In the spring of 1806, Deoff made his first journey to Yedo. In the arrangements of the journey and the audience, there seems to have been no change since the time of Thunberg. While he was at Yedo a tremendous fire broke out. It began, at a distance from his lodgings, at ten in the morning. At one the Dutch took the alarm, and began to pack. At three they fled. “On issuing into the street,” says Doeff, “we saw everything in flames. There was great danger in endeavoring to escape before the wind, in the same direction taken by the fire. We, therefore, took a slanting direction, through a street already burning, and thus succeeded in reaching an open field. It was studded with the standards of princes whose dwellings had been destroyed, and whose wives and children had fled thither for refuge. We followed their example, and marked out a spot with our Dutch flags. We had now a full view of the fire, and never did I see anything so terrific. The terrors of this ocean of flame were enhanced by the heart-rending cries of the fugitive women and children.” The fire raged till noon the next day, when it was extinguished by a fall of rain.[84] The Dutch learned from their host, that, within five minutes after they left, the fire took his house, and destroyed everything—as an indemnity for which, the Dutch East India Company allowed him annually for three years from twelve to fourteen hundred-weight of sugar. The palaces of thirty-seven princes had been destroyed. The weight of fugitives broke down the famous Nihonbashi, or bridge of Japan, so that, besides those burned to death, many were drowned, including a daughter of the prince of Awa. Twelve hundred lives were said to have been lost.
On this occasion the Dutch were greatly aided by a wealthy Japanese merchant, who sent forty men to assist them in removing. He lost his shop, or store, and a warehouse, containing a hundred thousand pounds of spun silk, yet the day after the fire was engaged in rebuilding his premises.
The Dutch, burnt out of their inn, were lodged at first in the house of the governor of Nagasaki; but, four days after, procured a new inn. This was in a more public place than the old obscure lodging. The appearance of the Dutch on the balcony attracted crowds of curious spectators, and soon drew out an order, from the governor of Yedo, that they should keep within doors. But Doeff refused to obey this order, on the ground that, during their entire embassy, the Dutch were under the authority only of the governor of Nagasaki; and in this position he was sustained by that personage.
After the audience the Dutch received many visits, particularly from physicians and astronomers. On the subject of astronomy Doeff was more puzzled than even Thunberg had been, for, since Thunberg’s time, the Japanese would seem to have made considerable advances in that science. They had a translation of La Lande’s astronomy, and the chief astronomer, Takaro Sampei (?) (to whom Doeff, at his special request for a name, gave that of Globius, and who proved, on subsequent occasions, a good friend of the Dutch), could calculate eclipses with much precision. To a grandson of one of Thunberg’s medical friends, who was also a physician, Doeff gave the name of Johannis Botanicus. The honor of a Dutch name, exceedingly coveted by the Japanese, was solicited even by the prince of Satsuma and his secretary. Being attacked with colic on his return from Yedo, Doeff submitted to the Japanese remedy of acupuncture; but he does not give any high idea of its efficacy.
Two accounts current of the trade of Japan for the years 1804 and 1806, published by Raffles, will serve to show its condition at this time. The articles sent to Japan were sugar, spices, woollens, cottons, tin, lead, quicksilver, sapan-wood, saffron, liquorice, elephant’s-teeth, catechu, and ducatoons, sugar forming about half the cargo in value. The prime cost at Batavia was, in 1804, 211,896, in 1806, 161,008 rix dollars, to which were to be added freight and charges at Batavia, amounting in 1804 to 150,000, in 1806 to 106,244 rix dollars, making the whole cost in 1804, 361,807, in 1806, 266,252 rix dollars. The sales at Deshima amounted in 1804 to 160,378, in 1806 to 108,797 rix dollars; but this included, in 1804, 3,333 rix dollars from old goods, and, in 1806, 5,428 rix dollars borrowed of the Japanese to complete the cargo. From these amounts were to be deducted the expenses of the establishment at Deshima, and loss in weight on the sugar, viz., in 1804, 67,952,[85] and in 1806, 39,625 rix dollars, leaving to be employed in the purchase of copper and camphor, in 1804, 92,426, in 1806, 69,172 rix dollars, to which were added 13,125 rix dollars from the sale of old goods. The copper brought back by the ship of 1804 having been coined at Batavia, the entire profit of the voyage amounted to 507,147 rix dollars, but the larger part of this profit belonged, in fact, to the mint, the copper being coined at a rate above its intrinsic value. In 1808, the copper being sold, the balance in favor of the voyage was but 175,505 rix dollars, deducting the amount borrowed in Japan. It was only the low rate at which copper was furnished by the Japanese government that enabled these voyages to pay.
The Processes of Weighing and Pounding Rice
In 1807, the “Eclipse,” of Boston, chartered at Canton by the Russian American Company, for Kamtchatka and the northwest coast of America, entered the bay of Nagasaki under Russian colors,[86] and was towed to the anchorage by an immense number of boats. A Dutchman came on board, and advised them to haul down their colors, as the Japanese were much displeased with Russia. The Japanese declined to trade, and asked what the ship wanted. Being told water and fresh provisions, they sent on board a plentiful supply of fish, hogs, vegetables, and tubs of water, for which they would take no pay. Finding that no trade was to be had, on the third day the captain lifted his anchors, and was towed to sea by near a hundred boats.
In October, 1808, about the time that the annual Dutch vessel was expected, a ship appeared off Nagasaki, under Dutch colors, and, without any suspicion, two Dutchmen of the factory, followed by the usual Japanese officers in another boat, proceeded to board her. The Dutchmen were met by a boat from the vessel, and were requested in Dutch to come into it. Upon their proposal to wait for the Japanese boat, the strangers boarded them with drawn cutlasses, and forced them on board the ship, which proved to be the English frigate “Phaeton,” Captain Pellew. The Japanese rowed back with the news of what had happened, by which Nagasaki and all its officers were thrown into a state of the greatest agitation.