Japan.] 



ORIENTAL COMMERCE. 



pass the more easily, as the Interpreters do not understand ihcm. Arms, it 

 is true, are not allowed to be carried into tlie country ; nevertheless, we are 

 as yet suffered to take our swords with us. 



" The Dutch themselves are the occasion of these over-rigorous 

 searches, the strictness of which has been augmented on several different 

 occasions, till it has arrived at its present height. Numerous artifices have 

 been applied to the purposes of bringing goods into the factory by stealth ; 

 and the interpreters, who heretofore had never been searched, used to carry 

 contraband goods by degrees, and in small parcels, to the town, where they 

 sold for ready money. To this may be added, the pride which some of the 

 weaker-minded officers in the Dutch service very imprudently exhibited to 

 the Japanese, by ill-timed contradiction, contemptuous behaviour, scornful 

 looks, and laughter, which occasioned the Japanese in their turn to hate and 

 despise ihem ; a hatred which is greatly increased upon observing in how 

 unfriendly and unmannerly a style they usually behave to each other, and 

 the brutal treatment which the sailors under their command frequently ex- 

 perience from them, together with the oaths, curses, and blows with which 

 the poor fellows are assailed by them. All these circumstances have induced 

 the J apanese, from year to year, to curtail more and more the liberties of 

 the Dutch merchants, and to search them more strictly than ever; so that 

 now, with all their finesse and artifice, they are hardly able to throw dust in 

 the eyes of so vigilant a nation as this. 



" Within the water-gate of Dezima, when any thing is to be exported 

 or imported, are seated the head and under banjoses, and interpreters, 

 before whose eyes the whole undergoes a strict search. And that the 

 Europeans may not scrape an acquaintance with the searchers, they are 

 changed so often, that no opportunity is given them. 



" This puts a stop to illicit commerce only, but not to private trade, as 

 every body is at liberty to carry in whatever he can dispose of, or there is a 

 demand for, and even such articles as are not allowed to be uttered for sale, 

 so that it be not done secretly. The cainphire of Sumatra, and tortoise- 

 shell, private persons are not permitted to deal in, because the Company 

 reserve that traffic to themselves. The reason why private persons prefer 

 the smuggling of such articles as are forbidden to be disposed of by auction 

 at the public sale, is, that when wares of any kind are sold by auction, they 

 do not receive ready money for them, but are obliged to take other articles 

 in payment; but when the commodities can be disposed of underhand, 

 they get gold coin, and are often paid twice as much as they would have 

 had otherwise. 



" Some years ago, when smuggling was still in a nourishing state, the 



