it was that the young Swede, Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1778), 

 his pupil in botany and a graduate of the medical department of 

 the University of Upsala, became interested in the botany of 

 Japan. At Amsterdam he had repeatedly heard regret expressed 

 by the professors and botanists of the botanical garden that so 

 little was known of the rich flora of Japan. This suggested to 

 him the idea of visiting that country. Through the instrumen- 

 tality of influential friends he soon secured an appointment as 

 surgeon on board a vessel of the Dutch East India Company and 

 proceeded to Japan by way of the Cape of Good Hope and the 

 island of Java. His Voyages au Japan published in French 

 are as quaintly interesting as the " History " of Kaempfer, and 

 his experiences were strangely similar. The condition of the 

 Dutch settlement showed no change and restrictions were per- 

 haps more severe than ever. We cannot improve on his own 

 way of telling his own story : 



" My first care on landing was to provide myself with inter- 

 preters and to secure the favor of the officers who frequented 

 our little island (Desima). My knowledge of medicine gave me 

 more than one opportunity to be of service to them as well as to 

 their sick relatives and friends. In short my frank and open 

 manners won their confidence. I was not likely to inspire with 

 much uneasiness the inspectors of commerce who could very 



" I was so fortunate as to discover in the wild plants of the 

 country some valuable medicinal properties and took advantage 

 of these discoveries for the purpose of obtaining a permit which 

 had never been granted to any European, to explore the region 

 about Nagasaki in order to collect plants and seeds. I succeeded 

 beyond my expectations, but almost immediately the favor was 

 recalled. 



" Before granting the permit, the Governor, fearing some in- 

 novation, had caused search to be made throughout the records 



made to a European surgeon. He discovered that at some time 

 considerably remote, during an extremely fatal epidemic when 



