The goods sent out by the Company at the time of Thunberg’s visit were sugars (almost the only article of consumption which the Japanese do not produce for themselves), elephants’ teeth, sappan-wood for dyeing, tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts, Dutch broadcloths, shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China-root, and Costus Arabicus. The goods of private adventurers were saffron, Venice treacle, Spanish liquorice, rattans, spectacles, looking-glasses, watches, Ninjin-root or ginseng, and unicorns’ horns. This latter article, the horn of the Monodon monoceros, a product of the Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japanese ascribed to it wonderful virtues as a medicine, believing it to have the power to prolong life, strengthen the animal spirits, assist the memory, and cure all sorts of complaints. Thunberg had carried out as his venture thirty-seven katties (about fifty pounds) of this horn, which sold for five thousand and seventy-one taels, or upwards of six thousand dollars; so that, after paying the advances made to him at Batavia, he had a handsome surplus to expend in his favorite pursuit of natural history.
The genuine Chinese ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) sold at a price full as high as that of unicorn’s horn. The American article, being regarded as not genuine, was strictly prohibited, but was smuggled in to mix with the Chinese.[39]
Scientific works in the Dutch language, though not a regular article of sale, might be often exchanged to advantage with the interpreters.
The Company imported a quantity of silver coin, but private persons were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made on it. The sale by kamban continued exactly as Kämpfer had described it. No Japanese money came into the hands either of the Company or of individuals from the sale of their goods by kamban. They only acquired a credit, which they were able to exchange for Japanese articles.
The chief articles of export were copper, camphor, and lackered goods; porcelain, rice, sake, soy,[40] were also exported. The profits of this trade had been greatly curtailed. “Formerly,” says Thunberg, “it was so very profitable to individuals that hardly anybody but favorites were sent out as chiefs, and when these had made two voyages, it was supposed that they were rich enough to be able to live on the interest of their fortunes, and that, therefore, they ought to make room for others. At present a chief is obliged to make many voyages. His success is now no more to be envied, and his profits are thought to be very inconsiderable.”
Of the general enjoyment of a residence at Deshima Thunberg does not speak very highly. “An European that remains here is, in a manner, dead and buried in an obscure corner of the globe. He hears no news of any kind; nothing relative to war or other misfortunes and evils that plague and infest mankind; and neither the rumors of inland or foreign concerns delight or molest his ear. The soul possesses here one faculty only, which is the judgment (if, indeed, it be at all times in possession of that). The will is totally debilitated, and even dead, because, to an European there is no other will than that of the Japanese, by which he must exactly square his conduct.
“The European way of living is, in other respects, the same as in other parts of India, luxurious and irregular. Hence, just as at Batavia, we pay a visit every evening to the chief, after having walked several times up and down the two streets. These evening visits generally last from six o’clock till ten, and sometimes eleven or twelve at night, and constitute a very disagreeable way of life, fit only for such as have no other way of spending their time than droning over a pipe of tobacco and a bottle.”
The Europeans remaining at Deshima had each two or three handsome rooms, besides the store-rooms in the lower story. These they occupied without rent, the only expense being that of furnishing them. As the winter set in, the cold, with an easterly or northerly wind, was quite piercing, and they had fires of charcoal in a large copper kettle with a broad rim. Placed in the middle of the room it warmed the whole apartment for hours together. The looseness of the doors and windows prevented any ill consequences from the gases. As the residents all dined and supped at a common table, kept at the Company’s expense, their outlays did not amount to much—“except,” says Thunberg, “they squander away their money on the fair sex, or make expensive entertainments and give suppers to each other.”
The account which Thunberg gives of the Japanese mistresses of the Dutch is very much the same with that given by Kämpfer. These women, when spoken for to an officer appointed for that purpose, come attended by a little serving-maid,—one of the young apprentices of the houses to which they belonged,—who brought daily from the town her mistress’ food, made her tea, kept her things in order, and ran on errands. One of these female companions could not be had for less than three days, but might be kept a year, or even several years. The price was eight mas, or one dollar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk dresses, girdles, head-ornaments, etc. According to Thunberg, children were very seldom born of these connections. He was assured, but did not credit it, that if such a thing happened, the child, if a boy, would be murdered; and that, if a girl, it would be sent at fifteen to Batavia; but of this he knew of no instance. There was, in his time, one girl about six years old, born of a Japanese mother, living on the island with her father. Later accounts go to show that Dutch-Japanese children are by no means such rarities as Thunberg represents.[41]
The women painted their lips with colors, made of the Catharinus tinctorius, or bastard saffron, rubbed on little porcelain bowls. If laid on very thin, the lips appeared red; if thick, it gave them a violet hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. The married women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a fœtid mixture, so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was laid on. It ate so deeply into the teeth that it took several days and much trouble to scrape it away. “To me at least,” says Thunberg, “a wide mouth with black shining teeth had an ugly and disagreeable appearance.” The married women distinguished themselves also by pulling out their eyebrows; and another distinction was that they knotted their girdles before, and the single women behind.