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. Thus, by observing the monsoons or periodical winds,
they transport their goods backwards and forwards, by means of these
sailing waggons. In that country they make damasks, sattins, taffaties,
and other silk stuffs, as well as in China.
It is said that Fico Same, otherwise called Quabicondono, the former
emperor of Japan, pretended to have conveyed a great army in these
sailing waggons, to make a sudden assault upon the emperor of China in
his great city of Pekin, where he ordinarily resides; but was prevented
by a nobleman of Corea, who poisoned himself to poison the emperor and
many of the nobles of Japan. On which occasion, as is said, the Japanese
lost, about twenty-two years ago, all that they had conquered in Corea.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 66 of 474
Words from 34189 to 34703
of 247546
