The Officer Appointed By King Foyne To
Accompany Me, Took Up These Men And Horses By Warrants, From Time To
Time, and from place to place, just as post-horses are taken up in
England, and also procured us lodgings
At night; and, according to the
custom of the country, I had a slave to run before me, carrying a pike.
We thus travelled every day fifteen or sixteen leagues, which we
estimated at three miles the league, and arrived on the 6th of September
at Surunga,[16] where the emperor resided. The road for the most part
is wonderfully even, and where it meets with mountains, a passage is cut
through. This is the main road of the whole country, and, is mostly
covered with sand and gravel. It is regularly measured off into leagues,
and at every league there is a small hillock of earth on each side of
the road, upon each of which is set a fair pine-tree, trimmed round like
an arbour. These are placed at the end of every league, that the
hackney-men and horse-hirers may not exact more than their due, which is
about three-pence for each league.
[Footnote 16: Suruga, Surunga, or Sununnaga, is a town in the province
of that name, at the head of the gulf of Totomina, about 50 miles S.W.
from Jedo. - E.]
The road is much frequented, and very full of people. Every where, at
short distances, we came to farms and country-houses, with numerous
villages, and frequent large towns. We had often likewise to ferry over
rivers, and we saw many Futtakeasse or Fotoquis, being the
temples of the Japanese, which are situated in groves, and in the
pleasantest places of the country, having the priests that attend
upon the idols dwelling around the temples, as our friars in old time
used to do here in England. On approaching any of the towns, we saw
sundry crosses, having the dead bodies of persons who had been crucified
affixed to them, such being the ordinary mode of punishment for most
malefactors. On coming near Surunga, where the emperor keeps his court,
we saw a scaffold, on which lay the heads of several malefactors that had
been recently executed, with the dead bodies of some stretched on crosses,
while those of others had been all hewn in pieces by the natives, trying
the tempers of their cattans, as formerly mentioned when at Firando.
This was a most unpleasant sight for us, who had necessarily to pass
them on our way to Surunga.
The city of Surunga is fully as large as London, with all its
suburbs.[17] We found all the handicraft tradesmen dwelling in the
outward parts and skirts of the town, while those of the better sort
resided in the heart of the city, not choosing to be annoyed by the
continual knocking, hammering, and other noise made by the artisans in
their several callings. As soon as we were settled in the lodgings
appointed for us in the city of Surunga, I sent Mr Adams to the imperial
residence, to inform the secretary of our arrival, and to request as
speedy dispatch as possible.
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