Japan and the Japanese

THUNBERG'S VISIT. 38&
from Batavia were broken, lest they might be shams in which val
uablea were concealed.
Formerly, according to Thunberg, the Dutch took the liberty tc
correct with blows the Japanese Jadi employed as laborers on
board the ships ; but in his time this was absolutely prohibited.
He adds, that the respect of the Japanese for- the Dutch was a
good deal diminished by observing " in how unfriendly and unman-
nerly a style they usually behave to each other, and the brutal
treatment which the sailors under their command frequently experience
from them, together with the oaths, curses and blows, with
which the poor fellows are assailed by them."
The interpreters would seem to have adopted, since the time of
Kiimpfer (as he makes no mention of it), the practice of medicine
among their countrymen after the European manner. This made
them very inquisitive as to matters of physic and natural history,
and very anxious to obtain European books, which they studied
diligently. Kiimpfer speaks of the interpreters with great indigna-
tion as the most watchful and hateful of spies. Thunberg appears
to have established very good terms with them. JSew restrictions,
however, had been placed on their intercourse with the resident
were not allowed to
Dutchmen, whom, to. prevent smuggling, they
visit, except in company with one or two other officers.
Desima, from Thunberg's description of it, appears to have
altered very little since Kiimpfer's residence there ; though glass win-
dows had lately been brought from Batavia, by some of the Dutch
residents, as a substitute for the paper windows of the Japanese.
The permanent residents were now twelve or thirteen (there had
been but seven in Kampfer's time), besides slaves brought from
Batavia, of whom each Dutchman had one.
The goods sent out by the Company, at the time of Thunberg's
visit, were sugars (almost the only article of consumption which the
Japanese do not produce for themselves), elephant's teeth, sappanwood
for dyeing, tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts,
Dutch broadcloths, shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China-
root and Costits Arabicus. The goods of private adventurers were
saffron, Venice treacle, Spanish liquorice, ratans, spectacles, look-
ing-glasses, watches, Ninsi-root or ginseng, and unicorns' horns.
This latter article, the horn of the Monodon monoceros, a product
33*