The
Old Emperor Has Marched Against Him In Person, With An Army Of 300,000
Men, And Is At The Castle Of Fusima.
The advanced parties of the two
armies have already had several skirmishes, and many have been slain on
both sides.
The entire city of Osaka has been burned to the ground,
excepting only the castle, so that Mr Eaton had to retire with his goods
to Sakey,[55] yet not without danger, as a part of that town has
likewise been burnt. So great a tempest or tuffoon has lately occurred
at Edoo [Jedo,] as had never been before experienced at that place.
The sea overflowed the whole city, obliging the people to take refuge on
the hills: and the prodigious inundation has defaced or thrown down all
the houses of the nobles, which you know were very beautiful and
magnificent.
[Footnote 55: It has been formerly explained that Sakey was a town on
the river Jodo, directly opposite to Osakey or Osaka, the river only
being interposed. - E.]
Let this suffice for Japanese news; and I now proceed to inform you of
our success in selling our goods. The emperor took all our ordnance,
with most of our lead, and ten barrels of gunpowder, with two or three
pieces of broad-cloth. Most of our other broad-cloths are sold, namely,
black, hair-colour, and cinnamon-colour, at fifteen, fourteen, thirteen,
and twelve tayes the tattamy; but they will not even look at
Venice-reds and flame-colours, neither are stammels in such request as
formerly, but they enquire much for whites and yellows. As the Dutch
sold most of their broad-cloths at low prices, we were forced to do so
likewise. In regard to our Cambaya goods, they will not look at our red
Zelas, blue byrams, or dutties, being the principal part of what is
now left us; and only some white bastas sell at fourteen or fifteen
masses each. Cassedys nill, alleias, broad pintados, with spotted,
striped, and checquered stuffs, are most in request, and sell at good
profit. We have also sold nearly half of our Bantam pepper for
sixty-five masse the pekull, and all the rest had been gone before
now, had it not been for the war. I am in great hope of procuring trade
into China, through the means of Andrea, the China captain, and his two
brothers, who have undertaken the matter, and have no doubt of being
able to bring it to bear, for three ships to come yearly to a place near
Lanquin,[56] to which we may go from hence in three or four days with
a fair wind. Of this I have written at large to the worshipful company,
and also to the lord-treasurer.
[Footnote 56: As Nangasaki is uniformly named Langasaque in this first
English voyage to Japan, I am apt to suspect the Lanquin of the text
may have been Nan-kin. - E.]
Some little sickness with which I have been afflicted is now gone, for
which I thank God. Mr Easton, Mr Nealson, Mr Wickham, and Mr Sayer, have
all been very sick, but are all now well recovered, except Mr Eaton, who
still labours under flux and tertian ague. May God restore his health,
for I cannot too much praise his diligence and pains in the affairs of
the worshipful company. Jacob Speck, who was thought to have been cast
away in a voyage from hence to the Moluccas, is now returned to Firando
in the command of a great ship called the Zelandia, together with a
small pinnace called the Jacatra. The cause of his being so long missing
was, that in going from hence by the eastward of the Philippines, the
way we came, he was unable to fetch the Moluccas, owing to currents and
contrary winds, and was driven to the west of the island of Celebes, and
so passed round it through the straits of Desalon, and back to the
Moluccas. The Chinese complain much against the Hollanders for robbing
and pilfering their junks, of which they are said to have taken and
rifled seven. The emperor of Japan has taken some displeasure against
the Hollanders, having refused a present they lately sent him, and would
not even speak to those who brought it. He did the same in regard to a
present sent by the Portuguese, which came in a great ship from Macao to
Nangasaki. You thought, when here, that if any other ship came from
England we might continue to sell our goods without sending another
present to the emperor; but I now find that every ship which comes to
Japan must send a present to the emperor, as an established custom. I
find likewise that we cannot send away any junk from hence without
procuring the yearly licence from the emperor, as otherwise no Japanese
mariner dare to leave the country, under pain of death. Our own ships
from England may, however, come in and go out again when they please,
and no one to gainsay them.
We have not as yet been able by any means to procure trade from Tushma
into Corea; neither indeed have the inhabitants of Tushma any farther
privilege than to frequent one small town or fortress, and must not on
pain of death go beyond the walls of that place. Yet the king of Tushma
is not subject to the emperor of Japan.[57] We have only been able to
sell some pepper at Tushma, and no great quantity of that. The weight
there is much heavier than in Japan, but the price is proportionally
higher.
[Footnote 57: No place or island of any name resembling Tushma is to
be found in our best maps. The name in the text probably refers to
Tausima, called an some maps Jasus, an island about forty miles
long, about midway between Kiusiu and Corea. - E.]
I have been given to understand that there are no great cities in the
interior of Corea, between which inland country and the sea there are
immense bogs or morasses, so that no one can travel on horseback, and
hardly even a-foot; and as a remedy against this, they have great
waggons or carts upon broad flat wheels, which are moved by means of
sails like ships.
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