The town where the Japanese have their chief residence and mart in Yetizo is called Matchma,[47] in which there are 500 households or families of Japanese. They have likewise a fort here, called Matchma-donna. This town is the principal mart of Yedzo, to which the natives resort to buy and sell, especially in September, when they make provision against winter. In March they bring down salmon and dried fish of sundry kinds, with other wares, for which the Japanese barter in preference even to silver. The Japanese have no other settled residence or place of trade except this at Matchma [48]. Farther northward in Yedzo there are people of a low stature like dwarfs.[49] The other natives of Yedzo are of good stature like the Japanese, and have no other cloathing but what is brought them from Japan. There is a violent current in the straits between Yedzo and Japan, which comes from the sea of Corea, and sets E.N.E. The winds there are for the most part like those usual in Japan; the northerly winds beginning in September, and ending in March, when the southerly winds begin to blow.
[Footnote 47: In modern maps, the southern peninsula of Yesso, or Yedso, is named Matsaki, apparently the same name with that in the text.--E.]
[Footnote 48: In our more modern maps, there are four other towns or residences on the western coast of the peninsula of Matsaki, named Jemasina, Sirekosawa, Famomoli, and Aria.--E.]
[Footnote 49: The island of Kubito-sima, off the western coast of Yedzo, is called likewise in our maps, the Isle of Pigmies.--E.]
S.14. Note of Commodities vendible in Japan.[50]
Broad-cloths of all sorts, as black, yellow, and red, which cost in Holland eight or nine gilders the Flemish ell, two ells and three quarters, are worth in Japan, three, four, to five hundred.[51] Cloth of a high wool is not in request, but such as is low shorn is most vendible. Fine bayes of the before-mentioned colours are saleable, if well cottoned, but not such as those of Portugal. Sayes, rashes, single and double bouratts, silk grograms, Turkey grograms; camblets, Divo Gekepert, Weersetynen, Caniaut, Gewart twijne;[52] velvets, musk, sold weight for weight of silver; India cloths of all sorts are in request; satins, taffetas, damasks, Holland linen from fifteen to twenty stivers the Flemish ell, but not higher priced; diaper, damasks, and so much the better if wrought with figures or branches; thread of all colours; carpets, for tables; gilded leather, painted with figures and flowers, but the smallest are in best demand; painted pictures, the Japanese delighting in lascivious representations, and stories of wars by sea or land, the larger the better worth, sell for one, two, or three hundred. Quick-silver, the hundred cattees sell from three to four hundred.
[Footnote 50: This forms a part of the Appendix to the Voyage of Saris, Purch. Pilg. I. 394; where it is joined to the end of observations by the same author on the trade of Bantam, formerly inserted in this Collection under their proper date.--E.]
[Footnote 51: This account is very vaguely expressed; but in the title in the Pilgrims, the sales are stated to be in masses and canderines, each canderine being the tenth part of a masse. The information contained in this short subdivision is hardly intelligible, yet is left, as it may possibly be of some use towards reviving the trade of Japan, now that the Dutch are entirely deprived of their eastern possessions.--E.]
[Footnote 52: These articles, in italics, are unknown.]
The hundred cattees of vermilion are worth from three to six hundred. Paint for women's faces, the hundred cattees are worth twenty-eight. Cooper in plates, 125 Flemish pounds are worth from 90 to 100. Lead in small bars, the 100 cattees from 60 to 88. Lead in sheets is in greater request, the thinner the better, and 100 pounds Flemish sell for 80. Fine tin, in logs or bars, 120 pounds Flemish bring 350. Iron, twenty five Dutch ounces worth four. Steel, the 100 cattees, worth from one to two hundred. Tapestry. Civet, the cattee worth from 150 to 200. China root, the 100 cattees or pekul worth 40. China sewing gold, the paper worth three masse three. Powdered Chinese sugar, the 100 cattees or pekul worth forty to fifty. Sugar-candy, the pekul or 100 cattees, from fifty to sixty. Velvets, of all colours, eight ells the piece, from 120 to 130. Wrought velvets, from 180 to 200. Taffetas of all colours, and good silk, worth, the piece, from twenty-four to thirty or forty. Satin, seven or eight ells long, the piece worth from 80 to 100. Figured satin, from 120 to 150. Gazen, of seven pikes or ells, from forty to fifty. Raw silk, the cattee of twelve pounds Flemish, from thirty to forty. Untwisted silk, the weight of twenty-eight pounds Flemish, from thirty to forty. Twisted silk, from twenty-eight to forty.