherwise called M.itstnai, the island north of Nipon. There is in
Purchas' Pilyrimcs, vol. i
, p. 864, a short account of this island, obtained from
a Jap.mese, who had been there twice. It was visited in ltf'20 by Jerome de
Angelis, who sent home an account of its gold-washings, which reads very
much like a California letter. It was also then as now the seat of extensive
fisheries. The gold which it produced made the Dutch and English anxious
to explore it. The Dutch made some voyages in that direction, and discov-
ered some of the southern Kuriles ; but the geography of those seas remained
very confused till the voyages of La Perouse. Matsmai was the
scene if Golownin's captivity in 1812. [Seech. XLIV.] One of the ports
granted to the Americans (Hocodade) is on the southern coast of this island.
J These Privileges are given by Purchas, Pilgrimes, vol. i., p. 375, with a
fac-siruile of the original Japanese