Japan and the Japanese

AUDIENCE OF LEAVE. 377
fully by the richness and exquisiteness of this entertainment, whicn
was equal to that of the first commissioner's, but far beyond it in
courteous civility and a free, open carriage. After an hour and a
half we took our leave. The house of Tonosama is the furthermost
to the north or north-west we were to go to, a mile and a half from
our inn, but seated in by much the pleasantest part of the town,
where there is an agreeable variety of hills and shrubbery. The
family of Tubosama, the third governor, lives in a small, sorry
house near the ditch which encompasses the castle. We met here
but a few women behind a screen, who took up with peeping at us
through a few holes, which they made as they sat down. The
strong liquors, which we had been this day obliged to drink in larger
quantities than usual, being by this time got pretty much into our
heads, we made haste to return home, and took our leave as soon
as we had been treated, after the usual manner, with tea and
tobacco."
Two or three days after followed the audience of leave preparatory
to the return to Nagasaki. Of this Kampfer gives much the
fullest account in his narrative of his second visit to Jedo, which
we follow here.
Having proceeded to the palace as at the first audience, after
half an hour's stay in the waiting-room, the " "
Captain Hollanda
was called in before the councillors of state, who directed one of
the commissioners to read the usual orders to him, five in number,
chiefly to the effect that the Dutch should not molest any of the
boats or ships of the Chinese or the Lew Chewans trading
to Japan,
nor bring in any Portuguese or priests.
These orders being read, the director was presented with thirty
gowns, laid on three of the Japanese wooden stands or salvers, which
he crept upon all fours to receive, and in token of respect held one
of the gowns over his head.
This ceremony over, the Dutch were invited to stay to dinner,
which was served up in another room. Before each was placed a
small table or salver, on which lay five fresh, hot, white cakes, as
tough as glue, and two hollow cakes of two spans in circumference,
made of flour and sprinkled with sesamum seeds. A small porce-
*ain cup contained some bits of pickled salmon in a brown sauce,
by the side of which lay two wooden chop-sticks. Tea also was
32*