54 INTRODUCTION. 



certainty, vie with the most considerable in the world for largeness, magnificence, and numher 

 of inhabitants." Kasmpfer says of Jeddo, that he was one whole day, riding at a moderate 

 pace, "from Sinagawa, where the suburb begins, along the main street, which goes across, 

 a little irregularly indeed, to the end of the city." 



As to the variety of climate and produce, the southern part of the Kingdom, reaching down as 

 low as the twenty-fourth degree of north latitude, produces the sugar cane and the tropical fruits ; 

 while the northern, extending as high up as fifty degrees, yields the products of the temperate 

 zones. The mineral wealth of the country is very great, the manufactures numerous, and, 

 under such circumstances, the internal trade among so many people is necessarily active. Of 

 the facilities for carrying it on, we remark that goods are conveyed by land on pack-horses and 

 pack-oxen, and that the roads are excellent, and kept in admirable order. In the rugged and 

 mountainous parts of the country where the road must pass, they make it zigzag on the side of 

 the mountain, and, where necessary, cut steps in the rocks. Indeed, the roads must be kept in 

 order otherwise they could not accomplish what they do by their postal arrangements. As 

 among the ancient Mexicans and Peruvians, the post is pedestrian, and very expeditious. Every 

 carrier is accompanied by a partner to take his place in case of accident. The men run at their 

 utmost speed, and as they approach the end of their stage, find the relay waiting, to whom, as 

 soon as they are near enough, they toss the package of letters, when the new runners set off 

 before the coming ones have stopped. Nothing must be interposed to delay them a moment on 

 the road. The highest prince of the Empire, with all his train, must make way for the post- 

 men if he meet them on the road. Where necessary and practicable on their roads, the 

 Japanese make good bridges, often of stone ; but they do not seem to have arrived at the art of 

 tunnel-making. Some principles of civil engineering they understand and apply, but of 

 military engineering they know nothing. But beside their roads, they use their rivers and 

 inland lakes for internal trade wherever it is possible ; and in those parts of the Kingdom 

 nearest the sea, probably the greater part of the inland trade is carried on by the rivers, which, 

 though short, are navigable for some miles into the interior. On the roads, in all parts of the 

 Empire, stables, inns, tea-shops, and other resting places occur at intervals, and the distances 

 are regularly marked. 



Scientific knoiuledge and its applications. -^'We'haNein^&i &aa^ that the Japanese possess some 

 knowledge of the principles of civil engineering. They know something of mathematics, 

 mechanics, and trigonometry. Thus, they have constructed very good maps of their country ; 

 they have measured the height of some of their mountains by the barometer ; they have made some 

 very good canals ; they have constructed water-mills, and lathes moved by water power. They 

 make clocks, and herein, by the way, they have shown remarkable ingenuity and skill. Meylan 

 o-ives the following account of a clock which they made, and exhibited to the Dutch, while he 

 was an inmate of Dezima. " The clock," says he, " is contained in a frame three feet high by 

 five feet long, and presents a fair landscape at noon-tide. Plum and cherry trees in full blossom, 

 with other plants, adorn the foreground. The back-ground consists of a hill, from which falls 

 a cascade, skilfully imitated in glass, that forms a softly flowing river, first winding round 

 rocks placed here and there, then running across the middle of the landscape till lost in a wood of 

 fir trees. A golden sun hangs aloft in the sky, and, turning upon a pivot, indicates the striking 

 of the hours. On tlie frame below, the twelve hours of day and night are marked, where a 

 slowly creeping tortoise serves as a hand. A bird, perched upon the branch of a plum tree, by 



