Japan and the Japanese

374 JAPAN. A. D. 1691 1C92.
way, on the left of which we took notice that there were strong walls
and ditches. It was just six in the evening when we got home,
heartily tired.
" Friday, the 30th of March, we rode out again betimes, in the
morning, to make some of our remaining visits. The presents, such
as above-described, were sent before us by our Japanese clerks, who
took care to lay them on trays or tables, and to arrange them in
good order, according to the country fashion. We were received
at the entry of the house, by one or two of the principal dome.>tics,
and conducted to the apartment where we were to have our au-
dience. The rooms round the hull of audience were everywhere
crowded with spectators. As soon as we had seated ourselves we
were treated with tea and tobacco. Then the steward of the
household came in, or else the
secretary,
either alone or with
another gentleman, to compliment us, and to receive our com-
pliments, in his master's name. The rooms were everywhere so
disposed as to make us turn our faces towards the ladies, by
whom we were very generously and civilly treated with cakes
and several sorts of sweetmeats. We visited and made our pres-
ents, this day, to the two governors of Jedo, to the three eccle-
siastical judges (or temple lords), and to the two commissioners for
foreign affairs, who lived near a mile from each other, one in the
south-west, the other in the north-east, part of the castle. They
both profess themselves to be particular patrons of the Dutch, and
received us accordingly with great pomp and magnificence. The
street was lined with twenty men armed, who, with their long staffs,
which they held on one side, made a very good figure, besides that
they helped to keep off the throng of people from being too troublesome.
We were received upon our entering
the house, and intro-
duced to audience, much after the same manner as we had been in
other places, only we were carried deeper into their palaces and
into the innermost apartment, on purpose that we should not be
troubled with numbers of spectators, and be at more liberty our-
selves as well as the ladies who were invited to the ceremony. Opposite
us, in the hall of audience, there were grated lattices, instead
of screens, for the length of two mats (twelve feet) and upwards,
behind which sat such numbers of women of the commissioner's own
family and their relations and friends, that there was no room left.