The VOYAGES of 
4 nothing they exceed their original Plan: Yet, if they 
* really had any kind of Fort on this Ifland, it would not 
4 put them out of the Power of the Japonefe , who are a 
6 very warlike and powerful People, and who, on the leaft 
4 Appearance of Force, would not fail, firft to prohibit all 
c Commerce with the Dutch , and next employ the whole 
4 Strength of their Empire to drive them out of their 
4 Factory. 
4 VII. What are the Refir idiions the Dutch ufuatty labour 
e under here in the carrying on of their Commerce ? In the 
4 firft place, they are forbidden to fend any Ships hither, 
c that have any Figures, whatever at their Sterns becaufe 
4 the Japonefe confider thefe as Infults on their Religion, 
4 forme of thefe Figures having accidentally refembled their 
4 Idols. They are reftrained from fending Goods beyond 
4 the Value of 380,000 Taels or Tayalesp^r Annum. As 
4 foon as their Ships arrive, they fall immediately under the 
4 Power of the Japonefe , who take all their Cannon, Small- 
4 arms, Sails, Cordage, and fpare Anchors, into their Poi- 
4 feffion. The Crews of thefe Ships are confined to the 
4 Ifland,' as well as the People of the Factory, unlefs they 
4 have a Licence granted them to go into the City, and 
4 even this is reftrained to four at a time. The Prices of 
4 their Goods are fet by the Japonefe Directors of Trade, 
4 as are like wife the Prices of the Goods they take in Ex- 
4 change ; and Sales are made when and how they pleaie. 
4 It is true, they are allowed to fend the Chief of their 
4 Factory, with two or three Attendants, to Jeddo , to pay 
4 their Refpe&s to the Emperor ; but, in their Journey, 
4 they always travel under the Efcort of a Japonefe Guard, 
4 who will not fuffer them to make any Excurfions into the 
4 Country by the Way, or to vifit any great Lords or 
4 Princes. They are under the fame, or greater, Reftraints 
4 during the fhort Stay they make at Jeddo , where they 
4 have little other Bufinefs, than to deliver their Prefents to 
4 the Emperor, and to particular Princes and Grandees of 
4 his Court ; to renew the Treaty of Commerce, which, 
4 being a Thing of Form, is fpeedily difpatched ; and then 
4 they are ordered to return, having a Guard about them 
4 while they remain there, and another to efcorte them back. 
4 After their Sales are over at their Factory, and the Wind 
4 is fair for their Return home, they have their Cannon, 
4 Small-arms, Sails, Anchors, and Rigging, reftored to 
6 them, and are directed to depart without Delay ; with 
4 which they are obliged to comply. It is to be obferved, 
4 that moil of thefe Reftriftions have been but lately im- 
4 pofed, that is to fay, within thefe laft fifty Years, fince the 
4 great Troubles in Japan , wherein 400,0.00 Chriftians loft 
4 their Lives, and the Empire ran the utmoft Hazard of 
4 being overturned ; which is the true Caufe why the Japo- 
4 nefe have Strangers, and the Religion of Strangers, in 
4 fuch Abhorrence •, for, before that time, the Dutch had 
4 great Privileges, and were in high Credit ; whereas now 
4 they are expofed to new Hardftiips every Day, which 
4 they know not how to avoid, and to which they find it 
4 very difficult to fubmit. 
4 VIII. What Number of Ships are employed in this Trade? 
6 of what Force ? when do they fail from Batavia ? at what 
4 Time do they return ? and what are the computed Profits of 
4 the Voyage? The Dutch fend annually four Ships from 
4 Batavia to Japan , of between thirty and fifty Pieces of 
4 Cannon ; but they are indifferently armed, for two Rea- 
4 fens : Firft, becaufe there is little or no Danger in thefe 
4 Seas ; and, fecondly, that they may give the lefs Sufpicion 
4 to the Japonefe , who do not care to fee Ships of great 
4 Force upon their Coaft. Thefe Veffels are laden with 
4 fuch European and Indian Goods, as are in Demand at 
4 Japan ; fuch as Englifio and Dutch Cloths, Camblets of 
4 all forts, Brocades Gold and Silver, very rich Silks of all 
« Colours, and efpecially crimfon, and white raw Silk, raw 
4 Cotton, and fpunCotton,Tapeftries, Lead, Steel, and Sub- 
4 II mate ; Sugars of all forts, Spices of all kinds, Morocco 
4 Leather, and all forts of Skins, particularly Buck and 
4 Doe, of which they carry a prodigious Quantity, and 
4 about half the Quantity of Ox-hides. They fail with this 
4 Cargo about June 20. and the firft Land they make is 
4 ufually the Ifland of Poltimon , which is in the Latitude of 
« 2 0 50' North. There they take in Water, and other Re- 
4 freftShents 1 and then continue their Voyage to Japan , 
4 where they generally arrive in the Beginning of Auguft , 
4 and find every thing ready prepared for them • fc that' 
4 their Goods are quickly got on fhore, and brought into 
4 their Warelioufes, forted, and fitted for Sale. TheMer- 
4 chants like wife are fummoned from the adjacent Coun- 
4 tries, and have Catalogues given them of the Goods 
4 brought by the laft Fleet ; fo that every thing is over by 
4 the latter End of October , and the Ships are ready to fail 
4 very early in the next Months when the Japonefe never 
4 fail to preft them to.be gone. Of all the Reftridlions their 
4 Trade labours under at prefent, the Butch are made moft 
4 uneafy by their having their Quantity of Goods limited ; 
4 and of this therefore they complained bitterly to the Gift- 
4 cers, and at laft to the Emperor himfelf. 
4 The Japonefe treated them, on this Occafiori, with great 
4 Addrefs : They told them plainly, that they knew and 
4 underftood the thing to be an Hardftiip *, and at the fame 
4 time infmuated, that it did not proceed from any Diffi* 
4 dence of, or DifrefpecI to, the Dutch , but was done purely 
4 to juftify the fame Reftraint on the Chine fe^ the Number 
4 of whole junks increafed every Year •, and as there were 
4 frequently Tartars amongft them, they could not help 
4 fufpecling, that they might have fbme worfe Defign than 
4 getting Money by Trade ; but, for fear of bringing that 
4 Evil upon themfelves, which they were labouring to avoid, 
4 they thought it necefifaiy to lay this Reftraint on the 
4 Dutch , as well as the Chine fe, that the latter might have 
4 the lels Reafon to complain. They prornifed likevyife* 
4 that this Regulation fhould be very tenderly executed, fo 
4 as to give the Dutch very little Trouble ; in which refpebiq 
4 it is faid, the Japonefe have been as good as their Words, 
4 as indeed they are in every thing ; for, abating their parti- 
4 cular Cuftoms, and the Warmth with which they are 
4 attached to them, there is, perhaps, no Nation in the 
4 World more juft, more reafonable, or even more civil to 
4 Strangers. 
4 The Dutch took Advantage of this Stroke of Policy 
4 at Japan , to make a new Order for the Regulation of 
4 their own Affairs •, and a very wife one it was. They 
4 are very fenfible, that People do not fettle in the Indies 
4 to make Qbfervations in Natural Hiftory, but to acquire 
4 Fortunes; that Men fubmit to the Hardfhips they endure, 
4 for the fake of purchafing future Eafe ; and that the 
4 Navigation in the Seas of Japan is fo perilous, that it is 
4 but reafonable, even the Seamen fhould 'find an extraor- 
4 dinary Account in it. Upon thefe Motives they have 
4 thus fettled the Commerce of Japan: Goods to the Va- 
4 lue of three hundred thoufand Taels are fent on the Com- 
4 pany’s Account, and the other eighty thoufand is allowed 
4 in private Trade, in the following Proportion; 'viz. 
4 Forty thoufand Taels on the Account of the Governor- 
4 General and Council at Batavia ; ten thoufand on the 
4 Account of the new Chief, who goes on board the Fleet ; 
4 eight thoufand on the Account of the Chief who is to 
4 come Home ; and twenty-two thoufand for the Officers 
4 and Seamen ; fo that every Captain has eleven hundred 
4 Taels on his own Account, and every Seaman twenty. 
4 If any of thefe People have not Money to furnifh their 
4 Share of the Cargo, it is either advanced on their Wages, 
4 or they are allowed to difpofe of their Right to fuch as 
4 are richer than themfelves. Thus every Man is interefted 
4 in the Branch of Trade in which he is employed, and 
4 finds his. private Account in the pun&ual Difcharge of his 
4 Duty. 
4 In their Return, they touch again, towards the End 
4 of the Month of December , at the before-mentioned 
4 Ifland of Poltimon , where all the Gold is put on board 
4 one Ship, that fails immediately for Batavia ; but the reft 
4 continue their Voyage to Malacca , where an Aflfort- 
4 ment is made out of the Goods they bring home for the 
4 feveral Markets of the Indies. It is allowed, that the 
4 Commerce of Japan is very much funk, in point of Pro- 
4 fit, to what it was; and it is like wife true, that great 
4 Loffes are frequently fuftained therein ; but, after all, it 
4 is ftill very confiderable ; fo that, on the beft Computa- 
4 tion that can be made, it produced annually to the Com- 
4 pany better than five Million of Guilders, or half a Mil- 
4 lion Sterling, exclufive of the great Advantages that re- 
4 fult from the Diftribution of the Eft-efts brought from 
4 Japan 
