Japan and the Japanese

AUTHOR'S NOTICE.
IN collecting materials for a biography of the first ex-
plorers and planters of NCAV England and Virginia, I was
carried to Japan, where I happened to arrive (in the
spirit)
almost simultaneously with Commodore Perry '^ expedition.
My interest thus roused in this secluded country has produced
this book, into which I have put the cream skimmed,
or, as I might say, in some cases, the juices laboriously
expressed, from a good many volumes, the greater part
not very accessible nor very inviting to the general reader,
but still containing much that is curious and entertaining,
and, to most readers, new; which curiosities, novelties,
and palatable extracts, those who choose will thus be enabled
to enjoy without the labor that I have undergone in their
collection and arrangement the former, indeed, a labor of
love for my own satisfaction ; the latter, one of duty not
to say of necessity
for the pleasure of the reading and
book-buying public.
Instead of attempting, as others have done, to cast into a
systematic shape observations of very different dates, I have
preferred to follow the historic method, and to let the reader
see Japan with the successive eyes of all those who have
visited it, and who have committed their observations and
reflections to paper and print. The number of these observ-
548144