Japan and the Japanese

FAMILIAR RECEPTION. 371
commerce. This the chief interpreter repeated in Japanese, having
prostrated himself quite to the ground, and speaking loud enough to
be heard by the emperor. The emperor's answer was again
received by Bingo, who delivered it to the chief interpreter, and he
to us. He might have, indeed, received it himself from the
emperor's own mouth, and saved Bingo this unnecessary trouble ;
but I fancy that the words, as they flow out of the emperor's
mouth, are esteemed too precious and sacred for an immediate
transit into the mouth of persons of a low rank.
" The mutual compliments being over, the succeeding part of this
solemnity turned to a perfect farce. We were asked a thousand
ridiculous and impertinent questions. They desired to know how
old each of us was, and what was his name, which we were commanded
to write upon a bit of paper, in anticipation of which we
had provided ourselves with an European inkhorn. This paper,
together with the inkhorn itself, we were commanded to give to
Bi-ngo, who delivered them both into the emperor's hands, reaching
them over below the lattice. The captain, or ambassador, was
asked the distance of Holland from Batavia, and of Batavia from
Nagasaki; also which of the two was the most powerful, the Direc-
tor-general of the Dutch East India Compan} 7 at Batavia, or the
Prince of Holland ? "As for my own particular, the following
questions were put to me. What external and internal distempers
I thought the most dangerous and most difficult to cure ? How I
proceeded in the cure of cancerous humors and imposthumations
of the inner parts ? Whether our European physicians did not
search after some medicine to render people immortal, as the Chinese
physicians had done for many hundred years ? Whether we
had made any considerable progress in this search, and which was
the last remedy conducive to long life that had been found out in
Europe ? To which I returned in answer, that very many Euro-
pean physicians had long labored to find out some medicine, which
should have the virtue of prolonging human life and preserving
people in health to a great age ; and having thereupon been asked
which I thought the best, I answered, that I always took that to
be the best which was found out last, till experience taught
us a
better ; and being further asked, which was the last, I answered, a
certain spirituous liquor, which could keep the humors of our body