CHAPTER Xin. 
SOMETHING ABOUT BUYING AND SELLING IN JAPAN, AND HOW THEY USED 
COMMODORE perry’s TREATY TO SWINDLE US ALSO, HOW THEY ASK 
FOREIGNERS TO LET PEOPLE ENJOY THEIR MEALS IN QUIET, AND HOW 
A FOREIGNER FELT UNUSUALLY SMALL. 
Before I commence to show how it was that we went 
to the bazaar and how we were swindled in various ways, 
it will be necessary to give the reader an idea of the 
comparative value of Japanese and American money; 
and this calls for a slight digression. 
It had been the “Japanese fashion,” from time im- 
memorial, to make presents of every thing that left 
the country; that is, a strange ship would arrive off 
one of their ports, and, while refusing to let her an- 
chor, they would nevertheless furnish her, free of 
charge, with all such things as wood, water, provisions, 
&c., and then order her away. Of course I except in 
this the regular vessels of the Dutch, which arrived at 
Nan-ga-sa-ki twice every year, and with wliich they traded 
quite largely, though under certain very degrading re- 
quirements at the hands of these latter. For instance, 
they were confined to their ships, guarded with insult- 
ing closeness, and required to be basely deferential to 
their stupid customs and arrogant officials. And these 
sycophantic Netherlanders were, and had been since 
the expulsion of the Jesuits, the most favoured of nations. 
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