[114] A shuet of silver weighs about five ounces, so that the reward offered was from $2,000 to $2,500.
[115] A narrative of this transaction was published at Rome in 1643. A short but curious document, purporting to be a translation of a Japanese imperial edict, commanding the destruction of all Portuguese vessels attempting to approach the coasts of Japan, is given in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. Ships of other nations were to be sent under a strong guard to Nagasaki. [See Appendix, Note 1.]
[116] This curious piece may be found in French, in the “Voyages des Indes,” tom. v.
[117] Haganaar’s travels may be found in “Voyages des Indes,” tom. v., and a narrative of Nuyts’ affair in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv.
[118] According to Titsingh, they amounted in his time (1780) to eighty thousand in number. Apparently they are the Dōshin, or imperial soldiers, of whom we shall have occasion hereafter to speak.
[119] This quantity of rice would suffice for the support of twelve million persons or more. The cultivators of the imperial domains retained, according to Kämpfer, six-tenths of the produce, and those who cultivated the lands of inferior lords four-tenths. Hence it may be conjectured that the estimate of twenty-five millions of people for Japan is not excessive.
[120] These lists were doubtless copied from the Yedo Kagami (Mirror of Yedo), a kind of Blue Book, still published twice a year, and containing similar lists. See “Annals des Empereurs du Japon” (Titsingh and Klaproth), p. 37, note.
[See paper on Japanese feudalism, in vol. xv of the “Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.”—Edr.]
[121] There are two versions of Caron’s account of Japan, materially different from each other; one with the original questions, as furnished by Caron himself to Thevenot, the other in the form of a continuous narrative, with large additions by Haganaar. The first may be found in Thevenot’s “Voyages Curieuse,” also in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. The other in “Voyages des Indes,” tom. v, and an English translation of it in Pinkerton’s collection, vol. vii.
[122] A curious contemporary narrative of this affair is given, among other tracts relating to Japan, in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. It is not unlikely that the military operations of the Dutch in the neighboring island of Formosa, and their strong fort of Zelandia, recently erected there, might have aroused the suspicions of the Japanese.