Japan and the Japanese

390 JAPAN. A. D. 1775 1716.
of the Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japan-
ese ascribed to it wonderful virtues as a medicine, believing
it to have the power to prolong life, strengthen the animal spirits,
assist the memory, and cure all sorts of complaints. Tlmn-
berg had carried out as his venture thirty-seven katties (about fifty
pounds) of this horn, which sold for five thousand and seventy-one
taels, or upwards of six thousand dollars ; so that, after paying the
advances made to him at Batavia, he had a handsome surplus to
expend in his favorite pursuit of natural history.
The genuine Chinese ginseng (Panax qninqucfoUum] sold at a
price full as high as that of unicorn's horn. The American article,
being regarded as not genuine, was strictly prohibited,but was smuggled
in to mix with the Chinese.*
Scientific works in the Dutch language, though not a regular
article of sale, might be often exchanged to advantage with the
interpreters.
The Company imported a quantity of silver coin, but private persons
were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made
on it. The sale by Kambany continued exactly as Kiimpfer had
described it. No Japanese money came into the hands either of
the Company or of individuals from the sale of their goods by
kambang. They only acquired a credit, which they were able to
exchange for Japanese articles.
The chiBf articles of export were copper, camphor and lackered
goods; porcelain, rice, saki, soy,t were also exported. The profits
* Kiimpfer had seen the ginseng cultivated in gardens in Japan, hut it
was not supposed to possess the virtues of the Chinese article. Father Jon-
toux, one of the Jesuit missionaries in China, employed by the emperor in
preparing a map of the region north of the great wall, had an opportunity to
Bee the ginseng growing wild. He sent home, in 1711, a full account of it,
with drawings (which may be found in Voyages au ./Von/, vol. iv.), and
suggested, from the similarity of the climate, that the same plant might be
found in Canada, as it soon was by the Jesuit missionaries there.
t This sauce, used in great quantities in Japan, and exported to Batavia
by the Dutch, whence it has become known throughout the Kast Indies and
also in Europe, is mude from the soy bean (Dolichos Soia), extensively used
by the Japan ef-e in the making of soup. The soy is prepared as follows:
the beans are boiled till they become rather soft, when an equal quantity of
pounded barley or wheat is added. These ingredients being mixed, the com*