138 THE INDIAN AND ORIENTAL ISLANDS. 



they are never suffered to be cleansed or cut by day-light; but thJf 

 must be done by stealth, during the night, whilst he is asleep. His 

 holiness never eats twice off the same plate, nor uses any vessel 

 for his meals a second time : they are immediately broken to pieces 

 after they are used, to prevent their falling into unhallowed hands. 

 He has twelve wives, only one of whom, however, is styled empress. 

 He confers all tides of honour; but the real power of government is 

 exercised by the kubo. 



The Japanese are gross idolaters, and so irreconcileable to Chris- 

 tianity, that it is commonly s<?id the Dutch, who are the only Eu- 

 ropean nation with whom they now trade, pretend themselves to be 

 no Christians, and humour the Japanese in the most absurd supersti- 

 tions. But notwithstanding all this compliance, the natives are very 

 shy and rigorous in all their dealings with the Dutch ; and Nagasaki, 

 in the island of Dezima, is the only port they are suffered to enter. 

 The Japanese trade with no foreign nation but the Dutch and Chinese ; 

 and in both cases with companies of privileged merchants. According 

 to Thunberg, however, a late traveller to Japan, the trade of the 

 Dutch to that country even in time of peace, was become so incon- 

 siderable in 1777, that the company only employed in it two ships. 

 Formerly as they paid there no duty either on their exports, or imports, 

 they were accustomed to send an annual present to the emperor, con- 

 sisting of cloth, chintzes, cottons, stuffs, and trinkets. The Japanese 

 are excellent workmen in iron and copper ; their manufactures of silk 

 and cotton yield to those of no eastern country; the excellence of 

 their lacquered or japanned ware is well known ; and their porce- 

 lain is deemed superior to that of China. 



The island of FORMOSA is situate to the east of China, near the 

 province of Fokien, and is divided into two parts by a chain of moun- 

 tains, which runs through the middle, from south-east to north-west. 

 This is a very fine island, and abounds in all the necessaries of life, 

 That part of the island which lies to the west of the mountains be- 

 longs to the Chinese, who consider the inhabitants of the eastern 

 parts as savages. The inhabitants of the cultivated parts are Chinese?, 

 or at least have adopted their manners and habits. 



The Chinese have likewise made themselves masters of several 

 other islands in these seas, among which, that of Ainan is between 

 sixty and seventy leagues long, and between fifty and sixty in breadth. 

 It is distant only twelve miles from the main land of the province of 

 Canton. The original inhabitants are a shy and timid people, and 

 live in the most unhealthy part of the island ; the coast and cultivated 

 parts, which are very valuable, being possessed by the Chinese. 



The LADRONE islands, of which the chief is Guam (in north 

 latitude 14, east longitude 140) are about twelve in number. Then- 

 name signifies the island of robbers, the natives when they were first 

 discovered by Magellan, or Magaihaens, being, like most other sava- 

 ges, much addicted to pilfering. These islands were then, it is said, 

 very populous ; Guam, which is about forty leagues in circuit, having 

 thirty thousand inhabitants. Lord Anson, in his voyage round the 

 world, landed at one of them (Tinian) where he found great refresh- 

 ment for himself and his crew. 



The PHILIPPINES are said to be 1 100 in number, lying in the Chi- 

 nese Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean) 300 miles south-east of China, 

 of which Manilla, or Luconia, the chief, is 400 miles long and 200 

 broad. The inhabitants consist of Chinese, Ethiopians, Malays. Spa- 



