All Its Streets Are So Even, That One May See From One End To The
Other.
This place is exceedingly populous, and the people very civil and
courteous; only that at our first landing, and
Indeed at all places to
which we came in the whole country, the children and low idle people
used to gather about and follow us a long way, calling core, core,
cocore, Ware that is to say, You Coreans with false hearts; all the
while whooping and hallooing, and making such a noise that we could not
hear ourselves speak; and sometimes throwing stones at us, though seldom
in any of the towns, yet the clamour and shouting was every where the
same, as nobody reproved them for it. The best advice I can give to
those who may come after me, is to pass on without attending to these
idle rabblements, by which their ears only will be disturbed by the
noise. All along this coast, and indeed the whole way to Osaka, we found
various women who lived continually with their families in boats upon
the water, as is done in Holland. These women catch fish by diving even
in the depth of eight fathoms, that are missed by the nets and lines;
and by the habit of frequent diving their eyes become excessively red
and bloodshot, by which mark these divers may be readily distinguished
from all other women.
[Footnote 13: The old king sent 200 tayes, worth five shillings each, to
Captain Saris, for his expences in the journey. - Purch.]
In two days we rowed from Firando to Facata. When eight or ten leagues
short of the straits of Xemina-seque,[14] we came to a great town,
where there lay in a dock a junk of 800 or 1000 tons burden, all
sheathed with iron,[15] and having a guard appointed to keep her from
being set on fire or otherwise destroyed. She was built in a very homely
fashion, much like the descriptions we have of Noah's ark; and the
natives told us she served to transport troops to any of the islands in
case of rebellion or war.
[Footnote 14: The editor of Astley's Collection has altered the
orthography of this name to Shemina seki. In modern maps, we find a
town named Sunono sequi, on one side of these straits, which divide
the island of Kiusiu from the south-west end of the great island of
Niphon. - E.]
[Footnote 15: It is not a little singular, that metallic sheathing
should have been observed by English mariners in Japan so long ago as
1613, and yet never attempted in the British or any other European navy
till more than 150 years afterwards, and then brought forwards as a new
invention. - E.]
We met with nothing extraordinary after passing through the straits of
Xemina-seque till we came to Osaka, where we arrived on the 27th of
August. Our galley could not get nearer the town than six miles;
wherefore we were met by a smaller vessel, in which came the goodman or
host of the house where we were to lodge in Osaka, and who brought with
him a banquet of wine and salt fruits to entertain me. A rope being
made fast to the mast-head of our boat, she was drawn forwards by men,
as our west country barges are at London. We found Osaka a very large
town, as large as London within the walls, having many very high and
handsome timber bridges which serve to cross the river Jodo, which is
as wide as the Thames at London. Some of the houses here were handsome,
but not many. It is one of the chiefest sea-ports in all Japan, and has
a castle of great size and strength, with very deep ditches all round,
crossed by drawbridges, and its gates plated with iron. This castle is
all of freestone, strengthened by bulwarks and battlements, having
loop-holes for small arms and arrows, and various passages for throwing
down stones upon the assailants. The walls are at least six or seven
yards thick, all built of freestone throughout, having no packing with
trumpery within, as I was told, but all solid. The stones are large and
of excellent quality, and are so exactly cut to fit the places where
they are laid, that no mortar is used, only a little earth being
occasionally thrown in to fill up any void spaces.
In the castle of Osaka, when I was there, dwelt the son of Tiquasama,
who was the true heir of Japan; but being an infant at the death of his
father, he was left under the guardianship of four chiefs or great men,
of whom Ogoshosama, the present emperor, was the principal. The other
three guardians were each desirous of acquiring the sovereignty, and
being opposed by Ogoshosama, levied armies against him; but Ogoshosama
defeated them in battle, in which two of them were slain, and the other
saved himself by flight. After this great victory, Ogoshosama attempted
what he is said not to have thought of before. Seizing the true heir of
the throne, he married the young prince to his own daughter, and
confined them in the castle of Osaka, under the charge of such persons
only as had been brought up from their childhood under the roof of the
usurper, so that by their means he has regular intelligence of every
thing they do.
Right opposite to Osaka, on the other side of the river Jodo, there is
another town called Sakay, not so large as Osaka, but of considerable
extent, and having great trade to all the neighbouring country. Having
left samples and lists of prices of all our commodities with our host at
Osaka, we departed from that place on the night of the 29th of August in
a bark, and arrived at Fusima next night, where we found a garrison of
3000 men, maintained there by the emperor, to keep Miaco and Osaka under
subjection.
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