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.
Drinking-glasses of all sorts, bottles, canns, cups, trenchers, plates,
beer-glasses, salt-sellers, wine-glasses, beakers, gilt looking-glasses
of large size, Muscovy glass, salt, writing-papers, table-books,
paper-books, lead to neal pots. Spanish soap is in much request, and
sells for one masse the small cake. Amber beads, worth 140 to 160. Silk
stockings, of all colours. Spanish leather, neats leather, and other
kinds of leather used for gloves, worth six, eight, or nine. Blue
candiques of China, from fifteen to twenty. Black candiques, from
ten to fifteen. Wax for candles, 100 pounds Flemish worth from 200 to
250. Honey, the pekul, worth sixty. Samell of Cochin-China, the pekul,
worth 180. Nutmegs, the pekul, twenty-five. Camphor of Borneo, or
barous, the pound hollans, from 250 to 400. Sanders of Solier, the
pekul, worth 100. Good and heavy Callomback wood, the pound, worth one,
two, three, to five. Sapan, or red wood, the pekul, from twenty to
twenty-six. Good and large elephants teeth, from 400, to 500, 600, 700,
and even 800. Rhinoceros horns, the Javan cattee, worth thirty. Gilded
harts-horns, the piece, worth 300, 400, 500. Roch allum in request, in
so much that what cost only three gilders has sold for 100 gilders; but
not in demand by every one.
The Chinese in Japan will commonly truck for silver, giving gold of
twenty-three carats, at the rate of from fifteen to twenty times its
weight in silver, according as silver is plenty or scarce.
The following commodities are to be bought in Japan, and at the rates
here quoted. Very good hemp, 100 cattees, being 120 pounds of Holland,
are worth from sixty-five to seventy. Eye-colours for dying blue,
almost as good as indigo, made up in round cakes, and packed 100 cakes
in a fardel, worth fifty to sixty. Dye-stuff for white, turning to red
colour, made up in fardels of fifty gautins malios, worth five to
eight. Very good white rice, cased, worth, the fares, eight
three-fifths. Rice of a worse sort, the bale, worth seven three-tenths.
At Jedo, Osaka, and Miaco, there is the best dying of all sorts of
colours, as red, black, and green; and for gliding gold and silver, is
better than the Chinese varnish. Brimstone is in great abundance, and
the pekul may be bought for seven. Saltpetre is dearer in one place than
another, being worth one and a half. Cotton-wool, the pekul, may be
bought for ten.
Sec.15. Supplementary Notices of Occurrences in Japan, after the Departure
of Captain Saris.[53]
"This subdivision consists entirely of letters from Japan, and conveys
some curious information respecting the transactions of the English in
Japan, whence they have been long excluded. They are now perhaps of some
interest, beyond the mere gratification of curiosity, as, by the entire
expulsion of the Dutch from India, there seems a possibility of the
British merchants in India being able to restore trade to that distant
country. In the Third PART of our Collection, various other relations
of Japan will be inserted." - E.
[Footnote 53: These are appended in the Pilgrims, vol. I. pp. 406 - 413,
to the observations of Mr. Richard Cocks, already given in conjunction
with the voyage of Captain Saris. - E.]
No. I. Letter from Mr Richard Cocks, dated Firando, 10th December,
1614.[54]
To this day, I have been unable to complete my old books of accounts,
owing to the dispatching of our people, some to one place and some to
another, and owing to the rebuilding of our house, and afterwards buying
a junk, and repairing her. She is now ready to set sail for Siam, having
been at anchor these ten days, waiting for a fair wind to proceed on her
voyage, at Couchi, a league from Firando, where your ship rode at your
departure from hence. She is called the Sea-Adventure, of about 200 tons
burden, in which Mr Adams goes as master, with Mr Wickham and Mr Edward
Sayers as merchants, in consequence of the death of Mr Peacock, slain in
Cochin-China, and the probability that Mr Carwarden has been cast away
in his return from thence, as we have no news of him or of the junk in
which he sailed, as I have at large informed the worshipful company.
[Footnote 54: This letter appears to have been written to Captain
Saris. - E.]
Since your departure from Japan, the emperor has banished all jesuits,
priests, nuns, and friars, from the country, shipping them off for
Anacau [Macao] in China, or Manilla in the Philippine islands, and has
caused all their churches and monasteries to be pulled down or burnt.
Foyne Same, the old king of Firando, is dead, and Ushiandono, his
governor, with two other servants, cut open their bellies to bear him
company, their bodies being burned, and their ashes entombed along with
his. Wars are likely to ensue between Ogusho Same, the old emperor,
and Fidaia Same, the young prince, son of Tico Same, who has
strongly fortified himself in the castle of Osaka, having collected an
army of 80,000 or 100,000 men, consisting of malcontents, runaways, and
banished people, who have repaired from all parts to his standard, and
he is said to have collected sufficient provisions for three years.
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