[123] There is an account of the voyage of the “Castricoom” in Thevenot’s collection. It is also contained in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iii. Charlevoix gives a full and interesting abstract of the adventures of Captain Schaëp and his companions, derived from two different French versions of a Dutch original; but I know not where either the versions or the original can be found.
[124] The journals of these embassies of Waganaar, Frisius, and others, generally pretty dry documents, with extracts from Caron, furnished the basis for the “Memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors of Japan,” a splendid folio, with more than a hundred copper plates, published at Amsterdam in 1669, purporting to be compiled by Arnold Montanus, of which an English translation, made by Ogilvy, with the same cuts, appeared the next year at London, under the title of Atlas Japonensis, and a French translation, with some additions and alterations, ten years later at Amsterdam.
The materials are thrown together in the most careless and disorderly manner, and are eked out by drawing largely upon the letters of the Jesuit missionaries. The cuts, whence most of the current prints representing Japanese objects are derived, are destitute of any authenticity. Those representing Japanese idols and temples evidently were based on the descriptions of Froez, whose accounts do not seem quite to agree in all respects with the observations of more recent travellers.
The dedication of Ogilvy’s translation outdoes anything Japanese in the way of prostration, nor can the language of it hardly be called English. It is as follows: “To the supreme, most high and mighty prince, Charles II., by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c. These strange and novel relations concerning the ancient and present state of the so populous and wealthy empire of Japan, being a book of wonders, dedicated with all humility, lies prostrate at the sacred feet of your most serene majesty, by the humblest of your servants, and most loyal subject, John Ogilvy.”
[125] This letter, with the instructions and a memoir of Caron’s on the subject, may be found in “Voyages au Nord,” tom. iv. Caron, who spent several years in the French service in the East Indies, perished by shipwreck, near Lisbon, on his return to France in 1674. He was president of the Dutch factory at the time of its removal to Deshima; and Kämpfer undertakes to represent his mismanagement as in some degree the cause of that removal. This story was doubtless current at Deshima in Kämpfer’s time, but probably it grew out of disgust of the Dutch at Caron’s having passed into the French service.
[126] A curious narrative of this visit is printed in Pinkerton’s great collection, vol. vii.
[See also “Diary of Richard Cocks.”—K. M.]
[127] For a further account of Fitch and his travels, see Appendix, Note E.
[128] The China trade was shared at this time between the Portuguese of Macao and the Spaniards of the Philippines. On the Spanish trade, and the profits of it, some light is thrown by extracts from letters found on board Spanish prizes taken by the English, which Hackluyt translated and published in his fourth volume. Thus Hieronymo de Nabores writes from Panama (August 24, 1590), where he was waiting for the ship for the Philippines: “My meaning is to carry my commodities thither, for it is constantly reported that for every one hundred ducats a man shall get six hundred ducats clearly.” This, however, was only the talk at Panama; but Sebastian Biscanio had made the voyage, and he writes to his father from Acapulco (June 20, 1590): “In this harbor here are four great ships of Mexico, of six hundred or eight hundred tons apiece, which only serve to carry our commodities to China, and so to return back again. The order is thus. From hence to China is about two thousand leagues further than from hence to Spain; and from hence the two first ships depart together to China, and are thirteen or fourteen months returning back again. And when these ships are returned, then the other twain, two months after, depart from hence. They go now from hence very strong with soldiers. I can certify you of one thing: that two hundred ducats in Spanish commodities, and some Flemish woods which I carried with me thither, I made worth fourteen hundred ducats there in that country. So I make account that with those silks and other commodities with me from thence to Mexico, I got twenty-five hundred ducats by the voyage; and had gotten more, if one pack of fine silks had not been spoiled with salt water. So, as I said, there is great gain to be gotten, if that a man return in safety. But the year 1588, I had great mischance coming in a ship from China to New Spain; which, being laden with rich commodities, was taken by an Englishman [this was Cavendish, then on his voyage round the world], which robbed us and afterwards burnt our ship, wherein I lost a great deal of treasure and commodities.”
[129] The tael, reckoning the picul at one hundred and thirty-three and one-third pounds avoirdupois, contains five hundred and eighty-three grains troy. Our dollar weighs four hundred and twelve and a half grains; and supposing the Japanese silver to be of equal fineness, the tael is worth just about one dollar and forty cents. Kämpfer reckons it as equivalent to three and a half florins, which is precisely one dollar and forty cents, taking the florin at the usual valuation of forty cents. This, however, was rather above the valuation of the Dutch East India Company. There were, it seems, two kinds of Japanese silver, known among the Dutch as heavy and light money, the latter sometimes distinguished as bar-silver. Both kinds were carried to account without distinction down to the year 1635, at the rate of sixty-two and a half silvers, or one dollar and twenty-five cents per tael. After that period the bar-silver was reckoned at fifty-seven stivers, or one dollar and fourteen cents per tael. Reckoning the tael, as the Dutch commonly did, at one dollar and twenty-five cents of our money, and the mas is precisely equivalent to the Spanish eighth of a dollar. This statement is derived from a Dutch memoir by Imhoff, quoted by Raffles (“History of Java,” Appendix B), and found by him, it would seem, among the Dutch records at Batavia. Of the chests of silver and gold, particularly the former, so often mentioned in the old accounts of the Dutch and Portuguese trade, I have met with no description, except in Montanus’ “Memorable Embassies.” Unreliable and worthless as that huge volume generally is, its compilers certainly had access to valuable Dutch papers, and it is apparently from that source that they have drawn what they say of the moneys, weights, and measures of Japan. Of the chests of silver and gold they speak as follows: “Moreover, their paying of money is very strange; for the Japanese, having great store of gold and silver, observe a custom to receive their money without telling or seeing it. The mint-master puts the gold in papers, which contain the value of two hundred pounds sterling; these, sealed up, pass from one to another without being questioned. They also use little wooden boxes, in which they put twenty sealed papers of gold, which is as much as a man can handsomely carry; every box amounts to four thousand pounds sterling; and the like boxes, but of another fashion, they use for their silver, in every one of which is twelve hundred crowns, and is sealed with the coiner’s seal. But doth it not seem strange that never any deceit is found in that blind way of paying money?” “The silver, though weighed and coined, is of no certain value. The coiners put it together into little packs worth sixty crowns,”—I suppose taels. Caron says, however, that these packages contained fifty taels.