ENGELBERT KÆMPFER.
Born 1651.—Died 1716.
This distinguished traveller was born on the 16th of September, 1651, at Lemgow, a small town in the territories of the Count de Lippe, in the circle of Westphalia. His father, who was a clergyman, bestowed upon his son a liberal education suitable to the medical profession, for which he was designed. It is probable, however, that the numerous removals from one city to another which took place in the course of his education,—his studies, which commenced at Hameln, in the duchy of Brunswick, having been successively pursued at Lunebourg, Hamburgh, Lubeck, Dantzick, Thorn, Cracow, and Kœnigsberg,—communicated to his character a portion of that restless activity and passion for vicissitude which marked his riper years. But these changes of scene by no means impaired his ardour for study. Indeed, the idea of one day opening himself a path to fame as a traveller appears, on the contrary, to have imparted additional keenness to his thirst for knowledge; his comprehensive and sagacious mind very early discovering in how many ways a knowledge of antiquity, of literature, and the sciences might further the project he had formed of enlarging the boundaries of human experience.
Having during his stay at Kœnigsberg acquired a competent knowledge of natural history and the theory of medicine, he returned at the age of thirty to his own country; whence, after a brief visit, he again departed for Prussia and Sweden. Wherever he went, the number and variety of his acquirements, the urbanity of his manners, and the romance and enthusiasm of his character rendered him a welcome guest, and procured him the favour of warm and powerful friends. During his residence in this country, at the university of Upsal and at Stockholm, he became known to Rudbeck and Puffendorf, the father of the historian; and it was through the interest of the latter that, rejecting the many advantageous offers which were made for the purpose of tempting him to remain in Sweden, he obtained the office of secretary to the embassy then about to be sent into Persia. The object of this mission was partly commercial, partly political; and as the Czar of Russia was indirectly concerned in its contemplated arrangements, it was judged necessary that the ambassador should proceed to Ispahan by the way of Moscow.
Our traveller departed from Stockholm March 20, 1683, with the presents for the Shah of Persia, and, proceeding through Arland, Finland, and Ingermunland, joined Louis Fabricius at Narva. On their arrival at Moscow, where their reception was magnificent, the ambassador so skilfully conducted his negotiations that in less than two months they were enabled to pursue their journey. They accordingly descended the Volga, and, embarking at Astrakan in a ship with two rudders, and two pilots who belonged to different nations, and could not understand each other, traversed the Caspian Sea, where they encountered a violent tempest, and at length arrived at Nisabad. Here they found the ambassadors of Poland and Russia, who had arrived a short time previously, and were likewise on their way to Ispahan, and in their company proceeded to Shamaki, the capital of Shirwan.
In this city, which they reached about the middle of December, they remained a whole month, awaiting the reply of the shah to the governor of Shirwan, who immediately upon their arrival had despatched a courier to court for directions respecting the manner in which, the several ambassadors were to be treated and escorted to Ispahan. This delay was fortunate for Kæmpfer, as it enabled him to visit and examine the most remarkable objects of curiosity in the neighbourhood, more particularly the ancient city of Baku, renowned for its eternal fire; the naphtha springs of Okesra; the burning fountains and mephitic wells; and the other wonders of that extraordinary spot. Upon this excursion he set out from Shamakia on the 4th of January, 1684, accompanied by another member of the legation, two Armenians, and an Abyssinian interpreter. Their road, during the first part of this day’s journey, lay over a fine plain abounding in game; having passed which, they arrived about noon at the village of Pyru Resah. Here a storm, attended with a heavy fall of snow, preventing their continuing their journey any farther that day, they took possession of a kind of vaulted stable, which the inhabitants in their simplicity denominated a caravansary; and kindling a blazing fire with dried wormwood and other similar plants, which emitted a most pungent smoke, contrived to thaw their limbs and keep themselves warm until the morning.
Next morning they continued their route, at first through a mountainous and desert country buried in snow, and afterward through a plain of milder temperature, but both equally uninhabited, no living creature making its appearance, excepting a number of eagles perched upon the summits of the heights, and here and there a flock of antelopes browsing upon the plain. Lodging this night also in a caravansary in the desert, and proceeding next day through similar scenes, they arrived in the afternoon at Baku. The aspect of this city, the narrowness of the gate, the strange ornaments of the walls, the peculiarity of the site, the structure of the houses, the squalid countenances of the inhabitants, and the novelty of every object which presented itself, inspired our traveller with astonishment. It happening to be market-day, the streets were crowded with people, who, being little accustomed to strangers, and having never before seen a negro, crowded obstreperously around the travellers, and followed them with hooting, shouting, and clamour to their lodgings. An old man, who had officiously undertaken to provide them with an apartment, conducted them through the mob of his townsfolk, which was every moment becoming more dense, to a small mud hut, situated in a deserted part of the city, and from its dismal and miserable appearance, rather resembling the den of a wild beast than a human dwelling. Having entered this new cave of Trophonius, and shut the door behind them, the travellers, as Kæmpfer jocosely observes, began to offer up their thanks to the tutelary god of the place, for affording them an asylum from the insolence of the rabble. But their triumph was premature. The mob, whose curiosity was by no means to be satisfied with a passing glance, ascended the roof of the den in crowds, and before the travellers could spread out their carpets and lie down, the crashing roof, the lattices broken, and the door, which they had fastened with a beam, violently battered, warned them that it was necessary to escape before they should be overwhelmed by the ruins. It was now thought advisable that they should endeavour, by exhibiting themselves and their Ethiopian interpreter, whom the Bakuares unquestionably mistook for some near relation of the devil’s, to conciliate their persecutors, and purchase the privilege of sleeping in peace. They therefore removed the beam, and issuing forth, Abyssinian and all, into the midst of the crowd, allowed them time to gaze until they were tired. Presently after this the governor of the city arrived; but, instead of affording his protection to the strangers, as a man in his station should have done, he accused them of being spies, and having overwhelmed them with menaces, which he seems to have uttered for the purpose of enhancing his own dignity in the estimation of the multitude, departed, leaving them to enact the spies at their discretion.
Being now left in undisturbed possession of their hut, and there still remaining some hours of daylight, they prevailed upon their host, by dint of a small bribe, to show them the citadel, situated in the loftiest and most deserted part of the city. Returning from thence, they were met by the beadles of the town, who conducted them, with their beasts and baggage, to the public caravansary, though their host and guide had denied the existence of any such building; and while this ancient deceiver was hurried off before the magistrates, our travellers sat down to supper and some excellent wine. Next morning Kæmpfer issued forth, disguised as a groom, to examine the remainder of the city, while his companions loaded their beasts, and, the keeper of the caravansary being absent, slipped out of the city, and waited until he should join them at a little distance upon the road. Having escaped from this inhospitable place, they proceeded to examine the small peninsula of Okesra, a tongue of land about three leagues in length, and half a league in breadth, which projects itself into the Caspian to the south of Baku. This spot, like the Phlegræan fields, appears to be but a thin crust of earth superimposed upon an internal gulf of liquid fire, which, escaping into upper air through a thousand fissures, scorches the earth to dust in some places; in others, presents to the eye a portion of its surface, boiling, eddying, noisome, dark, wrapped in infernal clouds, and murmuring like the fabled waters of hell. Here and there sharp, lofty cones of naked rocks, composed, like the summits of the Caucasus, of conchylaceous petrifactions, shoot up from the level of the plain, and on the northern part of the peninsula are sometimes divided by cultivated valleys. On the summit of one of these eminences they perceived the ruins of a castle, in former times the residence of a celebrated imam, who had taken refuge in these wild scenes from the persecution of the race of Omar.
Still proceeding towards the south they arrived, in about an hour from these ruins, upon the margin of a burning field, the surface of which was strewed with a pale white sand, and heaps of ashes; while, from numerous gaping rents, rushing flames, black smoke, or bluish steam, strongly impregnated with the scent of naphtha, burst up in a singularly striking manner. When the superincumbent sand was removed, whether upon the edge of the fissures, or in any other part of the field, a light rock, porous, and worm-eaten, as it were, like pumice-stone, was discovered; which, as well as the substratum of the whole peninsula, consisted of shelly petrifactions. Here they found about ten persons occupied in different labours about the fires; some being employed in attending to a number of copper or earthen vessels, placed over the least intense of the burning fissures, in which they were cooking dinner for the inhabitants of a neighbouring village; while others were piling stones brought from other places into heaps, to be burnt into lime. Apart from these sat two Parsees, the descendants of the ancient inhabitants of Persia, beside a small wall of dry stones which they had piled up, contemplating with holy awe and veneration the fiercely ascending flames, which they regard as an emblem of the eternal God.
One of the lime-burners now came up to the travellers, and said that for a small reward he would show them a very extraordinary spectacle. When they had given him some trifle, he plucked a few threads of cotton from his garment, and twisting them upon the end of his rake, went and held them over one of the burning fissures, where they were instantly kindled. He then held the rake over another rent, from which neither flame nor smoke ascended, and in an instant the gaseous exhalation, previously invisible, was kindled, and shot up into a tall, bright flame, like that of a vast gas lamp, which, after burning furiously for some time, to the unspeakable astonishment of the strangers, died away and disappeared. Similar phenomena are observed in several parts of the Caucasus, particularly in the chasms of Mount Shubanai, about four days’ journey from Okesra.
From this place they were conducted to the fountains of white naphtha, where the substance oozed out of the earth as clear as crystal, but in small quantities. Kæmpfer was surprised to find the wells left unprotected even by a wall; for if by any accident they were set on fire, as those near Ecbatana were in ancient times, as we learn from Plutarch, they would continue to burn for ever with inextinguishable violence. Having likewise visited the wells of black naphtha, where this pitchy oil bubbled up out of the earth with a noise like that of a torrent, and in such abundance that it supplied many countries with lamp oil, our travellers repaired to a neighbouring village to pass the night. Here they fared more sumptuously than at Baku; and having supped deliciously upon figs, grapes, apples, and pomegranates, their unscrupulous hosts, notwithstanding that they were Mohammedans, unblushingly offered to provide them with wine and courtesans! Kæmpfer preferring to pass the evening in learning such particulars as they could furnish respecting the ancient and modern condition of their country, they merrily crowded about him, and each in his turn imparted what he knew. When their information was exhausted, they formed themselves into a kind of wild chorus, alternately reciting rude pieces of poetry, and proceeding by degrees to singing and dancing, afforded their guests abundant amusement by their strange attitudes and gestures.
Rising next morning with the dawn, they proceeded to view what is termed by the inhabitants the naphtha hell. Ascending a small hemispherical hill, they found its summit occupied by a diminutive lake, not exceeding fifty paces in circumference, the crumbling, marshy margin of which could only be trodden with the utmost caution. The water, which lay like a black sheet below, had a muriatic taste; and a strange hollow sound, arising out of the extremest depths of the lake, continually smote upon the ear, and increased the horror inspired by the aspect of the place. From time to time black globules of naphtha came bubbling up to the surface of the water, and were gradually impelled towards the shore, where, mixing with earthy particles, they incessantly increased the crust which on all sides encroached upon the lake, and impended over its infernal gloom. At a short distance from this hill there was a mountain which emitted a kind of black ooze impregnated with bitumen, which, being hardened by the sun as it flowed down over the sides of the mountain, gave the whole mass the appearance of a prodigious cone of pitch. In the northern portion of the peninsula they beheld another singular phenomenon, which was a hill, through the summit of which, as through a vast tube, immense quantities of potter’s earth ascended, as if impelled upwards by some machine, and having risen to a considerable height, burst by its own weight, and rolled down the naked side of the hill. In this little peninsula nature seems to have elaborated a thousand wonders, which, however, while they astonish, are useful to mankind. It was with the produce of Okesra that Milton lighted up his Pandæmonium:—
From the arched roof,
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light
As from a sky.
Returning to Shamakin, which Kæmpfer erroneously supposes to be the Rhaya of the Bible, our traveller a few days afterward departed for Ispahan, where he remained nearly two years. Shah Solyman, the prince then reigning, whose character and court have been so admirably described by Chardin, was a man whose feeble constitution and feebler mind rendered him a slave to physicians and astrologers. He was now, by the counsel of his stargazers, a voluntary prisoner in his own palace, a malignant constellation, as they affirmed, menacing him with signal misfortunes should he venture abroad. On the 30th of July, however, the sinister influence of the stars no longer preventing him, he held a public levee with the utmost splendour and magnificence; upon which occasion, as Asiatic princes are peculiarly desirous of appearing to advantage in the eyes of strangers, all the foreign ambassadors then in the capital were admitted to an audience. Though the representatives of several superior nations, as of France, Germany, and Russia, to say nothing of those of Poland, Siam, or of the pope, were present, the ambassador of Sweden obtained, I know not wherefore, the precedence over them all. Probably neither the shah nor his ministers understood the comparative merits of the various nations of Europe, and regulated their conduct by the personal character of the envoys; and it would seem that Lewis Fabricius possessed the secret of rendering himself agreeable to the court of Persia.
Meanwhile Kæmpfer, who lost no opportunity of penetrating into the character and observing the manners of a foreign people, employed his leisure in collecting materials for the various works which he meditated. He bestowed particular attention upon the ceremonies and observances of the court; the character and actions of the shah; the form of government; the great officers of state; the revenue and forces; and the religion, customs, dress, food, and manners of the people. His principal inquiries, however, both here and elsewhere, had medicine and natural history for their object; and that his researches were neither barren nor frivolous is demonstrated by his “Amœnitates Exoticæ,” one of the most instructive and amusing books which have ever been written on the East.
Towards the conclusion of the year 1686, M. Fabricius, having successfully terminated his negotiations with the Persian court, prepared to leave Ispahan; but Germany being still, says Kæmpfer, engaged in war with France and the Ottoman Porte, he preferred relinquishing his office of secretary to the embassy, and pushing his fortunes in the remoter countries of the East, to the idea of beholding, and perhaps involving himself in the calamities of his native land, which, however he might deplore, he had no power to remedy or alleviate. He therefore took his leave of the ambassador, who did him the honour to accompany him with all his retinue a mile out of Ispahan, and proceeded towards Gombroon, or Bander-Abassi, having, by the friendship of Father du Mons, and the recommendations of M. Fabricius, obtained the office of chief surgeon to the fleet of the Dutch East India Company, then cruising in the Persian Gulf. He long hesitated, he says, whether he should select Egypt or the “Farther East” for the field of his researches; and had not circumstances, which frequently stand in the place of destiny, interposed, it is probable that the charms of the Nile would have proved the more powerful. To a man like Kæmpfer, the offer of becoming chief physician to a Georgian Prince, “with considerable appointments,” which was made him about this time, could have held out but small temptation, as he must have been thoroughly acquainted, not only with the general poverty of both prince and people, but likewise with the utter insecurity of person and property in that wretched country.
It was during this journey that he visited the celebrated ruins of Persepolis. He arrived in sight of the Forty Pillars on the 1st of December, 1686; and looking towards this scene of ancient magnificence, where the choicest of the population of a vast empire had once sported like butterflies in the sun, his eye encountered about fifty black Turcoman tents upon the plain, before the doors of which sat a number of women engaged in weaving, while their husbands and children were amusing themselves in the tents, or absent with the flocks and herds. Not having seen the simple apparatus which enables the Hindoos to produce the finest fabrics in the world, whether in chintzes or muslins, Kæmpfer beheld with astonishment the comparatively excellent productions of these rude looms, and the skill and industry of the Persepolitan Calypsos, whose fair fingers thus emulated the illustrious labours of the Homeric goddesses and queens. It was not within the power of his imagination, however, inflamed as it was by the gorgeous descriptions of Diodorus and other ancient historians, to bestow a moment upon any thing modern in the presence of those mysterious and prodigious ruins, sculptured with characters which no longer speak to the eye, and exhibiting architectural details which the ingenuity of these “degenerate days” lacks the acumen to interpret. Here, if we may conjecture from the solemn splendour of the language in which he relates what he saw, his mind revelled in those dreamy delights which are almost inevitably inspired by the sight of ancient monuments rent, shattered, and half-obliterated by time.
Having gratified his antiquarian curiosity by the examination of these memorials of Alexander’s passion for Thaïs, who,—
Like another Helen, fired another Troy,—
he continued his journey to Shiraz, where beauties of another kind, exquisite, to use his own language, beyond credibility, and marvellously varied, refreshed the eye, and seemed to efface from the mind all recollection of the fact that the earth contained such things as graves or ruins. The effervescence of animal spirits occasioned by the air and aspect of scenes so delicious appeared for the moment to justify the enthusiasm of the Persian poet, who, half-intoxicated with the perfume of the atmosphere, exclaims:—
Boy, bid yon ruby liquid flow,
And let thy pensive heart be glad,
Whate’er the frowning zealots say;
Tell them their Eden cannot show
A stream so pure as Rocknabad,
A bower so sweet as Mosellay!
But, with all its beauty, Shiraz contains nothing which raises so powerful an enthusiasm in the soul as two tombs,—the tomb of the bard who sung the beauties of the Rocknabad, and of the moral author of the “Rose Garden;” irresistible and lasting are the charms of poetry and eloquence! Our traveller having acquired at Ispahan sufficient knowledge of the Persian language to enable him to relish Hafiz, though he complains that he is difficult, as well as the easier and more popular Saadi, whose sayings are in Persia “familiar to their mouths as household words,” it was impossible that he should pass through the city where their honoured ashes repose without paying a pious visit to the spot. Having contemplated these illustrious mausoleums with that profound veneration which the memory of genius inspires, he returned to his caravansary half-persuaded, with the Persians, that they who do not study and treasure up in their souls the maxims of such divine poets can neither be virtuous nor happy.
From the poets of Shiraz he naturally turned to its roses and its wine; the former, in his opinion, the most fragrant upon earth; and the latter the most balmy and delicious. In his history and description of this wine, one of the most agreeable articles in his “Amœnitates,” there is a kind of bacchic energy and enthusiasm, a rhapsodical affectation of sesquipedalian words, which would seem to indicate that even the remembrance of this oriental nectar has the power of elevating the animal spirits. But whatever were the delights of Shiraz, it was necessary to bid them adieu; and inwardly exclaiming with the calif, “How sweetly we live if a shadow would last!” he turned his back upon Mosellay and the Rocknabad, and pursued his route towards Gombroon.
Here, if he was pleased with contrasts, he could not fail to be highly gratified; for no two places upon earth could be more unlike than Shiraz and Gombroon. It was the pestilential air of this detestable coast that had deprived Della Valle of his Maani, and reduced Chardin to the brink of the grave; and Kæmpfer had not been there many months before he experienced in his turn the deadly effects of breathing so inflamed and insalubrious an atmosphere, from which, in the summer season, even the natives are compelled to fly to the mountains. Though no doubt the causes had long been at work, the effect manifested itself suddenly in a malignant fever, in which he lay delirious for several days. When the violence of this disorder abated, it was successively followed by a dropsy and a quartan ague, through which dangerous and unusual steps, as Dr. Scheuchzer observes, he recovered his health, though not his former strength and vigour. Admonished by this rough visitation, he now had recourse to those means for the restoration of his strength which a more rigid prudence would have taught him to put in practice for its preservation, and removed with all possible expedition into the mountainous districts of Laristân.
On the 16th of June, 1686, at least six weeks after every other sane person had fled from the place, Kæmpfer set out from Gombroon, sitting in a pannier suspended from the back of a camel, being too weak to ride on horseback, and attended by a servant mounted upon an ass, while another animal of the same species carried his cooking apparatus and provisions. To shield himself from the burning winds which swept with incredible fury along these parched and naked plains, he stretched a small sheet over his head, which, falling down on both sides of the pannier, served as a kind of tent. Thus covered, he contrived to keep himself tolerably cool by continually wetting the sheet on the inside; but being clothed in an exceedingly thin garment, open in several parts, he next day found that wherever the wet sheet had touched him the skin peeled off as if it had been burned. Having procured the assistance of a guide, they deserted the ordinary road, and struck off by a less circuitous, but more difficult track, through the mountains. The prospect for some time was as dull and dreary as could be imagined; consisting of a succession of sandy deserts, here and there interspersed with small salt ponds, the glittering mineral crust of which showed like so many sheets of snow by the light of the stars.
At length, late on the night of the 20th, though the darkness precluded the possibility of perceiving the form of surrounding objects, he discovered by the aroma of plants and flowers diffused through the air that he was approaching a verdant and cultivated spot; and continuing his journey another day over a rocky plain, he arrived at the foot of the mountains. Here he found woody and well-watered valleys alternating with steep and craggy passes, which inspired him with terror as he gazed at their frowning and tremendous brows from below. By dint of perseverance, however, he at length reached the summit of Mount Bonna, or at least the highest inhabited part, though spiry rocks shooting up above this mountain plateau on every side intercepted all view of the surrounding country. The chief of the mountain village in which he intended to reside received him hospitably, and on the very morning after his arrival introduced him to the spot where he was to remain during his stay. This was a kind of garden exposed to the north-east, and therefore cool and airy. Ponds of water, cascades, narrow ravines, overhanging rocks, and shady trees rendered it a delightful retreat; but as the Persians as well as the Turks regard our habit of pacing backwards and forwards as no better than madness, there were no walks worthy of the name. When showers of rain or any other cause made him desire shelter, he betook himself to a small edifice in the garden, where his only companion was a large serpent, which ensconced itself in a hole directly opposite to his couch, where it passed the night, but rolled out early in the morning to bask in the sun upon the rocks. Upon a sunny spot in the garden he daily observed two delicate little chameleons, which, he was persuaded, were delighted with his society; for at length one or the other of them would follow him into the house, either to enjoy the warmth of the fire, or to pick up such crumbs as might drop from his table during dinner. If observed, however, it would utter a sound like the gentle laugh of a child, and spring off to its home in the trees. He was shortly afterward joined by another German invalid from Gombroon, whom he appears to have found preferable as a companion both to the serpent and the chameleon.
Having now no other object than to amuse himself and recover his health, he indulged whatever fancy came uppermost; at one time examining the plants and trees of the mountain, and at another joining a party of mountaineers in hunting that singular species of antelope in the stomach of which the bezoar is found. The chase of this fleet and timid animal required the hunters to be abroad before day, when they concealed themselves in some thicket or cavern, or beneath the brows of overhanging rocks, near the springs to which it usually repaired with the dawn to drink. They knew, from some peculiarities in the external appearance of the beasts, such individuals as certainly contained the bezoar in their stomach from those which did not; and in all his various excursions Kæmpfer requested his companions to fire at the former only.
In these same mountains there was an extraordinary cavern concealed among rugged and nearly inaccessible precipices, from the sides of which there constantly exuded a precious balsam of a black colour, inodorous, and almost tasteless, but of singular efficacy in all disorders of the bowels. The same district likewise contained several hot-baths, numerous trees and plants, many of which were unknown in Europe, and a profusion of those fierce animals, such as leopards, bears, and hyenas, which constitute the game of an Asiatic sportsman.
Remaining in these mountains until he considered his strength sufficiently restored, he returned to Gombroon. During his residence in Persia, which was nearly of four years’ continuance, he collected so large a quantity of new and curious information, that notwithstanding that most of the spots he describes had been visited by former travellers, his whole track seems to run over an untrodden soil; so true is it that it is the mind of the traveller, far more than the material scene, which furnishes the elements of interest and novelty. The history of this part of his travels, therefore, the results of which are contained in his “Amœnitates,” seemed to deserve being given at some length. To that curious volume I refer the reader for his ample and interesting history of the generation, growth, culture, and uses of the date-palm; his description of that remarkable balsamic juice called muminahi by the Persians, and mumia, or munmy, by Kæmpfer, which exudes from a rock in the district of Daraab, and was annually collected with extraordinary pomp and ceremony for the sole use of the Persian king; and the curious account which he has given of the asafœtida plant, said to be produced only in Persia; the filaria medinensis, or worm which breeds between the interstices of the muscles in various parts of the human body; and the real oriental dragon’s blood, which is obtained from a coniferous palm.
About the latter end of June, 1688, he sailed on board the Dutch fleet from Gombroon, which having orders to touch at Muscat and several other ports of Arabia, he enjoyed an opportunity of observing something of the climate and productions of that country, from whose spicy shore, to borrow the language of Milton, Sabæan odours are diffused by the north-east winds, when,—
Pleased with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles!
Proceeding eastward through the Indian Ocean, they successively visited the north-western coasts of the Deccan, the kingdoms of Malabar, the island of Ceylon, the Gulf of Bengal, and Sumatra; all which countries he viewed with the same curious eye, the same spirit of industry and thirst of knowledge.
Upwards of a year was spent in this delightful voyage, the fleet not arriving at Batavia, its ultimate point of destination, until the month of September, 1689. Kæmpfer regarded this chief seat of the Dutch power in the East as a hackneyed topic, and neglected to bestow any considerable research or pains upon its history or appearance, its trade, riches, power, or government; but the natural history of the country, a subject more within the scope of his taste and studies, as well as more superficially treated by others, commanded much of his attention. The curious and extensive garden of Cornelius Van Outhoorn, director-general of the Dutch East India Company, the garden of M. Moller, and the little island of Eidam, lying but a few leagues off Batavia, afforded a number of rare and singular plants, indigenous and exotic, many of which he was the first to observe and describe.
It was at that period the policy of the Dutch to send an annual embassy to the court of Japan, the object of which was to extend and give stability to their commercial connexion with that country. Kæmpfer, who had now been eight months in Batavia, and appears during that period to have made many powerful and useful friends, obtained the signal favour of being appointed physician to the embassy; and one of the ships receiving orders to touch at Siam, the authorities, to enhance the obligation, permitted him to perform the voyage in this vessel, that an opportunity might be afforded him of beholding the curiosities of that country.
He sailed from Batavia on the 7th of May, 1690; and steering through the Thousand Islands, having the lofty mountains of Java and Sumatra in sight during two days, arrived in thirteen days at Puli Timon, a small island on the eastern coast of Malacca. The natives, whom he denominates banditti, were a dark, sickly-looking race, who, owing to their habit of plucking out their beard, a custom likewise prevalent in Sumatra and the Malay peninsula, had all the appearance of ugly old women. Their dress consisted of a coarse cummerbund, or girdle, and a hat manufactured from the leaves of the sago-palm. They understood nothing of the use of money; but willingly exchanged their incomparable mangoes, figs, pineapples, and fowls for linen shirts, rice, or iron. On the 6th of June they arrived safely in the mouth of the Meinam, and cast anchor before Siam, where our traveller’s passion for botany immediately led him into the woods in search of plants; but as tigers and other wild beasts were here the natural lords of the soil, it was fortunate that his herborizing did not cost him dearer than he intended.
In this country, which has recently been so ably described by Mr. Crawfurd, the historian of the Indian Archipelago, Kæmpfer made but a short stay. In the capital, which formed the extreme limit of his knowledge, he observed a great number of temples and schools, adorned with pyramids and columns of various forms, covered with gilding. Though smaller than European churches in dimension, they were, he thought, greatly superior in beauty, on account of their numerous bending and projecting roofs, gilded architraves, porticoes, pillars, and other ornaments. In the interior, the great number of gilded images of Buddha, seated in long rows upon raised terraces, whence they seemed to overlook the worshippers, increased the picturesque character of the building. Some of these statues were of enormous size, exceeding not only that Phidian Jupiter, represented in a sitting posture, which, had it risen, must have lifted up the roof of the temple, but even those prodigious statues of Osymandyas, on the plains of Upper Egypt, which look like petrifactions of Typhæus and Enceladus, the Titans who cast Pelion upon Ossa. One of these gigantic images, one hundred and twenty feet long, represents Buddha reclining in a meditative posture, and has set the fashion in Siam for the attitude in which wisdom may be most successfully wooed.
In sailing down the Meinam he was greatly amused with the extraordinary number of black and gray monkeys, which walked like pigmy armies along the shore, or perched themselves upon the tops of the loftiest trees, like crows. The glowworms, he observes, afforded another curious spectacle; for, setting upon trees, like a fiery cloud, the whole swarm would spread themselves over its branches, sometimes hiding their light all at once, and a moment after shining forth again with the utmost regularity and exactness, as if they were in a perpetual systole and diastole. The innumerable swarms of mosquitoes which inhabited the same banks were no less constant and active, though less agreeable companions, which, from the complaints of our traveller, appear to have taken a peculiar pleasure in stinging Dutchmen.
They left the mouth of the river on the 7th of July, and on the 11th of August discovered the mountains of Fokien in China. Continuing their course along the southern coast of this empire, they observed, about the twenty-seventh degree of north latitude, a yellowish-green substance floating on the surface of the sea, which appeared for two days. Exactly at the same time they were visited by a number of strange black birds, which perched on several parts of the ship, and suffered themselves to be taken by the hand. These visits, which were made during a dead calm, and when the weather was insufferably hot, was succeeded by tremendous storms, accompanied by thunder and lightning, and a darkness terrible as that of Egypt. The rain, which was now added to the other menaces of the heavens, and was hurled, mingled with brine and spray, over the howling waves, appeared to threaten a second deluge; and both Kæmpfer and the crew seem to have anticipated becoming a prey to the sharks. However, though storm after storm beat upon them in their course, the “audax genus Japeti” boldly pursued their way, and on the 24th of September cast anchor in the harbour of Nangasaki, in Japan, which is enclosed with lofty mountains, islands, and rocks, and thus guarded by nature against the rage of the sea and the fury of the tempest.
The appearance of this harbour, which on the arrival of Kæmpfer was enlivened by a small fleet of pleasure-boats, was singularly picturesque. In the evening all the vessels and boats put up their lights, which twinkled like so many stars, over the dark waves; and when the warm light of the morning appeared, the pleasure-boats, with their alternate black and white sails, standing out of the port, and gilded by the bright sunshine, constituted an agreeable spectacle. The next sight was equally striking. This consisted of a number of Japanese officers, with pencil and paper in hand, who came on board for the purpose of reviewing the newly-arrived foreigners, of whom, after narrowly scrutinizing every individual, they made an exact list and description of their persons, in the same manner as we describe thieves and suspicious characters in Europe. All their arms and ammunition, together with their boat and skiff, were demanded and delivered up. Their prayer-books and European money they concealed in a cask, which was carefully stowed away out of the reach of the Japanese.
Kæmpfer quitted the ship as soon as possible, and took up his residence at Desima, a small island adjoining Nangasaki, or only separated from it by an artificial channel. Here he forthwith commenced the study of the language, and the contrivance of the means of acquiring from a people bound by a solemn oath to impart nothing to foreigners such information respecting the country, its institutions, religion, and manners as might satisfy the curiosity of the rest of mankind respecting so singular a nation. The difficulties, he observes, with which he had to contend were great, but not altogether insuperable; and might be overcome by proper management, notwithstanding all the precautions which the Japanese government had taken to the contrary. The Japanese, a prudent and valiant nation, were not so easily to be bound by an oath taken to such gods or spirits as were not worshipped by many, and were unknown to most; or if they did comply, it was chiefly from fear of the punishment which would inevitably overtake them if betrayed. Besides, though proud and warlike, they were as curious and polite a nation as any in the world, naturally inclined to commerce and familiarity with foreigners, and desirous to excess of acquiring a knowledge of their histories, arts, and sciences. But the Dutch being merchants, a class of men which they ranked among the lowest of the human race, and viewed with jealousy and mistrust even for the very slavish and suspicious condition in which they were held, our traveller could discover no mode of insinuating himself into their friendship, and winning them over to his interest, but by evincing a readiness to comply with their desires, a liberality which subdued their avarice, and an humble and submissive manner which flattered their vanity.
By these means, as he ingenuously confesses, he contrived, like another Ulysses, to subdue the spells of religion and government; and having gained the friendship and good opinion of the interpreters and the officers who commanded in Desima, to a degree never before possessed by any European, the road to the knowledge he desired lay open and level before him. It would, indeed, have been no easy task to resist the methods he put in practice for effecting his purpose. He liberally imparted to them both medicine and medical advice, and whatever knowledge he possessed in astronomy and mathematics; he likewise furnished them with a liberal supply of European spirituous liquors; and these, joined with the force of captivating manners, were arguments irresistible. He was therefore permitted by degrees to put whatever questions he pleased to them respecting their government, civil and ecclesiastical, the political and natural history of the country, the manners and customs of the natives, or any other point upon which he required information; even in those matters on which the most inviolable secrecy was enjoined by their oaths. The materials thus collected, however, though highly important and serviceable, were far from being altogether satisfactory, or sufficient foundation whereon to erect a history of the country; which, therefore, he must have left unattempted had not his good genius presented him with other still more ample means of knowledge.
Upon his arrival in Desima young man of about four-and-twenty, prudent, sagacious, indefatigable, thoroughly acquainted with the languages of China and Japan, and ardently desirous of improving himself in knowledge, was appointed to attend upon him, in the double capacity of servant and pupil. This young man had the good fortune, while under the direction of Kæmpfer, to cure the governor of the island of some complaint under which he laboured; for which important service he was permitted, apparently contrary to rule, to remain in the service of our traveller during the whole of his stay in Japan, and even to accompany him on his two journeys to the capital. In order to derive all possible advantage from the friendship of his pupil, Kæmpfer taught him Dutch, as well as anatomy and surgery; and moreover allowed him a handsome salary. The Japanese was not ungrateful. He collected with the utmost assiduity from every accessible source such information as his master required; and there was not a book which Kæmpfer desired to consult that he did not contrive to procure for him, and explain whenever his explanation was necessary.
About the middle of February, 1691, the customary presents having been got ready, and the necessary preparations made, the Dutch embassy set out from Nangasaki for the court of the emperor, with Kæmpfer and his pupil in its train. Having got fairly out of the city they proceeded on their journey, passing through the small village of Mangome, wholly inhabited by leather-tanners, who perform the office of public executioners in Japan; and in about two hours passed a stone pillar marking the boundaries of the territory of Nangasaki. Here and there upon the wayside they beheld the statue of Zisos, the god of travellers, hewn out of the solid rock, with a lamp burning before it, and wreaths of flowers adorning its brows. At a little distance from the image of the god stood a basin full of water, in which such travellers performed their ablutions as designed to light the sacred lamps, or make any other offering in honour of the divinity.
Towards the afternoon of the first day’s journey they arrived at the harbour of Omura, on the shore of which they observed the smoke of a small volcano. Pearl oysters were found in this bay; and the sands upon the coast had once been strewn with gold, but the encroachment of the sea had inundated this El Doradian beach. Next morning they passed within sight of a prodigious camphor-tree, not less than thirty-six feet in circumference, standing upon the summit of a craggy and pointed hill; and soon afterward arrived at a village famous for its hot-baths. After passing through another village, they reached a celebrated porcelain manufactory, where the clay used was of a fat-coloured white, requiring much kneading, washing, and cleansing, before it could be employed in the formation of the finer and more transparent vessels. The vast labour required in this manufacture gave rise to the old saying, that porcelain was formed of human bones.
The country through which they now travelled was agreeably diversified with hill and dale, cultivated like a garden, and sprinkled with beautiful fields of rice, enclosed by rows of the tea-shrub, planted at a short distance from the road. On the next day they entered a plain country, watered by numerous rivers, and laid out in rice-fields like the former. In passing through this district they had for the first time an opportunity of observing the form and features of the women of the province of Fisen. Though already mothers, and attended by a numerous progeny, they were so diminutive in stature that they appeared to be so many girls, while the paint which covered their faces gave them the air of great babies or dolls. They were handsome, however, notwithstanding that, in their quality of married women, they had plucked out the hair of both eyebrows; and their behaviour was agreeable and genteel. At Sanga, the capital of the province, he remarked the same outrageous passion for painting the face in all the sex, though they were naturally the most beautiful women in Asia; and, as might be conjectured from the rosy colour of their lips, possessed a fine healthy complexion.
Upon quitting the province of Fisen, and entering that of Toussima, a mountainous and rugged country, they travelled in a rude species of palanquin called a cango, being nothing more than a small square basket, open on all sides, though covered at top, and carried upon a pole by two bearers. In ascending the mountain of Fiamitz they passed through a village, the inhabitants of which, they were told, were all the descendants of one man, who was then living. Whether this was true or not, Kæmpfer found them so handsome and well formed, and at the same time so polished and humane in their conversation and manners, that they seemed to be a race of noblemen. The scenery in this district resembled some of the woody and mountainous parts of Germany, consisting of a rapid succession of hills and valleys, covered with copses or woods; and though in some few places too barren to admit of cultivation, yet, where fertile, so highly valued, that even the tea-shrub was only allowed to occupy the space usually allotted to enclosures.
On the 17th of February they reached the city of Kokura, in the province of Busen. Though considerably fallen from its ancient opulence and splendour, Kokura was still a large city, fortified by towers and bastions, adorned with many curious gardens and public buildings, and inhabited by a numerous population. Here they moved through two long lines of people, who lined both sides of the way, and knelt in profound silence while they passed. They then embarked in barges; and, sailing across the narrow strait which divides the island of Kiersu from Nisson, landed at Simonoseki in the latter island, the name of which signified the prop of the sun. Next day being Sunday, they remained at Simonoseki; and Kæmpfer strolled out to view the city and its neighbourhood. He found it filled with shops of all kinds, among which were those of certain stonecutters, who, from a black and gray species of serpentine stone, dug from the quarries in the vicinity, manufactured inkstands, plates, boxes, and several other articles, with great neatness and ingenuity. He likewise visited a temple erected to the manes of a young prince who had prematurely perished. This he found hung, like their theatres, with black crape, while the pavement was partly covered with carpets inwrought with silver. The statue of the royal youth stood upon an altar; and the Japanese who accompanied our traveller bowed before it, while the attendant priest lit up a lamp, and pronounced a kind of funeral oration in honour of the illustrious dead. From the temple they were conducted into the adjoining monastery, where they found the prior, a thin, grave-looking old man, clothed in a robe of black crape, who sat upon the floor; and making a small present to the establishment, they departed.
Next morning, February 19th, they embarked for Osaki, preferring the voyage by water to a toilsome journey over a rude and mountainous region; and, after sailing through a sea thickly studded with small islands, the greater number of which were fertile and covered with population, arrived in five days at their point of destination. Osaki, one of the five imperial cities of Japan, was a place of considerable extent and great opulence. The streets were broad, and in the centre of the principal ones ran a canal, navigable for small unmasted vessels, which conveyed all kinds of merchandise to the doors of the merchants; while upwards of a hundred bridges, many of which were extremely beautiful, spanned these canals, and communicated a picturesque and lively air to the whole city. The sides of the river were lined with freestone, which descended in steps from the streets to the water, and enabled persons to land or embark wherever they pleased. The bridges thrown over the main stream were constructed with cedar, elegantly railed on both sides, and ornamented from space to space with little globes of brass. The population of the city was immense; and, like those of most seaport towns, remarkably addicted to luxury and voluptuousness.
From Osaki they proceeded through a plain country, planted with rice, and adorned with plantations of Tsadanil trees, to Miako, the ancient capital of Japan. It being the first day of the month, which the Japanese keep as a holyday, they met great multitudes of people walking out of the city, as the Londoners do on Sunday, to enjoy the sweets of cessation from labour,
With pleasaunce of the breathing fields yfed,
to visit the temples, and give themselves up to all kinds of rural diversions. Nothing could be more grotesque than the appearance of these crowds. The women were richly dressed in various-coloured robes, with a purple-coloured silk about their foreheads, and wearing large straw hats, to defend their beauty from the sun. Here and there among the multitude were small groups of beggars, some dressed in fantastic garbs, with strange masks upon their faces, others walking upon high iron stilts, while a third party walked along bearing large pots with green trees upon their heads. The more merry among them sung, whistled, played upon the flute, or beat little bells which they carried in their hands. In the streets were numbers of open shops, jugglers, and players, who were exercising their skill and ingenuity for the amusement of the crowd. The temples, which were erected on the slope of the neighbouring green hills, were illuminated with numerous lamps, and the priests, no less merry or active than their neighbours, employed themselves in striking with iron hammers upon some bells or gongs, which sent forth a thundering sound over the country. Through this enlivening scene they pushed on to their inn, where they were ushered into apartments, which, being like all other apartments in the empire, destitute of chimneys, resembled those Westphalian smoking-rooms in which they smoke their beef and hams.
Having visited the governor, and the lord chief justice of Miako, and delivered the customary presents, the embassy proceeded towards Jeddo. Short, however, as was their stay, Kæmpfer found leisure for observing and describing the city, which was extensive, well-built, and immensely populous. Being the chief mercantile and manufacturing town in the empire, almost every house was a shop, and every man an artisan. Here, he observes, they refined copper, coined money, printed books, wove the richest stuffs, flowered with gold and silver, manufactured musical instruments, the best-tempered sword-blades, pictures, jewels, toys, and every species of dress and ornaments.
They departed from Miako in palanquins on the 2d of March, and travelling through a picturesque country, dotted with groves, glittering with temples and lakes, and admirably cultivated, arrived in three days at the town of Mijah, where they saw a very curious edifice, called the “Temple of the Three Scimitars,” where three miraculous swords, once wielded by demigods, are honoured with a kind of divine worship. On the 13th of March they arrived, by a fine road running along the edge of the sea, at Jeddo, and entered the principal street, where they encountered as they rode along numerous trains of princes and great lords, with ladies magnificently dressed, and carried in chairs or palanquins. This city, the largest and most populous in the empire, stands at the bottom of a large bay or gulf, and is at least twenty miles in circumference. Though fortified by numerous ditches and ramparts, Jeddo is not surrounded by a wall. A noble river, which divides itself into numerous branches, intersects it in various directions, and thus creates a number of islands which are connected by magnificent bridges. From the principal of these bridges, which is called Niponbas, or the Bridge of Japan, the great roads leading to all parts of the empire radiate as lines from a common centre, and thence likewise all roads and distances are measured. Though houses are not kept ready built, as at Moscow, to be removed at a moment’s notice in case of destruction by fire or any other accident, they are generally so slight, consisting entirely of wood and wainscotting, that they may be erected with extraordinary despatch. Owing to the combustible materials of those edifices, the very roofs consisting of mere wood-shavings, while all the floors are covered with mats, Jeddo is exceedingly liable to fires, which sometimes lay waste whole streets and quarters of the city. To check these conflagrations in their beginnings every house has a small wooden cistern of water on the house-top, with two mops for sprinkling the water; but these precautions being frequently found inefficient, large companies of firemen constantly patrol the streets, day and night, in order, by pulling down some of the neighbouring houses, to put a stop to the fires. The imperial palace, five Japanese miles in circumference, consists of several castles united together by a wall, and surrounded by a deep ditch. The various structures which compose this vast residence are built with freestone, and from amid the wilderness of roofs a square white tower rises aloft, and, consisting of many stories, each of which has its leaded roof, ornamented at each corner with gilded dragons, communicates to the whole scene an air of singular grandeur and beauty. Behind the palace, which itself stands upon an acclivity, the ground continues to rise, and this whole slope is adorned, according to the taste of the country, with curious and magnificent gardens, which are terminated by a pleasant wood on the top of a hill, planted with two different species of plane-trees, whose starry leaves, variegated with green, yellow, and red, are exceedingly beautiful.
When their arrival at Jeddo was notified to the imperial commissioners, to whom was intrusted the regulation of foreign affairs, they were commanded to be kept confined in their apartments, and strictly guarded. This, in all probability, was to prevent their discovering the tremendous accident which had lately occurred in the city, where forty streets, consisting of four thousand houses, had been burned to the ground a few days before their arrival. Several other fires, exceedingly destructive and terrific, and an earthquake which shook the whole city to its foundations, happened within a few days after their arrival. On the 29th of March they were honoured with an audience. Passing through the numerous gates and avenues to the palace between lines of soldiers, armed with scimitars, and clothed in black silk, they were conducted into an apartment adjoining the hall of audience, where they were commanded to await the emperor’s pleasure. As nothing could more forcibly paint the insolent pride of this barbarian despot, or the degraded position which, for the sake of gain, the Dutch were content to occupy in Japan, I shall describe this humiliating ceremony in the words of the traveller himself. “Having waited upwards of an hour,” says he, “and the emperor having in the mean while seated himself in the hall of audience, Sino Comi (the governor of Nangasaki) and the two commissioners came in and conducted our resident into the emperor’s presence, leaving us behind. As soon as he came thither, they cried out aloud ‘Hollanda Captain!’ which was the signal for him to draw near, and make his obeisance. Accordingly he crawled on his hands and knees to a place shown him, between the presents ranged in due order on one side, and the place where the emperor sat, on the other, and then kneeling, he bowed his forehead quite down to the ground, and so crawled backwards, like a crab, without uttering one single word. So mean and short a thing is the audience we have of this mighty monarch.”
After a second audience, to which they were invited chiefly for the purpose of allowing the ladies of the harem, who viewed them from behind screens, an opportunity of seeing what kind of animals Dutchmen were, and having despatched the public business, which was the sole object of the embassy, they returned to Nangasaki. During this second visit to Jeddo, in the following year, nothing very remarkable occurred, except that they were invited to dine in the palace, and thus afforded an opportunity of observing the etiquette of a Japanese feast. Each guest was placed at a small separate table, and the repast commenced with hot white cakes as tough as glue, and two hollow loaves of large dimension, composed of flour and sugar, and sprinkled over with the seeds of the sesamum album. Then followed a small quantity of pickled salmon; and the magnificent entertainment was concluded with a few cups of tea, which Kæmpfer assures us was little better than warm water! When they had devoured this sumptuous feast, they were conducted towards the hall of audience, where, after having been questioned respecting their names and age by several Buddhist priests and others, Kæmpfer was commanded to sing a song, for the amusement of the emperor and his ladies, who were all present, but concealed behind screens. He of course obeyed, and sung some verses which he had formerly written in praise of a lady for whom he says he had a very particular esteem. As he extolled the beauty of this paragon to the highest degree, preferring it before millions of money, the emperor, who appears to have partly understood what he sung, inquired the exact meaning of those words; upon which, like a true courtier, our traveller replied that they signified nothing but his sincere wishes that Heaven might bestow “millions of portions of health, fortune, and prosperity upon the emperor, his family, and court.” The various members of the embassy were then commanded, as they had been on the former audience, to throw off their cloaks, to walk about the room, and to exhibit in pantomime in what manner they paid compliments, took leave of their parents, mistresses, or friends, quarrelled, scolded, and were reconciled again. Another repast, somewhat more ample than the preceding, followed this farce, and their audience was concluded.
Having now remained in Asia ten years, two of which were spent in Japan, the desire of revisiting his native land was awakened in his mind, and quitting Japan in the month of November, 1692, he sailed for Batavia. Here, in February, 1693, he embarked for Europe. The voyage lasted a whole year, during which they were constantly out at sea, with the exception of a few weeks, which they spent upon the solitudes of an African promontory, for so he denominates the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived at Amsterdam in the October following; and now, after having, as M. Eriès observes, pushed his researches almost beyond the limits of the old world, began to think of taking his doctor’s degree, a measure which most physicians are careful to expedite before they commence their peregrinations. He was honoured with the desired title at Leyden, in April, 1694, and custom requiring an inaugural discourse, he selected for the purpose ten of the most singular of those dissertations which he afterward published in his “Amœnitates.”
This affair, which is still, I believe, considered important in Germany, being concluded, he returned to his own country, where his reputation and agreeable manners, together with the honour of being appointed physician to his sovereign, the Count de Lippe, overwhelmed him with so extreme a practice that he could command no leisure for digesting and arranging the literary materials, the only riches, as he observes, which he had amassed during his travels. However, busy as he was, he found opportunities of conciliating the favour of some fair Westphalian, who, he hoped, might deliver him from a portion of his cares. In this natural expectation he was disappointed. The lady, far from concurring with her lord in smoothing the rugged path of human life, was a second Xantippe, and, as one of Kæmpfer’s nephews relates, poured more fearful storms upon his head than those which he had endured on the ocean. His marriage, in fact, was altogether unfortunate; for his three children, who might, perhaps, have made some amends for their mother’s harshness, died in the cradle.
It was upwards of eighteen years after his return that he published the first fruits of his travels and researches—the “Amœnitates Exoticæ;” which, however, immediately diffused his reputation over the whole of Europe. But his health had already begun to decline, and before he could prepare for the press any further specimens of his capacity and learning, death stepped in, and snatched him away from the enjoyment of his fame and friends, on the 2d of November, 1716, in the 66th year of his age. He was interred in the cathedral church of St. Nicholas, at Lemgow; and Berthold Haeck, minister of the town, pronounced a funeral sermon, or panegyric, over his grave, which was afterward printed.
Upon the death of Kæmpfer being made known in England, Sir Hans Sloane, whose ardour for the improvement of science is well known, commissioned the German physician of George I., who happened to be at that time proceeding to Hanover, to make inquiries respecting our traveller’s manuscripts, and to purchase them, if they were to be disposed of. They were accordingly purchased, together with all his drawings; and on their being brought to England, Dr. Scheuchzer, a man of considerable ability, was employed to translate the principal work, the “History of Japan,” into English. From this version, which has since been proved to have been executed with care and fidelity, it was translated into French by Desmaigeneux, and retranslated into German in an imperfect and slovenly manner. However, after the lapse of many years, the original MS was faithfully copied, and the work, hitherto known to our traveller’s own countrymen chiefly through foreign translations, published in Germany. Many of Kæmpfer’s manuscripts still remain unpublished in the British Museum.
Kæmpfer may very justly be ranked among the most distinguished of modern travellers. To the most extensive learning he united an enterprising character, singular rectitude of judgment, great warmth of fancy, and a style of remarkable purity and elegance. His “Amœnitates” and “History of Japan” may, in fact, be reckoned among the most valuable and interesting works which have ever been written on the manners, customs, or natural history of the East.