Japan and the Japanese

242 JAPAN. A. 1>. 1000.
increase the number to fifty, and sometime.-! to a hundred so many
as they think necessary
occasion lor.
that is, at least twice the number there is
44 When the ship has entered the harbor, two guard-boats, with a
good number of soldiers, are put one on each side of her, and con-
tinued, being mounted with fresh troops every till day, she leaves.
As soon as the ship drops anchor, great numbers of officers come
on board to demand our guns, cutlasses, swords and other arms, as
also the gunpowder packed up in barrels, which are taken into their
custody, and kept in a store-house, built for this purpose, till her
departure. They attempted, also, in former times, to take out the
now leave it in.
rudder, but, having found it impracticable, they
44 The next day after her arrival, the commissioners of the gov-
ernor come on board, with their usual attendance of soldiers, inter-
preters, and subordinate officers, to make an exact review, in
presence
of our director, of all the people on board, according to the
list which hath been given them, and wherein is set down every
one's name, age, birth, place of residence, and office, examining
them from top to toe. Many questions are asked, as to those who
died on the voyage, when and of what distemper they died. Even
now and then a dead monkey or parrot may occasion a strict in-
quiry to be made after the cause and manner of their death, and
they are so scrupulous that they will not give their verdict, without
sitting upon the body itself, and carefully examining it.
44 After this, the orders of our director, and likewise of the governors
of Nagasaki, relating to our behavior with regard to tho
natives, are read in Low Dutch, and afterwards, for every one's
inspection, stuck up in several places on board the ship, and at
Desima. The same rules are observed with all our ships, of which
there are two, three, or four, sent from Batavia to Japan every
year, according to the quantity of copper they have occasion for ;
one of which goes first to Siam, to make up part of her cargo with
the commodities of that country. Formerly, when the Dutch as
yet enjoyed a free trade, they sent seldom less than six or seven
ships, and sometimes more.
" The review
being over, they proceed to unlade the ships, dur-
ing which, several of the governors' officers, a chief interpreter, a
ieputy interpreter, and an apprentice, besides several clerks and