1 yearly pre 



undertaking, for the way was long and tedious, " three hundred 

 and twenty-three Japanese leagues of different lengths," nearly 

 a thousand miles by land and sea. Kaempfer says that upon the 

 journey they were " allowed no more liberty than even close 

 prisoners could reasonably claim. We were not suffered to speak 

 to anybody, not even without special leave to the domesticks and 

 servants of the inns we lodged at. As soon as we came to an 

 inn, we were without delay carried upstairs, if possible, or into 

 the back apartments which have no other view but into the yard 

 which for a still greater security is immediately shut and nailed 

 up." 



One wonders how with so many restrictions Kaempfer was able 

 to botanize by the way. But he says that in addition to the 

 various things that travelers usually carry along on their jour- 

 neys, he had for his own use a large Javan box in which he 



directions of the roads, mountains and coasts ; but openly and 

 exposed to everybody's view was an ink-horn, and I usually filled 

 it with plants, flowers and branches of trees, which I figured and 

 described. Doing this, as I did it free and unhindered to every- 

 body's knowledge, I should be wrongly accused to have done any- 

 thing which might have proved disadvantageous to the Company's 



own that from the very first day of our setting out till our return 

 to Nagasaki, all the Japanese companions of our voyage and par- 

 ticularly the Commander-in-chief were extreamly forward to com- 

 municate to me what uncommon plants they met with, together 

 with their true names, characters and uses which they diligently 



able and sensible people, and themselves great lovers of plants, 



