INTRODUCTION. 7 



As to Nippon, ou which is Ycddo^ tlie capital of the Kingdom, they have had the oppor- 

 tunity of seeing more. This has resulted from the fact that periodical visits, with presents, 

 have heen made to the Emperor at the capital hy the cliief Dutch commissioner at the factory on 

 Dezima ; and on these visits he has heen accompanied hy his physician and a small numher of 

 his suhordinate officers. It is, therefore, to the chief commissioners and their medical attendants 

 that we have been indebted for all we have been told since the establishment of commercial rela- 

 tions with the Dutch. Titsingh, Doeff, Fischer, Meylan, were all chiefs of the factory, while 

 Kasmpfer, Thunberg, and Siebold have all been the physicians. Tiiese visits were formerly 

 annual, latterly they have heen less frequent, and a more jealous surveillance has been exercised 

 over the European travellers. Still they have evaded restrictions as far as was possible, have seen 

 all they could, and told all they saw. But they were, of necessity, obliged to gather miich of 

 wliat they relate from the information of the Japanese ; how far it is to be considered as in all 

 respects accurate neither they nor we are able to say. Yet the Dutch residents undoubtedly 

 knew for themselves more about the island of Nippon than they did concerning Kiu-siu, in one 

 of the harbors of which was their prison. 



As to Yesso, or Jesso, it is confessedly very imperfectly known. One of its ports is Matsmai, 

 and here Captain Grolownin, of the Kussian navy, was kept as a prisoner for two years. In an 

 effort which he made to escape he wandered over a part of the island ; but as he was not seeking 

 on this excursion materials for description, nor studying at his leisure the habits of the people, 

 his statements are, as might be expected, altogether unsatisfactory, and yet we have none better 

 from an European eye-witness. Kajmpfer, Thunberg, and Siebold are our most valuable sources 

 of information since the days of the Dutch commerce. 



At an earlier period, and before Japanese jealousy of foreign influence had prompted them 

 to adopt their system of exclusion, the opportunity was far more favorable for the acquisition of 

 information by the personal observation of strangers . The Portuguese missionaries and some 

 early English navigators, therefore, afford us on some points a knowledge such as no European 

 during the last two hundred years could possibly have procured. 



Of the physical aspect of these principal islands former writers give different accounts. 

 Thunberg represents them as composed of a succession of mountains, hills, and valleys, while 

 Kffimpfer says that he travelled over several plains of considerable extent. The country is un- 

 doubtedly very hilly, and in general the hills come down near to the seashore, leaving but 

 narrow strijjs of land between the water and their bases ; it is, however, not improbable that level 

 plains of some extent may be found in the interior. The hills, however, are not sterile • and 

 covered, as most of them seem to he, with the fruits of cultivation up to their summits bear 

 witness alike to the numbers and industry of the population. Mountains, however are to he 

 found as well as hills, nor is it surprising that some of them should he volcanic. 



Westward of the bay of Yeddo rises to the height of some twelve thousand feet the Fudsi 

 Jamma, with its summit whitened by perpetual snow ; it was once an active volcano. The 

 northern part of Nippon also is known to he traversed by a chain of mountains, from which rise 

 several isolated peaks, the craters, in some instances, of extinct volcanoes, while others still 

 burning, are to be seen on the islands scattered in the gulfs of Corea and Yeddo. 



In such a country the rivers cannot probably be long ; while the rapidity of their currents 

 indicates that their sources must be considerably elevated. It is said that over some of them no 

 bridges can be built, as none would resist the force of the stream fed by the waters of the 



