Isle of 



IVlATMAY. 



^70 JAPAN. 



Produce. The articles brought from thence are cod, and other filli 



pickled, walnuts, rare medicinal plants, and flowers, and the 

 famous Gm^/^;?^- roots, and before the imperial prohibition, cer- 

 tain earthen pots made in the Tartarian provinces of Japii and 

 Niuke. 



The other country dependent on Japan, is the iiland of 

 Matmay or Matfumai, part of the land of Jefo., divided from the 

 north end of Nipon by an incurvated ftreight, in the nenrell 

 place lixty verjh^ or forty-five miles broad. According to Char- 

 levoix-, in his Fajles Cbronologiqties, the firii European who vilited 

 that ifland was father Jero77i de Angelis, a Sicilian jefuit, who 

 went there by fea from Japan, and landed at the capital. He 

 reached it in the year 1620, and returned in 1621, but without 

 being certain whether it was an ifland or part of the continent, 

 nor has he left us any account, either of it or its inhabitants. 



LandofJeso. The next Europeans who vifited this country were the Dutcb^ 

 who in 1643 failed from the Cape Nabo in the fliips Cajlricom, 

 captain De Fries, and the Brejkes, on a voyage of difcovery off 

 the coafls of Tartary. In Lat. 44° 30' north, they fell in with 

 what they call Efo or Jefo. Whether this was the north extre- 

 mity of Matjumai, or another land alm6ft contiguous to it, does 

 not appear. By Mr. Arroivjmith''^ map it fliould feem that thefe 

 difcoverers failed along the eaftern coaft of a certain country 

 from the moft fouthern part of Matfumai, as high as Lat. 49° 30', 

 and gave names to feveral bays or points of lands. As to the 

 welfern fides of the region, they probably are quite undifco- 

 vered. In the map I am fo partial to, not only that coail, but 

 thofe of the correfponding continent are left undetermined, 

 ^ ' noted 



