a general name for a great number of islands lying between the eastern coast of Asia and the western coast of America, and which all together form a large and powerful empire. They extend from the 30th to the 41st degree of north latitude, and from the 130th to the 147th of east longitude.

Were South and North Britain divided by an arm of the sea, Japan might be most aptly compared to England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their respective smaller islands, peninsulas, bays, channels, &c. all under the same monarch.

The Europeans call the empire Japan; but the inhabitants Nippon, from the greatest island belonging to it; and the Chinese Cipon, probably on account of its eastern situation; these names signifying, in both languages, the Basis or Foundation of the Sun. It was first discovered by the Portuguese about the year of Christ 1542.

Most of the islands which compose it are surrounded with such high craggy mountains, and such shallow and boisterous seas, that sailing about them is extremely dangerous; and the creeks and bays are choked up with such rocks, shelves, and sands, that it looks as if Providence had designed it to be a kind of little world by itself. These seas have likewise many dangerous whirlpools, which are very difficult to pass at low water, and will suck in and swallow up the largest vessels, and all that comes within the reach of their vortex, dashing them against the rocks at the bottom; insomuch that some of them are never seen again, and others thrown upon the surface at some miles distance. Some of these whirlpools also make a noise terrible to hear.

The Chinese pretend that the Japan islands were first peopled by themselves: but it is more probable that the original inhabitants were a mixture of different nations, driven thither by those tempestuous seas, at different times.

As these islands lie in the fifth and sixth climates, they would be much hotter in summer than England, were not the heats refreshed by the winds which continually blow from the sea around them, and to which they are much exposed by the height of their situation; this circumstance, however, not only renders their winters excessively cold, but the seasons more inconstant. They have great falls of snow in winter, which are commonly followed by hard frosts. The rains in summer are very violent, especially in the months of June and July, which on that account are called Sat-fuki, or water-months. The country is also much subject to dreadful thunders and lightnings, as well as storms and hurricanes, which frequently do a great deal of damage.

The soil, though naturally barren and mountainous, by the industry of the inhabitants, not only supplies them with every necessary of life, but also furnishes other countries with them; producing, besides corn, the finest and whitest rice and other grains, with a great variety of fruits, and vast numbers of cattle of all sorts. Besides rice, and a sort of wheat and barley, with two sorts of beans, they have Indian wheat, millet, and several other kinds in great abundance. Their seas, lakes, and rivers, abound with fish; and their mountains, woods, and forests, are well stocked with horses, elephants, deer, oxen, buffaloes, sheep, hogs, and other useful animals. Some of their mountains also are enriched with mines of gold, silver, and copper, exquisitely fine, besides tin, lead, iron, and various other minerals and fossils; whilst others abound with several sorts of marble and precious stones. Of these mountains, some may be justly ranked among the natural rarities of the country; one, in particular, in the great island of Nippon, is of such prodigious height as to be easily seen forty leagues off at sea, though its distance from the shore is about eighteen. Some authors think it exceeds the famous Peak of Teneriffe; but it may rather be called a cluster or group of mountains, among which are no less than eight dreadful volcanoes, burning with incredible fury, and often laying waste the country round about them: but, to make some amends, they afford great variety of medicinal waters, of different degrees of heat; one of these, mentioned by Varenius, is said to be as hot as burning oil, and to scorch and consume every thing thrown into it.

The many brooks and rivers that have their sources among the mountains, form a great number of delightful cascades, as well as some dreadful cataracts. Among the great variety of trees in the forests here, the cedars exceed all of that kind through India, for straightness, height, and beauty. They abound in most of the islands, especially the largest.

Their seas, besides fish, furnish them with great quantities of red and white coral, and some pearls of great value, besides a variety of sea plants and shells; which last are not inferior to those that are brought from Ambona, the Molucca and other easterly islands.

The vast quantity of sulphur with which most of the Japan islands abounds, makes them subject to frequent and dreadful earthquakes. The inhabitants are so accustomed to them, that they are scarcely alarmed at any, unless they chance to be very terrible indeed, and lay whole towns in ruins, which very often proves the case. On these occasions, they have recourse to extraordinary sacrifices, and acts of worship, to their deities or demons, according to the different notions of each sect, and sometimes even proceed to offer human victims; but in this case they only take some of the vilest and most abandoned fellows they can meet with, because they are only sacrificed to the malevolent deities. The religion throughout Japan, it is well known, is Pagan, split into several sects, who live together in the greatest harmony. Every sect has its own temples and priests. The spiritual emperor, the Dairi, is the chief of their religion. They acknowledge and honour a Supreme Being. The author of this relation (Dr Thunberg) saw two temples of the God of gods of a majestic height. The idol that represented this god was of gilded wood, and of so prodigious a size, that upon his hands six persons might sit in the Japanese fashion; his shoulders were five toises broad. In the other temple, the infinite power of this god was represented by little gods to the number of 33,333, all standing round the great idol that represented God. The priests, who are numerous in every temple, have nothing to do but to clean the pavement, light the lamps, and dress the idol with flowers. The temples are open to everybody, even to the Hollander; and in case they are in want of a lodging in the suburbs, when they go to the court of Jeddo, they are entertained with hospitality in these temples.

The Roman Catholic religion had once made a considerable progress in this country, in consequence of a mission conducted by the Portuguese and Spanish Jesuits; among whom the famous Saint Francis Xavier was employed, but soon relinquished the service. There were also some Franciscan friars of Spain engaged at last. The Jesuits and friars were supplied from Goa, Macao, and the Manilhas. At first the undertaking proceeded with the most rapid success, but ended at last in the most tragic manner, all owing to the pride and haughtiness, the misconduct, rapacity, and senseless extravagant conspiracy of the fathers against the state. This folly and madness produced a persecution of 40 years duration, terminated by a most horrible and bloody massacre, not to be paralleled in history. After this the Portuguese, as likewise the Christian religion, were totally expelled the country, and the most effectual means taken for preventing their return. The natives are for this purpose prohibited from going out of the country; and all foreigners are excluded from an open and free trade; for as to the Dutch, and Chinese, under which last name some other eastern nations go thither, they are shut up whilst they remain there, and a most strict watch is set upon them, insomuch that they are no better than prisoners; and the Dutch, it is said, to obtain a privilege even so far, declared themselves to be no Christians, but Dutchmen. This calumny, however, Dr Kempfer has endeavoured to wipe off, but not altogether to satisfaction.

It was about the year of Christ 1549, or five years after the first discovery, that the fathers of the society arrived there, being induced by the favourable representations of a young Japanese who had fled to Goa. Till the year 1625, or near 1630, the Christian religion spread through most of the provinces of the empire, many of the princes and lords openly embracing it; and "there was very good reason to hope, that within a short compass of time the whole empire would have been converted to the faith of our Saviour, had not the ambitious views, and the impatient endeavours of the fathers to reap the temporal as well as the spiritual fruits of their care and labour, so provoked the supreme majesty of the empire as to raise against themselves and their converts a persecution which hath not its parallel in history, whereby the religion they preached, and all those that professed it, were in a few years time entirely exterminated."—The fathers had made a progress so great, that the princes of Bungu, Arima, and Omura, who had been baptized, "sent, in the year 1582, some of their nearest relations, with letters and presents to pay homage to the then pope, Gregory XIII. and to assure his holiness of their filial submission to the church; an account of which most celebrated embassy hath been given in the works of that incomparable historian Thuanus, and by many other Roman Catholic writers."

But notwithstanding this pleasing prospect, the emperor, anno 1586, issued proclamations for the suppression of the religion, and the persecution began. This, however, at first had not that effect which the government expected; for though, according to the letters of the Jesuits, 20,570 persons suffered death for the faith of Christ in the year 1590 only, yet in 1591 and 1592, when all the churches were actually shut up, they made 12,000 new converts. The business was finally concluded by the massacre at Simabara, about the year 1640. The reasons of the emperor's proclamations, making it death to embrace the religion, were as follow: 1. The new religion occasioned considerable alterations in the Japanese church, and was prejudicial in the highest degree to the heathen clergy. 2. It was feared the innovation in religion might be attended with fatal consequences even in regard to the state; but what more immediately gave rise to them was, as the Japanese of credit confessed to Dr Kempfer, pride and covetousness; pride among the great ones, and covetousness in people of less note; the spiritual fathers aiming not only at the salvation of their souls, but having an eye also to their money and lands, and the merchants disposing of their goods in the most furious and unreasonable manner. To confine ourselves to the clergy here: they "thought it beneath their dignity to walk on foot any longer; nothing would serve them but they must be carried about in stately chairs, mimicking the pomp of the pope and his cardinals at Rome. They not only put themselves on an equal footing with the greatest men of the empire, but, swelled with ecclesiastical pride, fancied that even a superior rank was nothing but their due. It one day happened, that a Portuguese bishop met upon the road one of the counsellors of state on his way to court. The haughty prelate would not order his chaise to be stopped, in order to alight and to pay his respects to the great man, as is usual in that country; but without taking any notice of him, nay, indeed without showing him so much as common marks of civility, he very contemptuously bid his men carry him by. The great man, exasperated at so signal an affront, thenceforward bore a mortal hatred to the Portuguese, and, in the height of his just resentment, made his complaint to the emperor himself, with such an odious picture of the insolence, pride, and vanity of this nation, as he expected could not but raise the emperor's utmost indignation." This happened in 1566. The next year the persecution began anew, and 26 persons, of the number whereof were two foreign Jesuits, and several other fathers of the Franciscan order, were executed on the cross. The emperor Joias had usurped the crown on his pupil Tidajori, who, as likewise the greater part of his court and party, had been either Christians themselves, selves, or at least very favourably inclined to that religion; so that reasons of state mightily co-operated to forward the persecution.

Some Franciscan friars, whom the governor of the Manilhas had sent as his ambassadors to the emperor of Japan, were guilty at this time of a most imprudent step: they, during the whole time of their abode in the country, preached openly in the streets of Meaco where they resided; and of their own accord built a church, contrary to the imperial commands, and contrary to the advice and earnest solicitations of the Jesuits.

Some time after, a discovery of a dangerous conspiracy, which the fathers, and the yet remaining adherents of their religion, entered into against the person of the emperor as a heathen prince, put a finishing stroke to the affair, and hastened the sentence which was pronounced soon after, that the Portuguese should forever be banished the emperor's dominions; for till then the state seemed desirous to spare the merchants and secular persons, for the purpose of continuing trade and commerce with them, which was looked upon as an affair independent of religion. The affair of the conspiracy was as follows: the Dutch had had an eye to the trade of Japan before 1600, and in 1611 had liberty of a free commerce granted them by the imperial letters patent, and had actually a factory at Firando. The Dutch were then at war with Spain, which was then sovereign of the Portuguese dominions; so that it was natural for them to be trying to supplant them. The Portuguese, on their parts, made use of all malicious inventions to blacken their characters, calling them rebels and pirates, whence it was natural for the Dutch to endeavour to clear, and even to revenge themselves.

Now they "took an homeward-bound Portuguese ship near the Cape of Good Hope, on board of which they found some traitorous letters to the king of Portugal, written by one Captain Moro, who was chief of the Portuguese in Japan, himself a Japanese by birth, and a great zealot for the Christian religion. The Dutch took special care to deliver the said letters to their protector the prince of Firando, who communicated them without loss of time to the governor of Nagasaki, a great friend to the Portuguese. Captain Moro having been taken up, boldly, and with great assurance, denied the fact, and so did all the Portuguese then at Nagasaki. However, neither the governor's favour, nor their constant denial, were able to clear them, and to keep off the cloud which was ready to break over their heads. Hard and fast convinced them; the letter was sent up to court, and Captain Moro sentenced to be burnt alive on a pale, which was executed accordingly. This letter laid open the whole plot which the Japanese Christians, in conjunction with the Portuguese, had laid against the emperor's life and throne; the want they stood in of ships and soldiers, which were promised them from Portugal; the names of the Japanese princes concerned in the conspiracy; and lastly, to crown all, the expectation of the papal blessing. This discovery made by the Dutch was afterwards confirmed by another letter written by the said Captain Moro to the Portuguese government at Macao, which was intercepted and brought to Japan by a Japanese ship."

Considering this, and the suspicions which the court had then already conceived against the Portuguese, it was no difficult matter thoroughly to ruin the little credit and favour they had as yet been able to preserve; and the rather, since the strict imperial orders notwithstanding, they did not leave off privately to bring over more ecclesiastics. Accordingly, in the year 1637, an imperial proclamation was sent to the governors of Nagasaki, with orders to see it put in execution. It was then that the empire of Japan was shut for ever both to foreigners and natives.

Now, although the governors of Nagasaki, on receipt of these commands, took care they should be obeyed, yet the directors of the Portuguese trade maintained themselves in Japan two years longer, hoping to obtain leave to stay in the island of Dejima, and there to continue their trade. But they found themselves at last wholly disappointed; for the emperor was resolved to get rid of them; and on assurance given him by the Dutch East India company that they would supply for the future what commodities had been imported by the Portuguese, he declared the Portuguese and the Castilians, and whoever belonged to them, enemies of the empire, forbidding the importation of even the goods of their country, Spanish wines only excepted, for the use of the court. And thus the Portuguese lost their profitable trade and commerce with Japan, and were totally expelled the country before the latter end of the year 1639 or 1640: and thus ended the fruitless pilish mission in this empire, for the Portuguese have never been able to restore themselves; and the Dutch have it not in their power to do any one thing in favour of religion, were they so inclined; but, as it appears, they are very indifferent as to that, and are in but little credit with the Japanese.

According to Dr Thunberg's researches, the Japanese have never been subdued by any foreign power, not even in the most remote periods; their chronicles contain such accounts of their valour, as one would rather incline to consider as fabulous inventions than actual occurrences, if later ages had not furnished equally striking proofs of it. When the Tartars, for the first time in 792, had overrun part of Japan, and when, after a considerable time had elapsed, their fleet was destroyed by a violent storm in the course of a single night, the Japanese general attacked, and so totally defeated his numerous and brave enemies, that not a single person survived to return and carry the tidings of such an unparalleled defeat. In like manner, when the Japanese were again, in 1281, invaded by the warlike Tartars, to the number of 240,000 fighting men, they gained a victory equally complete. The extirpation of the Portuguese, and with them of the Christian religion, towards the beginning of the 17th century, as already mentioned, was so complete, that scarce a vestige can now be discerned of its ever having existed there.

With respect to the government of these islands, it is and has been for a long time monarchical; though formerly it seems to have been split into a great number of petty kingdoms, which were at length all swallowed by one. The imperial dignity had been enjoyed for a considerable time before the year 1500, by a regular succession of princes, under the title of dairōs, a name supposed to have been derived from Dairo the head of that family. Soon after that epoch, such a dreadful civil war broke out, and lasted so many years, that the empire was quite ruined. During these distractions and confusions, a common fol- dier, by name Tayckoy, a person of obscure birth, but of an enterprising genius, found means to raise himself to the imperial dignity; having, in little more than three years time, by an uncommon share of good fortune, subdued all his competitors and opponents, and reduced all their cities and castles. The dairo not being in a condition to obstruct or put a stop to his progress, was forced to submit to his terms; and might perhaps have been condemned to much harder, had not Tayckoy been apprehensive left his followers, who still revered their ancient natural monarch, should have revolted in his favour. To prevent this, he granted him the supreme power in all religious matters, with great privileges, honours, and revenues annexed to it; whilst himself remained invested with the whole civil and military power, and was acknowledged and proclaimed king of Japan. This great revolution happened in 1577, and Tayckoy reigned several years with great wisdom and tranquillity; during which he made many wholesome laws and regulations, which still subsist, and are much admired to this day. At his death, he left the crown to his son Tayckoffama, then a minor; but the treacherous prince under whose guardianship he was left deprived him of his life before he came of age. By this murder, the crown passed to the family of Jejaffama, in which it still continues. Tayckoy and his successors have contented themselves with the title of cubo, which, under the dairos, was that of prime minister, whose office is now supprested; so that the cubo, in all secular concerns, is quite as absolute and despotic, and has as extensive a power over the lives and fortunes of all his subjects, from the petty kings down to the lowest persons, as ever the dairos had.

The dairo resides constantly at Meaco, and the cubo at Jeddo.

The inhabitants of Japan are well-grown, agile, and active, and at the same time stout-limbed, though they do not equal in strength the northern inhabitants of Europe. The colour of the face is commonly yellow; which sometimes varies to brown, and sometimes to white. The inferior sort, who during their work in summer have often the upper parts of the body naked, are sun-burnt and browner; women of distinction, who never go uncovered into the open air, are perfectly white.

The national character consists in intelligence and prudence, frankness, obedience, and politeness, good-nature and civility, curiosity, industry, and dexterity, economy and sobriety, hardiness, cleanliness, justice and uprightness, honesty and fidelity; in being also mistrustful, superstitious, haughty, resentful, brave and invincible.

In all its transactions, the nation shows great intelligence, and can by no means be numbered among the savage and uncivilized, but rather is to be placed among the polished. The present mode of government, admirable skill in agriculture, sparing mode of life, way of trading with foreigners, manufactures, &c., afford convincing proofs of their cunning, firmness, and intrepid courage. Here there are no appearances of that vanity so common among the Asiatics and Africans, of adorning themselves with shells, glass-beads, and polished metal plates: neither are they fond of the useless European ornaments of gold and silver lace, jewels, &c., but are careful to provide themselves, from the productions of their own country, with neat clothes, well-tasted food, and good weapons.

Their curiosity is excessive; nothing imported by the Europeans escapes it. They ask for information concerning every article, and their questions continue till they become wearisome. It is the physician, among the traders, that is alone regarded as learned, and particularly during the journey to court and the residence at Jeddo, the capital of the empire, that he is regarded as the oracle, which they trust can give responses in all things, whether in mathematics, geography, physics, chemistry, pharmacy, zoology, botany, medicine, &c.

Economy has its peculiar abode in Japan. It is a virtue admired as well in the emperor's palace as in the meanest cottage. It makes those of small possessions content with their little, and it prevents the abundance of the rich from overflowing in excess and voluptuousness. Hence it happens, that what in other countries is called scarcity and famine, is unknown here; and that, in so very populous a state, scarce a person in necessity, or a beggar, should be found.

The names of families, and of single persons, are under very different regulations from ours. The family name is never changed, but is never used in ordinary conversation, and only when they sign some writing; to which they also for the most part affix their seal. There is also this peculiarity, that the surname is always placed first; just as in botanical books the generic name is always placed before the specific name. The phenomenon is always used in addressing a person; and it is changed several times in the course of life. A child receives at birth from its parents a name, which is retained till it has itself a son arrived at maturity. A person again changes his name when he is invested with any office; as also when he is advanced to a higher trust: some, as emperors and princes, acquire a new name after death. The names of women are less variable; they are in general borrowed from the most beautiful flowers.

After marriage, the wife is confined to her own apartment, from whence she hardly ever stirs, except once a-year to the funeral-rites of her family; nor is she permitted to see any man, except perhaps some very near relation, and that as seldom as can be. The wives, as well as in China and other parts of the east, bring no portion with them, but are rather bought by the husband of their parents and relations. The bridegroom most commonly sees his bride for the first time upon her being brought to his house from the place of the nuptial ceremony: for in the temple where it is performed she is covered over with a veil, which reaches from the head to the feet. A husband can put his wives to a more or less severe death, if they give him the least cause of jealousy, by being seen barely to converse with another man, or suffering one to come into their apartment.

The dress of the Japanese deserves, more than that of any other people, the name of national; since they are not only different from that of all other men, but are also of the same form in all ranks, from the monarch to his meanest subject, as well as in both sexes; and what exceeds all credibility, they have not been altered for at least 2444 years. They universally consist of night-gowns, made long and wide, of which fe- veral are worn at once by all ranks and all ages. The more distinguished and the rich have them of the finest silk; the poorer sort of cotton. Those of the women reach down to the ground, and sometimes have a train; in the men, they reach down to the heels: travellers, soldiers, and labourers, either tuck them up, or wear them only down to the knees. The habit of the men is generally of one colour; the women have theirs variegated, and frequently with flowers of gold interwoven. In summer, they are either without lining, or have but a thin one; in winter they are stuffed to a great thickness with cotton or silk. The men seldom wear a great number; but the women thirty, fifty, or more, all so thin, that they scarce together amount to five pounds. The undermost serves for a shirt, and is therefore either white or blue, and for the most part thin and transparent. All these gowns are fastened round the waist with a belt, which in the men are about a hand's-breadth, in the women about a foot; of such a length that they go twice round the waist, and afterwards are tied in a knot with many ends and bows. The knot, particularly among the fair sex, is very conspicuous, and immediately informs the spectator whether they are married or not. The unmarried have it behind, on their back; the married before. In this belt the men fix their sabres, fans, pipe, tobacco, and medicine boxes. In the neck the gowns are always cut round, without a collar; they therefore leave the neck bare; nor is it covered with cravat, cloth, or any thing else. The sleeves are always ill made, and out of all proportion wide: at the opening before, they are half sewed up, so that they form a sack, in which the hands can be put in cold weather; they also serve for a pocket. Girls in particular have their sleeves so long that they reach down to the ground. Such is the simplicity of their habit, that they are soon dressed; and to undress, they need only open their girdle and draw in their arms.

As the gowns, from their length, keep the thighs and legs warm, there is no occasion for stockings; nor do they use them in all the empire. Among poorer persons on a journey, and among soldiers, who have not such long gowns, one uses buffkins of cotton. Shoes, or, more properly speaking, slippers, are of all that is worn by the Japanese, the simplest, the meanest, and the most miserable, though in general use among high and low, rich and poor. They are made of interwoven rice-straw; and sometimes, for persons of distinction, of reeds split very thin. They consist only of a sole, without upper leathers or quarters. Before, there passes over, transversely, a bow of linen, of a finger's breadth: from the point of the shoe to this bow goes a thin round band, which running within the great toe, serves to keep the shoe fixed to the foot. The shoe being without quarters, slides, during walking, like a slipper. Travellers have three bands of twisted straw, by which they fasten the shoe to the foot and leg, to prevent its falling off. The Japanese never enter their houses with shoes, but put them off in the entrance. This precaution is taken for the sake of their neat carpets. During the time the Dutch reside in Japan, as they have sometimes occasion to pay the natives visits in their houses, and as they have their own apartment at the factory covered with the same sort of carpets, they do not wear European shoes, but have in their stead red, green, or black slippers, which can easily be put off at entering in. They, however, wear stockings, with shoes of cotton, fastened by buckles. These shoes are made in Japan, and may be washed whenever they become dirty.

The way of dressing the hair is not less peculiar to this people, and less universally prevalent among them, than the use of their long gowns. The men shave the head from the forehead to the neck; and the hair remaining on the temples, and in the nape, is well besmeared with oil, turned upwards, and then tied with a white paper thread, which is wrapped round several times. The ends of the hair beyond the head, are cut cross-ways, about a finger's length being left. This part, after being patted together with oil, is bent in such a manner that the point is brought to the crown of the head; in which situation it is fixed by passing the same thread round it once. Women, except such as happen to be separated from their husbands, shave no part of their head.

The head is never covered with hat or bonnet in winter or in summer, except when they are on a journey; and then they use a conical hat, made of a sort of grass, and fixed with a ribbon. Some travelling women, who are met with on the roads, have a bonnet like a shaving basin inverted on the head, which is made of cloth, in which gold is interwoven. On other occasions, their naked heads are preserved, both from rain and the sun, by umbrellas. Travellers, moreover, have a sort of riding-coat, made of thick paper oiled. They are worn by the upper servants of princes, and the suite of other travellers. Dr Thunberg and his fellow-travellers, during their journey to court, were obliged to provide such for their attendants when they passed through the place where they are made.

A Japanese always has his arms painted on one or more of his garments, especially on the long and short gowns, on the sleeves, or between the shoulders; so that nobody can steal them; which otherwise might easily happen in a country where the clothes are so much alike in stuff, shape, and size.

The weapons of the Japanese consist of a bow and arrows, sabre, halbert, and musket. The bows are very large, and the arrows long, as in China. When the bows are to be bent and discharged, the troop always rests on one knee, which hinders them making a speedy discharge. In the spring the troops assemble to practice shooting at a mark. Muskets are not general; Dr Thunberg only saw them in the hands of persons of distinction, in a separated and elevated part of the audience room. The barrel is of the common length; but the stock is very short, and there is a match in the lock. The sabre is their principal and best weapon, which is universally worn, except by the peasants. They are commonly a yard long, a little crooked, and thick in the back. The blades are of an incomparable goodness, and the old ones are in very high esteem. They are far superior to the Spanish blades so celebrated in Europe. A tolerably thick nail is easily cut in two without any damage to the edge; and a man, according to the account of the Japanese, may be cleaved asunder. A separate staff is never used, but the sword is stuck in the belt, on the left side, with the edge upwards, which to a European appears ridiculous. All persons in office wear two such sabres, one of their own, and... and the other the sword of office, as it is called; the latter is always the longer. Both are worn in the belt on the same side, and so disposed as to cross each other. When they are fitting, they have their sword of office laid on one side or before them.

The sciences are very far from having arrived at the same height in Japan as in Europe. The history of the country is, notwithstanding, more authentic, perhaps, than that of any other country; and it is studied, without distinction, by all. Agriculture, which is considered as the art most necessary, and most conducive to the support and prosperity of the kingdom, is nowhere in the world brought to such perfection as here; where neither civil nor foreign war, nor emigration, diminishes population; and where a thought is never entertained, either of getting possession of other countries, or to import the useless and often hurtful productions of foreign lands; but where the utmost care is taken that no turf lies uncultivated, and no produce of the earth unemployed. Astronomy is pursued and respected; but the natives are unable, without the aid of Chinese, and sometimes of Dutch almanacks, to form a true calendar, or calculate an eclipse of the sun or moon within minutes and seconds. Medicine has neither arrived, nor is it likely to arrive, at any degree of perfection. Anatomy is totally unknown; the knowledge of diseases imperfect, intricate, and often fabulous. Botany, and the knowledge of medicines, constitute the whole of their skill. They use only simples; and these generally in diuretic and diaphoretic decoctions. They are unacquainted with compound medicines. Their physicians always indeed feel the pulse; but they are very tedious, not quitting it for a quarter of an hour; besides, they examine first one, and then the other arm, as if the blood was not driven by the same heart to both pulses. Besides those diseases which they have in common with other countries, or peculiar to themselves, the venereal disease is very frequent, which they only understood how to alleviate by decoctions, thought to purify the blood. Salvation, which their physicians have heard mentioned by the Dutch surgeons, appears to them extremely formidable, both to conduct and to undefy; but they have lately learned the art of employing the sublime with much success.—Jurisprudence is not an extensive study in Japan. No country has thinner law-books, or fewer judges. Explanations of the law, and advocates, are things altogether unknown; but nowhere, perhaps, are the laws more certainly put in force, without respect to persons, without partiality or violence. They are very strict, and lawsuits very short. The Japanese know little more of physic or chemistry than what they have learned of late years of the Europeans.

Their computation of time takes its rise from Min-o, or 660 years before Christ. The year is divided according to the changes of the moon; so that some years consist of twelve, and others of thirteen, months; and the beginning of the year falls out in February or March. They have no weeks consisting of seven days, or of six working days, and a holiday; but the first and fifteenth days of the month serve for holidays. On these days no work is done. On new-year's-day they go round to wish one another a good new-year, with their whole families, clad in white and blue chequered, their holiday-dres; and they rest almost the whole of the first month. The day is divided only into twelve hours; and in this division they are directed the whole year by the rising and setting of the sun. They reckon six o'clock at the rising, and five likewise at the setting of the sun. Mid-day and midnight are always at nine. Time is not measured by clocks or hour-glasses, but with burning matches, which are twisted together like ropes, and divided by knots. When the match is burnt to a knot, which indicates a certain portion of time elapsed, notice is given during the day, by striking the bells of the temples; and in the night, by the watchmen striking two boards against one another. A child is always reckoned a year old at the end of the year of his birth, whether this happen at the beginning or the close. A few days after the beginning of the year, is performed the horrid ceremony of trampling on images representing the crofs and the Virgin Mary with her child. The images are of melted copper, and are said to be scarce a foot in height. This ceremony is intended to impress every individual with hatred of the Christian doctrine, and the Portuguese, who attempted to introduce it there; and also to discover whether there is any remnant of it left among the Japanese. It is performed in the places where the Christians chiefly resided. In Nagasaki it lasts four days; then the images are conveyed to the circumjacent places, and afterwards are laid aside against the next year. Every person, except the Japanese governor and his attendants, even the smallest child, must be present; but it is not true, as some have pretended, that the Dutch are also obliged to trample on the image. Overseers are appointed in every place, who assemble the people in companies in certain houses, call over the name of every one in his turn, and take care that everything goes on properly. The children, not yet able to walk, have their feet placed upon it; older persons pass over it from one side of the room to the other.

The Japanese are much addicted to poetry, music, and painting: the first is said to be grand as to the style and imagery, loftiness, and cadence; but, like that of the Chinese, is not easily understood or relished by the Europeans. The same may be said of their music, both vocal and instrumental; the best of which, of either kind, would hardly be tolerable to a nice European ear.

They pretend, like the Chinese, to have been the inventors of printing from time immemorial, and their method is the same with theirs on wooden blocks; but they excel them in the neatness of cutting them, as well as in the goodness of their ink and paper. They likewise lay claim to the invention of gunpowder; and are vastly superior to the Chinese in the use of all sorts of fire-arms, especially of artillery, as well as the curiosities of their fire-works.

Their manner of writing is much the same as that of the Chinese, viz. in columns from top to bottom, and the columns beginning at the right and ending at the left hand. Their characters were also originally the same, but now differ considerably.

Their language hath some affinity with the Chinese, though it appears from its various dialects to have been a kind of compound of that and other languages, derived from the various nations that first peopled those islands. It is not only very regular, polite, elegant, and copious, but abounds with a great variety of synonyms, nonyms, adapted to the nature of the subject they are upon, whether sublime, familiar, or low; and to the quality, age, and sex, both of the speaker and person spoken to.

The Japanese are commonly very ingenious in most handicraft trades; and excel even the Chinese in several manufactures, particularly in the beauty, goodness, and variety of their silks, cottons, and other stuffs, and in their Japan and porcelain wares. No eastern nation comes up to them in the tempering and fabricating of scimitars, swords, muskets, and other such weapons.

The Japanese architecture is much in the same taste and style as that of the Chinese, especially as to their temples, palaces, and other public buildings; but in private ones they affect more plainness and neatness than show. These last are of wood and cement, consisting of two stories: they dwell only in the lower; the upper chamber serving for wardrobes. The roofs are covered with rush-mats three or four inches thick. In every house there is a small court, ornamented with trees, shrubs, and flower-pots; as likewise with a place for bathing. Chimneys are unknown in this country, although fire is needed from the cold month of October till the end of March. They heat their rooms with charcoal contained in a copper stove, which they fit round. Their cities are generally spacious, having each a prince or governor residing in them. The capital of Jeddo is 21 French leagues in circumference. Its streets are straight and large. There are gates at little distances, with an extremely high ladder, which they ascend to discover fires. Villages differ from cities in having but one street; which often extends several leagues. Some of them are situated so near each other, that they are only separated by a river or a bridge.

The principal furniture of the Japanese consists in strawmats, which serve them for seats and beds; a small table for every one who chooses to eat is the only moveable. The Japanese sit always upon their hams. Before dinner begins, they make a profound bow and drink to the health of the guests. The women eat by themselves. During the courses, they drink a glass of sakki, which is a kind of beer made of rice kept constantly warm; and they drink at each new morsel. Tea and sakki are the most favourite drink of this people; wine and spirits are never used, nor even accepted when offered by the Dutch. Sakki, or rice beer, is clear as wine, and of an agreeable taste: taken in quantity, it intoxicates for a few moments, and causes headache. Both men and women are fond of tobacco, which is in universal vogue and smoked continually. The gardens about their houses are adorned with a variety of flowers, trees, verdure, baths, terraces, and other embellishments. The furniture and decorations of the houses of persons of distinction consist in Japan-work of various colours, curious paintings, beds, couches, screens, cabinets, tables, a variety of porcelain jars, vases, tea-equipage, and other vessels and figures, together with swords, guns, scimitars, and other arms. Their retinues are more or less numerous and splendid according to their rank; but there are few of the lords who have less than 50 or 60 men richly clad and armed, some on foot, but most on horseback. As for their petty kings and princes, they are seldom seen without 300 or 200 at least, when they either wait on the emperor, which is Japan.

When a prince or great man dies, there are commonly about 10, 20, or more youths of his household, and such as were his greatest favourites, who put themselves to a voluntary death, at the place where the body is buried or burned: as soon as the funeral pile, consisting of odoriferous woods, gums, spices, oils, and other ingredients, is set on fire, the relations and friends of the deceased throw their presents into it, such as clothes, arms, victuals, money, sweet herbs, flowers, and other things which they imagine will be of use to him in the other world. Those of the middle or lower rank commonly bury their dead, without any other burning than that of some odoriferous woods, gums, &c. The sepulchres in which the bones and ashes of persons of rank are deposited, are generally very magnificent, and situated at some distance from the towns.

The Dutch and Chinese are the only nations allowed to traffic in Japan. The Dutch at present send but two ships annually, which are fitted out at Batavia, and sail in June, and return at the end of the year. The chief merchandise is Japanese copper and raw camphor. The wares which the Dutch company import are, coarse sugar, ivory, a great quantity of tin and lead, a little cast iron, various kinds of fine chintzes, Dutch cloth of different colours and fineness, serge wood for dyeing, tortoise-shell, and coctus Arabicus. The little merchandise brought by the officers on their own account, consists of saffron, theriac, sealing-wax, glass-beads, watches, &c., &c. About the time when the Dutch ships are expected, several outposts are stationed on the highest hills by the government; they are provided with telephones, and long before their arrival give the governor of Nagasaki notice. As soon as they anchor in the harbour, the upper and under officers of the Japanese immediately betake themselves on board, together with interpreters; to whom is delivered a chest, in which all the sailors books, the muster-roll of the whole crew, five small barrels of powder, five barrels of balls, six muskets, five bayonets, five pistols, and six swords are deposited; this is supposed to be the whole remaining ammunition after the imperial garrison has been saluted. These things are conveyed on shore, and preserved in a separate warehouse, nor are they returned before the day the ship quits the harbour.

Duties are quite unknown as well in the inland part as on the coast, nor are there any customs required either for exported or imported goods; an advantage enjoyed by few nations. But, to prevent the importation of any forbidden wares, the utmost vigilance is observed; then the men and things are examined with the eyes of Argus. When any European goes on shore, he is examined before he leaves the ship, and afterwards on his landing. This double search is exceedingly strict; so that not only the pockets and clothes are stroked with the hands, but the pudenda of the manner are pressed, and the hair of the slaves. All the Japanese who come on board are searched in like manner, except only their superior officers; so also are the wares either exported or imported, first on board, and then at the factory, except the great chests, which are opened at the factory, and so carefully examined that Japan, they strike the very sides left they should be hollow, Japanning. The bed-clothes are often opened, and the feathers examined: rods of iron are run into the pots of butter and confections: a square hole is made in the cheese, and a long pointed iron is thrust into it in all directions. Their suspicion is carried so far, that they take out and break one or two of the eggs brought from Batavia.

The interpreters are all natives; they speak Dutch in different degrees of purity. The government permits no foreigner to learn their language, lest they should by means of this acquire the knowledge of the manufactures of the country; but 40 or 50 interpreters are provided to serve the Dutch in their trade, or on any other occasion.

The interpreters are very inquisitive after European books, and generally provide themselves with some from the Dutch merchants. They peruse them with care, and remember what they learn. They besides endeavour to get instruction from the Europeans; for which purpose they ask numberless questions, particularly respecting medicine, physics, and natural history. Most of them apply to medicine, and are the only physicians of their nation who practise in the European manner, and with European medicines, which they procure from the Dutch physicians. Hence they are able to acquire money, and to make themselves respected.

Among the vegetable productions peculiar to Japan, we may take notice of the althea japonica, camellia japonica, and the volkameria japonica. The trumpet-flower, or bignonia catalpa of Linnaeus, is very common, bearing a resemblance to the epidendrum vanilla, the berries of which are said to constitute an article of commerce. Here also we find the mimosa arborescens, and tallow tree, together with the plantain, coconuts tree, the chamomile excelsa, and the cyas circinalis, adorning the woods near the seashore.

It is a singular circumstance, that in the whole empire of Japan, neither sheep nor goats are to be met with, the goats being deemed pernicious to cultivation; and the vast quantities of silk and cotton with which it abounds, are considered as an excellent substitute for wool. There are few quadrupeds of any kind, either swine, horses, or cattle, as the Japanese live upon fish, poultry, and vegetables. Some wolves are seen in the northern provinces; and foxes are considered as demons incarnate.

Gold and silver abound in Japan, and copper richly impregnated with gold, which constitutes the chief wealth of many provinces. Iron is said to be scarcer than any other metal, which of consequence they are not fond of exporting. Amber, sulphur, pit-coal, red agate, asbestos, porcelain clay, pumice and white marble, are also found in considerable quantities; but, according to Kempfer, neither antimony nor mercury. As Europeans have seldom visited the interior parts of the country, the natural curiosities of Japan are but very little known.

JAPAN Earth. See MIMOSA and TERRA JAPONICA, Materia Medica Index.