Japan and the Japanese

244 ' JAPAN. A. D. 1C90.
divinity, as also all European money, to the captain, who packs
thorn all up in an old cask, and hides them.
" Those who are newly arrived must suffer themselves, in going
in or coming out of our island, to be searched, whether or no they
have any contraband goods about them. Every one who wishes to
go on board, whether it be for his own private business, or in the
Company's service, is obliged to take out a pass-board
from the
commissioners at the water gates, and, in like manner, when he
returns on shore, he must take out another from those on the ship.
"At night, when the commissioners sent on board the ship return
with their retinue to Nagasaki, the cabin is scaled up in their
presence,
and all the Dutchmen accurately counted over, to see that
there be none wanting, which would occasion a very great confu-
sion. During my stay in Japan it happened
that a common sailor
unfortunately was drowned in the night, nobody perceiving his fall-
ing into the water. At the review made the next morning (for it
is constantly made every morning and night) the fellow was missed.
This unlucky accident suddenly stopped all proceedings, and the
fear lest it should be a Roman Catholic priest, who had made his
escape into the country, occasioned such a consternation among the
Japanese, that all the officers ran about, scratching their heads, and
behaving as if they had lost their senses, and some of the soldiers in
the guard-ships were already preparing to rip themselves open,
when at last the unlucky fellow's body being taken up from the
bottom of the harbor put an end to their fears.
"At all other times, that for
lading and unlading our ships
exccpted, the water gates are shut, by which means all communication
is cut off between those that stay on board and those that
remain on shore. The ship's cargo having been placed in the ware-
houses, the goods lie there till they are pleased, in two or three
days of sale, which they call Kambany, to sell them. What remains
unsold is carried back to the warehouses, and kept there
against the next year's sale.
" The following goods are imported by us : raw silk, from China,
Tonquin, Bengal, and Persia; all sorts of silks, woollen, and other
stuffs (provided they be not wrought with gold and silver) ; Brazil
wood ; buffalo, and other hides ; ray skins, wax, and buffalo horns
from Siam ; tanned hides from Persia, Bengal, and other places,