JAPAN. 



213 



cuiustance, they relate the following story : Janus, 

 one of the ancient kings of the Latins, taught his 

 people agriculture, and introduced useful laws and 

 religious institutions. Saturn, driven from his coun- 

 try by his children, fled to Latium, where he was 

 well received by Janus, and made joint ruler of the 

 kingdom. Under their reign was the golden age of 

 Latium. Ovid, in his Fasti (i. 90, sqq.), says of Ja- 

 nus, that he was the supreme janitor in heaven and 

 on earth, that he opened the gates of heaven to let 

 out the day, and closed them again with the return 

 of evening. All sorts of passages were under his 

 care. After him, a door was called j'anua, and 

 every open arched passage, by which people go out 

 of one street or place into another, a Janus. For 

 the same reason, he was the god of the day and the 

 year, and from him the first month in the year still 

 has its name. The first day of the year and the first 

 hour of the day were sacred to him ; in all solemn 

 sacrifices he was the first addressed, and had the title 

 of father. Romulus erected to him the celebrated 

 temple, which was opened at the beginning of every 

 war, according to the ordinance of Numa, and re- 

 mained open as long as the war lasted, and until 

 peace was established in all the countries subject to 

 Rome. The temple, however, was shut only three 

 times in the long space of 700 years ; once in the 

 reign of Numa, again after the first Punic war, and 

 the third time, under the reign of Augustus, A. U. C. 

 744. 



JAPAN. At the eastern extremity of Asia, be- 

 tween 31 and 49 N. lat., is situated the empire of 

 Japan, consisting of a large cluster of islands, almost 

 inaccessible by reason of mountains, precipitous 

 rocks and a dangerous sea. It consists of three 

 large islands: 1. Niphon (700 miles long, but so 

 narrow, that its breadth in the centre is only forty- 

 eight miles), divided into forty-nine provinces, of 

 which the principal cities are Meaco, the residence 

 of the dairi, or spiritual chief, where all the coins are 

 struck, and all the books printed; Jeddo (with 

 1,680,000 inhabitants), the residence of the secular 

 emperor (cubo, whose palace is five leagues in cir- 

 cumference, and forms, of itself, a considerable city), 

 on the river Tonkay, over which is a bridge, from 

 which the distances of all parts of the empire are 

 calculated ; and Osacco, a rich commercial city : 2. 

 Ximo, or Kiusiu (186 miles long, and sixty-six broad), 

 consisting of nine provinces: and 3. Xicoco, or Sicof 

 (eighty-four miles long, forty-six broad), containing 

 four provinces. Around these great islands lie a 

 vast number of small fertile islands and bare island- 

 rocks, which have probably been separated from 

 the main land by an earthquake. The superficial 

 contents of the whole island, is estimated at 266,500 

 square miles, the population at forty-five millions. 



The Japanese islands are mountainous, like the 

 opposite coasts of the continent. The principal sum- 

 mit is called Fusi ; it is covered with snow through- 

 out the year. There are also many volcanoes. The 

 great industry of the natives has alone made the 

 sterile soil productive ; even the steepest mountains 

 are cultivated. Agriculture is prescribed as the 

 principal employment, by the laws of the state. 

 Goats and sheep are banished from Japan, the for- 

 mer being regarded as prejudicial to agriculture. 

 Cotton and silk supply the place of wool. Swine are 

 to be found only in the vicinity of Nangasacki. In 

 general, there are but few quadrupeds in Japan, with 

 the exception of dogs, which are abundant. The 

 whim of a sovereign, of whom these animals were 

 favourites, has prescribed the breeding of them by a 

 law of the state ; they are supported at the public- 

 expense. 



It is uncertain whether the ancients knew any 



thing of Japan. At the end of the thirteenth century, 

 Marco Polo brought to Europe the first accounts ot 

 Japan, which he called Zipangu. In 1542, three 

 Portuguese ships under Mendez Pinto, on a voyage 

 to China, were driven on the Japanese coasts by a 

 storm, though without this accident this island em- 

 pire would hardly have remained unknown to the 

 enterprise of this commercial nation, whose naviga- 

 tors had collected information respecting it in China. 

 A colony was immediately founded on the newly 

 discovered coast, and the Jesuit Francis Xavier pro- 

 ceeded to Japan to propagate Christianity. The 

 Portuguese were allowed free access and commerce 

 throughout the empire, especially on the island 

 Ximo. One of their principal colonies was on the 

 island of Firando, now Desima, or at the port of 

 Nangasacki. Christianity prevailed extensively, 

 though opposed by the native priests. But the se- 

 cular rulers, especially the small princes who posses- 

 sed portions of the country under the supremacy of the 

 emperor, supported the new doctrine and its preach- 

 ers. About the year 1616, nearly half were Christians, 

 with many of the petty princes. The Portuguese 

 and Jesuits had been allowed uninterrupted access 

 to all parts of the empire as merchants and spiritual 

 teachers for about fifty years, when several circum- 

 stances put an end to their influence. In 1586, a 

 revolution deprived the emperor of Japan of all 

 temporal power, which was usurped by the cubo, 

 the chief officer of the government, who degraded 

 the emperor to the rank of a mere high priest. Jejas, 

 the successor of the first usurper, made, in 1617, the 

 sovereignty hereditary in his family. Both the new ru- 

 lers were enemies of the Portuguese and missionaries, 

 as they saw presages of danger in the close union of 

 the new religious party, and in the influence of the 

 Jesuits, who interfered in political affairs, and op pos- 

 ed the new order of things. The conduct of the 

 Portuguese colonists was in the highest degree im- 

 prudent and licentious. The ambassadors of Portu- 

 gal manifested an insupportable pride, which formed 

 a strong contrast with the submission of the Dutch, 

 who had obtained free intercourse with all the ports 

 of the empire, by their assurance that they were of 

 a different creed from the Jesuits. After many 

 persecutions, the Portuguese, with their missionaries, 

 were finally banished for ever from the empire, in 

 the year 1637 ; Christians were exposed to bloody 

 punishments, and the ports of the empire were closed 

 to all foreigners, except the Dutch. This persecu- 

 tion of the Catholic religion continued forty years, in 

 which time several millions of men were sacrificed. 

 In 16C5, inquisitorial tribunals were erected in all the 

 cities of the empire, which were to renew their in- 

 vestigations, every year, at indefinite periods. The 

 Dutch, who contributed not a little to this catastrophe, 

 now took the place of the Portuguese. They and 

 the Chinese were from this time the only nations 

 whose ships were allowed access to Japan ; but both 

 had to submit to the severest conditions, and were 

 very much limited in their exports, and the former 

 were so restricted after 1634, when they had given 

 cause for suspicion, that they were only permit- 

 ted to land on the island Desima, connected by a 

 bridge with the city Nangasacki. On this island, 

 where their storehouses were situated, lived about 

 fifteen Dutchmen, who carried on the trade, under 

 the closest inspection, never being permitted to enter 

 the city without attendants, overseers and interpre- 

 ters Notwithstanding these restrictions, and the 

 extortions to which the Dutch had to submit, in the 

 shape of deductions from the prices agreed upon, and 

 arbitrary changes in the value of coins, their trade 

 with Japan seems to have been very profitable, sinre 

 they have continued, to the latest times, to said 



