Japan and the Japanese

'
removal of the body ;
KAMPFER LANDS AT DESIMA. 21&
but none of the ship's company were allowed
to attend, or to see what was done with it.
As soon as this roll-calling and examination were over, Japanese
soldiers and revenue officers were put into every corner, and the
ship was, as it were, completely taken out of the hands of the Dutch.
For that day only, they were left in possession of the boats to look
after the anchor ; but all their arms and gunpowder were taken
away.
" In short," says Kiimpfer, " had I not been beforehand
acquainted with their usual proceedings, I could not .have helped
thinking that we had got into a hostile country, and had been taken
for spies." That evening was received from the factory a supply
of fowls, eggs, fish, shell-fish, turnips, radishes, which, as Kiimpfer
afterwards observed, were largely cultivated, and formed a great
part of the food of the country people, onions, fresh ginger,
pumpkins, watermelons, white bread, and a barrel of saki, or Japanese
rice-beer.
On the twenty-ninth the officers of the factory came on board,
and calling the ship's company together, read to them the orders
of the Dutch East India Company, and of the governor of Naga-
saki, to the effect that every one was to behave soberly and dis-
creetly with respect to the natives and to the laws and customs of
the country. A paper containing these orders, written in Dutch,
was, according to the Japanese custom, left on board for everybody
to read. No one, except the captain of the ship and the director, or
head officer (in Dutch, Opperhoofd), of the factory, could leave the
ship for Desima, or return on board again, without a written pass-
port, in the one case granted by the Japanese officers on board, in
the other by those upon the island. On the twenty-sixth Kiimpfer
took his goods and landed for his two years' residence on the island.
It was his object to get all the knowledge he possibly could of the
present state and past history of Japan ; but in this he encountered
many difficulties. The Japanese officers, with whom the
Dutch came in contact, were all bound by an oath, renewed every
year, not to talk with the Dutch, nor to make any disclosures to
them, respecting the domestic affairs of the country, its religion, or
its politics ; and not only that, they were also bound by oath to
watch and report
against was indee \
each
their
other which fear of being informed
chief dread and restraint.
"
Naturally