Japan and the Japanese

CHAPTER XXXIX.
IHPNBERG'S VISIT TO JAPAN. SEARCHES AND EXAMINATIONS SMUG-
GLING. INTERPRETERS. DESIMA. IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. UNICORN'S
HORN AND GINSENG. SOT. THE DUTCH AT DESIMA. JAPANESE MIS
TRESSES. JAPANESE WOMEN. STUDYING THE LANGUAGE. BOTANIZING.
CLOCKS. NEW TEAR'S DAT. TRAMPLING ON IMAGES. DEPARTURB
FOR JEDO. JOURNEY THROUGH THE ISLAND OF XIMO. JAPANESE
HOUSES AND FURNITURE. MANUFACTURE OF PAPER. PRACTICE OF BATH
ING. SIMONOSEKI. VOTAGE TO OSAKA. CHILDREN. FROM OSAKA
TO MIAKO. AGRICULTURE. ANIMALS. A. D. 17751776.
FROM the time of Kampfer's departure from Desima, of all
the Dutch residents and visitors there, none, for a period of up-
wards of eighty years, favored the world with their observations.
They went to Japan in pursuit of money, not to obtain knowledge,
either for themselves or others.
At length, in 1775, Charles Peter Thunberg, a Swedish physi-
cian, naturalist and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing
Japan, obtained the same official situation which Kiimpfer had held
before him. Being an enthusiastic botanist, he was sent to the
East by some wealthy merchants of Amsterdam to obtain new trees
and plants, as well for the medical garden of that city as for their
own private collections. Circumstances caused him to spend three
years at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he proceeded
to Bnta-
via. He left that port June 20, 1775, and arrived off Nagasaki
the 14th of the following August. From an experience of more
than a hundred years, the Company reckoned on the loss of one out
of every five ships sent to Japan, though care was taken to select
the best and strongest vessels.*
The searches and examinations previous to landing were the
* This was a considerable improvement upon the state of things in the tim
of Xavier, when every third vessel was expected to be lost. See p. 49