Japan and the Japanese

294 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1C92.
" The mercTiant-ships which venture out at sea, though not very
far from the coasts, and serve for the transport of men and goods
from one island or province to another, deserve a more accurate
description. They are commonly eighty-four
feet
long and
twenty-four broad, built for sailing as well as rowing. They
run tapering from the middle towards the stern, and both ends
of the keel stand out of the water considerably. The body of
the ship is not built bulging, as our European ones; but that
part which stands below the surface of the water runs almost in a
straight line towards the keel. The stern is broad and flat, with a
wide opening in the middle tor the easier management of the rud-
der, which reaches down almost to the bottom of the ship, and lavs
open all the inside to the eye. The deck, somewhat raised towards
the stern, consists only of deal boards laid loose, without anything
to fasten them together.
It rises but little above the surface of the
water, when the ship hath its full
lading, and is almost covered
with a sort of a cabin, full a man's height, only a small part of it
towards the stern being left empty to lay up the anchor and other
tackle. This cabin jet.s beyond the ship about two feet on each
side; and there arc slid ing-windows round it, which may be opened
or shut, as occasion requires.
In the furthermost parts are the cab-
ins, or rooms for passengers, separate from each other by folding
screens and doors, with floors covered with line neat mats. The
furthermost cabin is always reckoned the best, and for this reason
assigned to the chief passenger. The roof, or upper deck, is flat-
tish, and made of neat boards curiously joined together. In rainy
weather the mast is let down upon the upper deck, and the sail
extended over it, affording to the sailors and the people employed
in the ship's service shelter and a place to sleep at night. Some-
times, and the better to defend the upper deck, it is covered with
common straw mats, which for this purpose lie there at hand. The
ship hath but one sail, made of hemp, and very large. She hath
also but one mast, standing up about a fathom beyond
her middle
towards the stern. This mast, which is of the same length with the
ship, is hoisted up by pulleys, ami again, when the ship comes to an
anchor, let down upon deck. The anchors are of iron, and cables
twisted of straw, and stronger than one would imagine. Ships of
this burden have commonly thirty or forty hands apiece to row