- 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.

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