“The inspectors of our kuri[144], or workmen, consist of fifteen persons. One of the fifteen is quartermaster, who must be present in person to encourage and look after them when there is any work to be done. The whole company is to take care that we be not robbed by these kulis, they being very dexterous at it, whenever a favorable opportunity occurs. For this reason our East India Company allows them a constant salary.
“The kulis, who are employed in lading and unlading of our ships, are people unknown to us, and taken out of the town. All we know of them is, that we must pay them well for their trouble. In order to make it beneficial to the whole town, the Otona of each street keeps a list of what people in his street are willing or able to serve as kulis, that in their turn they may be sent over to Deshima.
“The treasury officers are a company of thirty-six persons, superior and inferior, who receive the money for the goods we have disposed of, change it into kobans of gold, and deliver them to our interpreters, who count them before us. These treasurers retain one per cent, for their trouble, and fifteen per cent or more for the benefit of the town, according to the yearly value of the koban, which varies from fifty-five to fifty-nine mas in silver, besides which, the director of this Company receives a hundred taels a year salary from the Dutch, and the rest of the number fifty taels.
“Our commissioners for victualling are a company of about seventeen house-keepers of Nagasaki with their families. Their business is to provide our island with victuals, drink, household goods, and what else we want, or have leave to buy, of this kind. Nobody but the members of this corporation is permitted to sell us any victuals or goods, though they exact so much upon us that they make us pay at least twice or thrice as much as things are sold for at the market. They also furnish our people, on demand, with courtesans; and, truly, our young sailors, unacquainted as they commonly are with the virtue of temperance, are not ashamed to spend five rix dollars for one night’s pleasure, and with such wenches, too, as a native of Nagasaki might have for two or three mas, they being none of the best and handsomest; nor do the masters of the women get more than a tael. The rest is laid up in the cash of this Company for their own private use, or, as they pretend, to hire proper servants to conduct the damsels over to our island.
“The officers of the kitchen consist of three cooks, who serve by turns, each a month, of two grooms of the kitchen, an apprentice or two, who are generally the cook’s own sons, likely to succeed their fathers in time, lastly of some laborers to carry water. This is the reason that our table is so very expensive, since the best part of the year, the time of our sale only excepted, there are actually more cooks than people to provide victuals for. And yet we have strict commands from the governors of the town, not in the least to alter this number, nor to get our victuals dressed by our own people. We are obliged to allow one hundred and fifty taels a year to the first, one hundred and thirty to the second, and one hundred to the third. There are, besides, some other people who now and then do some little service in and for our kitchen, such as a man to look after our cattle,—though but very few in number, and of very little use to us, the males being generally secretly poisoned, or their legs broken in the night, to prevent their multiplying too much, which, ’tis apprehended would turn to the disadvantage of the commissioners of victualling,—a gardener and some other menial servants. This being looked upon by the meaner sort of people at Nagasaki as a perquisite, which every one is glad to have a share of in his turn, these servants are relieved once a month, and others sent in their stead, to do their business, out of every street of Nagasaki. But the chief reason why they relieve them so often is because they apprehend a longer stay might make them too familiar with us, and perhaps too favorable for our interest.
“The Dutch, out of a particular favor, are permitted to have some young boys to wait upon them in the daytime. They are entered in the Otona’s book in quality of messengers. They are commonly sons of the inferior interpreters and other officers of our island, who, by this opportunity of learning the Dutch language, qualify themselves in time to succeed their fathers. However, care is taken that they stay in our service only so long as they are looked upon as simple, and ignorant of the state and interest of their country, or else so long as the Otona pleases to give them leave; but never without sufficient security, given upon oath, by a respectable inhabitant of Nagasaki, who obliges himself to be answerable for their misbehavior. Thus much must be owned in justice to these young boys, that more readiness to do what they are commanded, and a greater fidelity in the custody of the goods they are entrusted with by their masters, is hardly to be met with in any other nation.
“Some tradesmen and artificers of several companies in Nagasaki, are also permitted to come over to our island, when sent for, provided they have leave of the governors, which must be obtained every time they are wanted.
“The guards employed to watch us are two within the island, and three without. Six of the poorer inhabitants of Nagasaki, furnished by turns from all the streets, and relieved once a month, have their appropriate stations within the island, whence they go over to one another all night, and indicate, according to the custom of the country, both their vigilance and the hours, by beating two wooden cylinders, one against the other. They are also to watch thieves, accidents of fire, and the like.
“During the sale, another guard, on purpose to watch accidents of fire, is kept by our Otona, his clerks, our landlords, the officers of our exchequer, and the cooks. In their first round they knock at every door, to ask whether there be no Japanese hid within, and to recommend to the occupants to take care of the fire. The Otona must be present at least once in the night, when, according to the custom of the country, his fire-staff, hung about with iron rings, as the badge of his authority, is carried rattling after him. The Dutch also keep, at the same time, a watch of their own people, to take care that their masters be not robbed by their Japanese guards.
