Japan and the Japanese

240 JAPAN*. A. I). 1C90.
the subversion of their pagan doctrine and religion, so little con-
spicuous arc the principles of Christianity in our lives and actions.
Nevertheless, so many guards, corporations, societies, with their
numerous attendants, all upon oath, and themselves jealous and
mistrustful one of another, are set to guard and narrowly to watch
us, as if we were the greatest malefactors, traitors, spies
in a word,
the worst and most dangerous set of people ; or, to make use of a
very significant expression of the Japanese, as if we were, what I
think we really arc, Fitozitz, that is, the emperor's hostages."
It is to be observed that in different parts of his book Kiimpfer
appears in two distinct characters. Sometimes he seems to be the
mere surgeon of the Dutch factory, fully sharing and giving
voice
to all the feelings and prejudices of that establishment, bring-
ing before us, in a very lively manner, the angry Dutch factors
grumbling over the new restrictions lately put upon the Dutch trade,
and especially the new precautions against smuggling.
Elsewhere
he shows himself perfectly able to enter into all the views and feel-
ings of the Japanese; and however angry he may occasionally
get at the obstacles encountered by himself, especially on the
part of the old chief interpreter,
in his efforts to obtain a full
knowledge of Japanese affairs, he had evidently conceived a strong
liking for the Japanese people, and never fails to do them justice,
whether as individuals or as a nation. He composed, indeed, a formal
dissertation, originally published in his Ama-nifates, in which
he enters into an elaborate defence of the policy of the Japanese in
their jealous exclusion of foreigners; nor can any one who calls to
mind the consequences of that intercourse to the natives of Eastern
Asia and America, and especially the history of the late Anglo-
Chinese opium war, deny the plausibility at least of the argument.