Besides the other means, already pointed out, of measuring time, he saw in use there Chinese clepsydras, or water-clocks; but the method most relied upon for scientific purposes was a clock of which the idea was derived from one introduced into China by the Jesuit Ricci, and brought thence to Japan. This clock is worked by two balances, one to act by day and the other by night. The arm of each balance is notched, to accord with the variations in the length of the hours. At the summer solstice the weights are hung respectively upon the outermost notch of the day-balance, and upon the innermost notch of the night-balance. At intervals of six days, four hours and twelve minutes, both weights are moved; that of the day-balance a notch inward, that of the night-balance a notch outward, until at the winter solstice their original positions are reversed.
After Siebold’s return to Nagasaki, he continued diligently to follow out his object, keeping up, through means of the interpreters, a correspondence with his Yedo friends. In the course of five years he had not only made large collections for the government of specimens in natural history, but also, on his own account, of Japanese books and other curiosities, besides acquiring a considerable knowledge of the language. His collections in natural history had been shipped to Batavia; he was preparing himself to follow, when an unlucky disclosure took place. The imperial astronomer, notwithstanding the law to the contrary, had secretly sent him a copy of a new map of Japan, lately constructed on European principles. One of the draftsmen employed in making it having quarrelled with the astronomer, informed against him, in consequence of which the astronomer, his servants, the interpreters, several of Siebold’s pupils, and other Japanese suspected of being concerned in this affair, were arrested and subjected to a strict examination. Siebold himself was called upon to give up the map; and, when he hesitated about it, underwent a domiciliary visit, followed by an order to consider himself under arrest, and prohibition to leave Japan until the investigation was terminated. Finding thus not only the fruits of his own labor, but the lives of his Japanese friends in danger, he made a full confession as to the map, endeavoring thus to remove suspicions and to preserve some other documents in his possession, of which the Japanese yet had no knowledge, and which might have compromised other persons not yet suspected. Studiously concealing the connection of the Dutch government with his mission, he thought it best to represent himself as simply a private inquirer, whose researches into natural history and the physical sciences might be no less useful to the Japanese than they were interesting to himself. Of the particulars of this affair no account has ever been published. It is said that some of his Japanese friends found it necessary to cut themselves open, but Siebold himself was speedily released, with his entire collections, which he brought with him to Holland, and by means of which he converted his residence at Leyden into a very curious Japanese museum.
The fruits of his researches, so far as zoölogy is concerned, and of those of Dr. Burger, left behind as his successor, have been published by the labors of some distinguished naturalists, and under the patronage of the king of Holland, in a very splendid and expensive work, called “Fauna Japonica,” with colored plates of most of the animals described, and in the preparation of which the native works on the subject were largely consulted. This work includes three lizards, two tortoises, six snakes, eleven of the frog family, three hundred and fifty-nine fishes (Siebold describes the Japanese as a nation of fish-eaters), besides several whales, and two hundred and two birds. The principal quadrupeds, natives of Japan, and described in it, are a small deer, an antelope, in the most southern parts an ape, a wolf, a bear, and in Yezo another more ferocious species, like the Rocky Mountain bear, a wild hog, two foxes, and a number of smaller animals. There is no animal of the cat kind, except the domestic cat. The dogs used for hunting appear to be indigenous. There are pet house-dogs, derived from China, and troops of street-dogs—belonging to no individual, but denizens of particular streets—of a mongrel breed between the two.
The “Flora Japonica,” prepared by Zaccarini, from Siebold’s collection containing descriptions and drawings of one hundred and twenty-four remarkable plants, was interrupted by the death of that botanist, as was also another, less costly, but fuller enumeration of Japanese plants, arranged in natural families. The latter work, so far as completed, contains four hundred and seventy-eight genera, and eight hundred and forty-seven species. Siebold states that, of five hundred plants most remarkable for ornament or utility, at least half are of foreign origin, chiefly from China.
Siebold’s observations, during his residence in Japan, upon other subjects than natural history, have been principally embraced in a publication in numbers, originally in German, but a French translation of parts of which has appeared, entitled “Nippon, or Archives for the Description of Japan.” This work, projected like most of Siebold’s publications, on an extensive scale, contains many translations from Japanese historical works, and exhibits a great deal of erudition; at the same time it is diffuse, confused, incoherent, introducing a great deal of matter with only a remote bearing on the subject; and, whatever light it may throw upon some particular points, not, on the whole, adding a great deal to the knowledge we previously had of Japan, so far, at least, as the general reader would be likely to take an interest in it.[105]
The same year in which Siebold was released, a party of English convicts, on their way to Australia in the brig “Cyprus,” mutinied and got possession of the vessel. After cruising about for five months, being in great distress for wood and water, they anchored on the coast of Japan; but they were fired at from the shore, and obliged to depart without accomplishing their object.
Not long after this occurrence, three Japanese, the only survivors of the crew of a junk, driven by storms across the Pacific, landed on Queen Charlotte’s Island, on the northwest coast of America. They were seized by the natives, but were redeemed by an agent of the English Fur Company, at the mouth of Columbia River, and sent to England. From England they were carried to Macao, where they were placed in the family of Mr. Gutzlaff, the missionary. Some time after, four other Japanese, who had been wrecked on the Philippines, were brought to Macao.
The return of these men to their homes seemed a good opportunity for opening a communication with Japan, as well for mercantile as for missionary purposes, and an American mercantile house at Macao fitted out the brig “Morrison” for that purpose, in which sailed one of the partners, Dr. Parker, a missionary physician, and Mr. S. W. Williams, one of the editors of the “Chinese Repository,” and afterwards Chinese interpreter to Commodore Perry’s squadron. At Lew Chew [Riūkiū], where the vessel touched, Mr. Gutzlaff also came on board.
On the 27th of July, 1837, the chain of islands was made leading up to the bay of Yedo, up which the “Morrison” proceeded some thirty miles, to Uraga, the west coast of the bay rising hill above hill, and the view terminating in the lofty peak of Fuji. Near Uraga, many of the hills were cultivated in terraces, but the general aspect of the shores was bleak and barren. Just above, the passage was narrowed by two points of land projecting from opposite directions.
Having anchored about three quarters of a mile from the shore, the ship was soon visited by a number of boats. Their crews, some two hundred in number, and evidently of the lower class, hardly seemed to understand the Chinese writing in which provisions, water, and a government officer to communicate with, were asked for. They seemed, however, to invite a landing; but during the night cannon were planted on the nearest eminence, and, though the firing was unskilful, the “Morrison” was obliged to weigh. She was pursued by three gun-boats, each with thirty or forty men, which bore down upon her, firing swivels; but when she lay to, to wait for them, they retired. A piece of canvas, on which was painted, in Chinese, that a foreign ship desired to return some shipwrecked natives, and to obtain some provisions and water, was thrown overboard; but, though it was picked up, no notice was taken of it. The Japanese on board, who had recognized the shores of their country with delight, were much mortified at the result, which they ascribed in part to their not having been allowed to communicate with their countrymen.