_Particular Statement as to the Dutch Trade as it existed in Kämpfer’s
Time—Arrival of the Ships—Unlading—Passes—Imports—Company and Private
Goods—Kambans, or Public Sales—Duties—Profits—Exports—Departure of the
Ships—Smuggling—Execution of Smugglers._
“The Dutch ships,” says Kämpfer, “are expected some time in September,
towards the latter end of the southwest monsoon, that being the only
time proper for this navigation.[145] As soon as the spy guards with
their glasses discover a ship steering towards the harbor, and send
notice of her approach to the governors of Nagasaki, three persons of
our factory are sent with the usual attendance to meet her about two
miles without the harbor, and to deliver to the captain the necessary
instructions, from the director of our trade, with regard to his
behavior.
“The interpreter and the deputies of the governors demand forthwith the
list of the cargo and crew, as also the letters on board, which are
carried to Nagasaki, where the governors first examine and then deliver
them to our director.
“The ship follows as soon as possible, and, having entered the harbor,
salutes both imperial guards with all her guns, and casts anchor
opposite to the town, about a musket-shot from our island. If the wind
be contrary, rowing-boats (kept for this purpose by the common people
of the town) are sent at our expense, but not at our desire, to tow her
in by force. In still weather they send about ten of these boats; if it
be stormy, and the wind contrary, they increase the number to fifty,
and sometimes to a hundred—so many as they think necessary—that is, at
least twice the number there is occasion for.
“When the ship has entered the harbor, two guard-boats, with a good
number of soldiers, are put one on each side of her, and continued,
being mounted with fresh troops every day, till she leaves. As soon
as the ship drops anchor, great numbers of officers come on board
to demand our guns, cutlasses, swords and other arms, as also the
gunpowder packed up in barrels, which are taken into their custody, and
kept in a store-house, built for this purpose, till her departure. They
attempted, also, in former times, to take out the rudder, but, having
found it impracticable, they now leave it in.
“The next day after her arrival, the commissioners of the governor
come on board, with their usual attendance of soldiers, interpreters,
and subordinate officers, to make an exact review, in presence of our
director, of all the people on board, according to the list which hath
been given them, and wherein is set down every one’s name, age, birth,
place of residence, and office, examining them from top to toe. Many
questions are asked, as to those who died on the voyage, when and of
what distemper they died. Even now and then a dead monkey or parrot may
occasion a strict inquiry to be made after the cause and manner of
their death, and they are so scrupulous that they will not give their
verdict, without sitting upon the body itself, and carefully examining
it.
“After this, the orders of our director, and likewise of the governors
of Nagasaki, relating to our behavior with regard to the natives, are
read in Low Dutch, and afterwards, for every one’s inspection, stuck up
in several places on board the ship, and at Deshima. The same rules are
observed with all our ships, of which there are two, three, or four,
sent from Batavia to Japan every year, according to the quantity of
copper they have occasion for; one of which goes first to Siam, to make
up part of her cargo with the commodities of that country. Formerly,
when the Dutch as yet enjoyed a free trade, they sent seldom less than
six or seven ships, and sometimes more.
“The review being over, they proceed to unlade the ships, during which,
several of the governors’ officers, a chief interpreter, a deputy
interpreter, and an apprentice, besides several clerks and inferior
officers, remain on board, taking possession of every corner, to see
that nothing be carried away privately. The water gates of our island,
through which the cargo is to be brought in, are opened in presence of
the _karō_, that is, high commissioners of the governors, and their
retinue. So long as the gates are kept open, the karō, with their
deputies and other assistants, stay in a room built for this purpose,
not far off. The whole body of interpreters, as also our landlords,
clerks, and other officers of our island, give their attendance, and
also their assistance, at that time. They fall to work with three
hundred or more kuri, or workmen—always at least twice the number there
is occasion for. The unlading of every ship ought to be performed
in two days, but notwithstanding the number of men they employ, they
generally make a three days’ work of it, in order to make it so much
the more beneficial to the town.
“The goods are brought from the ship in boats, kept for this purpose
only, at the Company’s expense. Being brought within the water gates,
they are laid before the commissioners, who set them down in writing,
count them, compare them with the list that hath been given in (opening
a bale or two of each sort, picked out from among the rest), and
then order them to be locked up, under their seal, in the Company’s
warehouse, until the day of sale. The trunks belonging to private
persons are set down at the entry of the island, and there opened and
examined. If the owner doth not forthwith appear with the key, they
proceed, without any further ceremony, to open them with axes. All
vendible goods are taken out and locked up under their seals. Some
other things, also, which they do not approve of, as, for instance,
arms, stuff, and cloth wrought with gold and silver, as also all
contraband goods, are taken into custody by the Otona, who returns them
to the owner upon his departure.
“No European, nor any other foreign money, and, in general, nothing
that hath the figure of a cross, saint, or beads, upon it, is suffered
to pass. If any such thing should be found upon any of our people, it
would occasion such a confusion and fright among the Japanese as if
the whole empire had been betrayed. I have already taken notice that,
upon our drawing near the harbor, every one is obliged to deliver his
prayer-books, and other books of divinity, as also all European money,
to the captain, who packs them all up in an old cask, and hides them.
“Those who are newly arrived must suffer themselves, in going in or
coming out of our island, to be searched, whether or no they have any
contraband goods about them. Every one who wishes to go on board,
whether it be for his own private business, or in the Company’s
service, is obliged to take out a pass-board from the commissioners at
the water gates, and, in like manner, when he returns on shore, he must
take out another from those on the ship.
“At night, when the commissioners sent on board the ship return with
their retinue to Nagasaki, the cabin is sealed up in their presence,
and all the Dutchmen accurately counted over, to see that there be none
wanting, which would occasion a very great confusion. During my stay
in Japan it happened that a common sailor unfortunately was drowned in
the night, nobody perceiving his falling into the water. At the review
made the next morning (for it is constantly made every morning and
night) the fellow was missed. This unlucky accident suddenly stopped
all proceedings, and the fear lest it should be a Roman Catholic
priest, who had made his escape into the country, occasioned such a
consternation among the Japanese, that all the officers ran about,
scratching their heads, and behaving as if they had lost their senses,
and some of the soldiers in the guard-ships were already preparing to
rip themselves open, when at last the unlucky fellow’s body being taken
up from the bottom of the harbor put an end to their fears.
“At all other times, that for lading and unlading our ships excepted,
the water gates are shut, by which means all communication is cut off
between those that stay on board and those that remain on shore. The
ship’s cargo having been placed in the warehouses, the goods lie there
till they are pleased, in two or three days of sale, which they call
_Kamban_, to sell them. What remains unsold is carried back to the
warehouses, and kept there against the next year’s sale.
“The following goods are imported by us: raw silk, from China, Tonquin,
Bengal, and Persia; all sorts of silks, woollen, and other stuffs
(provided they be not wrought with gold and silver); Brazil wood;
buffalo, and other hides; raw skins, wax, and buffalo horns from Siam;
tanned hides from Persia, Bengal, and other places, but none from Spain
and Manila, under pain of incurring their utmost displeasure; pepper;
sugar, in powder and candied; cloves; nutmegs; camphor, from Borneo
and Sumatra; quicksilver; cinnabar; saffron; lead; saltpetre; borax;
alum; musk; gum benzoin; gum lac; rosmal, or _storax liquida_; catechu,
commonly called Terra Japonica; fustic; corals; amber; right antimony
(which they use to color their china ware); looking-glasses, which
they cut up to make spy-glasses, magnifying glasses, and spectacles,
out of them. Other things of less note are snakewood; mangoes, and
other unripe East India fruits, pickled with Turkish pepper, garlic,
and vinegar; black lead and red pencils; sublimate of mercury (but no
calomel); fine files; needles; spectacles; large drinking-glasses of
the finest sort; counterfeit corals; strange birds, and other foreign
curiosities, both natural and artificial. Some of these are often sold
in private, by sailors and others, without being produced upon the
_Kamban_, and in this case the Dutch make no scruple to get as much for
them beyond their real value as possibly they can.
“Of all the imported goods, raw silk is the best liked, though it
yields the least profit of any. All sorts of stuffs and cloths yield
a considerable and sure profit, and should there be never so much
imported, the consumption in so populous a country would be still
greater. Brazil wood and hides are also to be disposed of to very good
advantage. The most profitable commodities are sugar, catechu, storax
liquida, camphor of Borneo (which they covet above all other sorts),
looking-glasses, etc., but only when they have occasion for them, and
when the Chinese have imported in small quantities. Corals and amber
are two of the most valuable commodities in these eastern parts; but
Japan hath been so thoroughly provided by smugglers, that at present
there is scarce fifty per cent to be got upon them, whereas formerly we
could sell them, ten, nay, a hundred times dearer. The price of these
things, and of all natural and artificial curiosities, varies very
much, according to the number and disposition of the buyers, who may be
sure to get cent per cent clear profit by them, at what price soever
they buy them.
“The yearly sum to the value of which the Dutch are permitted to sell
goods imported by them is, by Japanese reckoning, three hundred chests
of silver, each of a thousand taels, or in gold fifty thousand kobans;
the highest value of the koban, as current in Japan, being sixty mas,
or six taels. But the Japanese having obliged the Dutch East India
Company to accept payment in gold kobans, each reckoned at sixty-eight
mas, the sales of the Company, though made to the amount of three
hundred thousand taels in silver, produced only forty-four thousand one
hundred and eighteen kobans.”
A chance was thus afforded, as Kämpfer expresses it “to make the
officers concerned in carrying on the Dutch trade some amends for their
trouble and hard usage, by allowing them to dispose of goods on their
own private account,” to the value of five thousand six hundred and
eighty-two kobans, equivalent, at the reckoning of fifty-eight mas, to
forty thousand taels, thus making up the fifty thousand kobans, to the
amount of which the annual sale of Dutch goods was limited; and as this
arrangement for private trade had been made by the Japanese, the East
India Company did not venture to interfere with it.
At the head of these officers stands the Director, or, as he is called
by the Japanese, Captain of the Dutch (_Hollanda Capitan_), who has
the command, inspection, and care of the trade. The same person is
the head of the embassy sent to court once every year; and, according
to the custom of the country, he must be relieved after the year is
expired. The ships from Batavia bring over his successor, with some few
merchants and clerks, to assist during the sale, after which, the old
director goes on board, to return to Batavia. The privilege of private
trade was, in Kämpfer’s time, divided as follows: The acting director
could sell to the extent of ten thousand taels; the new director to the
extent of seven thousand; his deputy, or the next person after him, to
the extent of six thousand. The captains of the ships, the merchants,
clerks, &c., shared the remainder, as they happened to be in favor with
the chief managers, and the Japanese interpreters.
“The day of the _Kamban_ (as they call our sale), which must be
determined by the court, drawing near, a list of all the goods is hung
up at the gates without our island, written in very large characters,
that everybody may read it at a due distance. Meanwhile, the
government signifies to the several Otonas of the town, and these to
the merchants, who are come hither from diverse parts of the empire,
what duty per cent will be laid for the benefit of the inhabitants of
Nagasaki, upon each description of our goods, in order to enable them
to determine what price they can afford to offer. The day before the
_Kamban_, papers are put up at all the gates of the streets, to invite
the merchants to make their appearance the next morning at Deshima,
where, for their further information, they find before every house
a list of the goods laid up in it. As the direction of our trade is
entirely in the hands of the government of Nagasaki, so, particularly,
the _Kamban_ cannot be held but in presence of two Stewards of the
governors, authorized by them to assist at it. The chief officers of
our island must likewise be present. The first interpreter presides,
and directs everything, while our own triumvirs—I mean the two
directors, the old and new—and the deputy director, have little or
nothing to say.
“All persons who must be present at the sale having met together, our
directors order samples of all our goods to be exposed to view, and
then give a signal with a _gum-gum_, a sort of flat bell, not unlike a
basin, for the merchants to come in. The house where the sale is kept
is a very neat building, built at the Company’s expense, and is then,
by removing the shutters, laid open towards the street for people to
look in. There is a small gallery round it, and it is divided within
into several partitions, very commodiously contrived for this act.
“The sale itself is performed in the following manner. Only one sort
of goods is put up at a time. Those who have a mind to buy them give
in some tickets, each signed by feigned names, and signifying how much
they intend to give for a piece, or a katti, of the article on sale. I
took notice that every merchant gives in several tickets. This is done
in order to see how matters are like to go, and to keep to a less price
in case he repents of the greater, for which purpose they are signed
only by feigned names; and, because of the great number and subdivision
of the small coin, it seldom happens that two tickets exactly agree.
After all the bidders have given in their tickets, our directors
proceed to open and assort them. They are then delivered to the
presiding chief interpreter, who reads them aloud, one after another,
beginning with the highest. He asks after the bidder three times, and,
if there is no answer made, he lays that ticket aside and takes the
next to it. So he goes on, taking always a less, till the bidder cries
out, ‘Here I am,’and then draws near to sign the note, and to put
his true name to it with black ink, which the Japanese always carry
about them. The goods first put up being sold, they proceed to others,
which they sell in the same manner; and so they go on till the sum
determined by the emperor hath been raised, which is commonly done in
two or three, seldom in four, days of sale. The day after each _Kamban_
the goods are delivered to the buyer, and carried off. A company of
merchants of the five imperial cities have obtained the monopoly for
buying and selling raw silks, of which they would fain oblige us to
make up at least one-third of our cargoes.
“The duty or custom levied upon goods has been introduced at Nagasaki,
merely with an intent to take off part of the vast profits which
foreigners get upon their commodities, and to assign them for the use
and maintenance of the poorer inhabitants of the town, among whom
it is distributed in proportion to the trouble they must be at, on
account of the public offices they must serve by turns. They commonly
receive in this distribution from three to fifteen taels each. The
duty laid upon the goods belonging to the Company is fifteen per cent,
producing forty-five thousand taels. The goods belonging to private
persons, which are commonly sold at the end of the _Kamban_, pay much
more—no less than sixty-five per cent upon goods sold by the piece, and
sixty-seven per cent on goods sold by weight. Rating each sort at half
the whole amount, and the whole produce is twenty-seven thousand taels.
The reason they give for the difference in the rate of duty is, because
private goods are brought over in the Company’s ships, at the Company’s
expense, and, consequently, deserve less profit. The Chinese, for the
like reason,—that is, because they are not at the expense of such long
and hazardous voyages as the Dutch, but are nearer at hand,—pay a
duty of sixty per cent for all their goods, which brings in a sum of
three hundred and sixty thousand taels duty. If to this be added the
yearly rent for our houses and factories, which is five thousand five
hundred and eighty taels, and that of the Chinese factory, which is
sixteen thousand taels, it makes up in all a sum of four hundred and
fifty-three thousand five hundred and eighty taels (upwards of half a
million of dollars) which the foreign commerce produces annually to the
magistrates and inhabitants of Nagasaki.
“The profits our goods produce may be computed to amount, one year with
another, to sixty per cent, though, if all the charges and expenses of
our sale be taken into consideration, we cannot well get above forty
or forty-five per cent clear gain. Considering so small a profit, it
would scarcely be worth the Company’s while to continue this branch of
our trade any longer, were it not that the goods we export from thence,
and particularly the refined copper, yield much the same profit, so
that the whole profit may be computed to amount to eighty or ninety per
cent.
“The goods belonging to private persons being brought over and sold
without any expense to the owner, the gain therefrom, notwithstanding
the great duty laid upon them, is no ways inferior to that of the
Company. The two chief directors have the greater share of it. They
cannot hold their offices longer than three years, and that not
successively, being obliged, after they have served one year, to return
with the homeward-bound ships to Batavia, whence they are sent back
again, either by the next ships, or two years after. If the directors
stand upon good terms with the chief interpreter, and have found
ways and means to secure his favor, by making him large presents at
the Company’s expense, he can contrive things so that some of their
goods be put up and sold upon the first or second _Kamban_, among
the Company’s goods, and so, by reason of the small duty, produce
sixty-five to seventy per cent profit. This, too, may be done without
any prejudice to the Company; for, in casting up the sums paid in for
goods, these articles are slipped over. If they have any goods beyond
the amount they are legally entitled to, chiefly red coral, amber, and
the like, it is an easy matter to dispose of them in private, by the
assistance of the officers of the island, who will generally themselves
take them off their hands. The Otona himself is very often concerned in
such bargains, they being very advantageous. Formerly, we could sell
them by a deputy to the persons who came over to our island at the
time of our _Kamban_, and that way was far the most profitable for us.
But one of our directors, in 1686, played his cards so awkwardly that
ten Japanese were beheaded for smuggling, and he himself banished the
country forever.
“The residing director, who goes also as ambassador to the emperor’s
court, hath, besides, another very considerable advantage, in that
such presents as the governors of Nagasaki desire to be made to the
emperor, not to be found in the Company’s warehouses, and therefore
to be bought, can be furnished by him out of his own stock, if it so
happens that he hath them, in which case he takes all the profit to
himself, without doing any prejudice to the Company. Nay, they might
possibly go still further in pursuit of their own private advantages,
were it not that they endeavor to pass for men of conscience and
honor, or, at least, aim to appear fearful lest they should be thought
too notoriously to injure both the confidence and interest of their
masters. I do not pretend hereby to charge them with any indirect
practices as to the annual expenses, though perhaps even those are
sometimes run up to an unnecessary height; nor is it in the least my
intention to detract from the reputation and character of probity of
so many worthy gentlemen, who have filled this station with honor, and
discharged their duty with the utmost faithfulness to their masters.
Thus much I can say without exaggeration, that the directorship of the
Dutch trade in Japan is a place which the possessor would not easily
part with for thirty thousand guilders (twelve thousand dollars).
’Tis true, it would be a great disadvantage to the director, and
considerably lessen his profits, if he hath not a good cash in hand to
provide himself, before his departure from Batavia, with a sufficient
stock of goods, but must take them upon credit, and upon his return
share the profits with his creditors. Besides, he must not presume
to leave Batavia, much less to return thither, without valuable
consideration to his benefactors, unless he intends to be excused
for the future the honor of any such employment. The goods he brings
back to Batavia are silk gowns, which he receives as presents from
the emperor and his ministers, and whereof he makes presents again to
his friends and patrons, victuals, china ware, lackered or japanned
things, and other manufactures of the country, which he can dispose
of at Batavia at fifty per cent profits; and besides some kobans in
gold; though if he have any left it is much more profitable to buy
ambergris,[146] or refined copper, and to send the latter, if possible,
on board the Company’s ships to Malacca. I say if possible, because
there are strict orders from the Company against it.
“But it is time at last to send our ships on their return. To make up
their cargoes we buy from twelve thousand to twenty thousand piculs of
refined copper, cast in small cylinders, a span long and an inch thick,
each picul packed in a fir box. We buy, likewise a small quantity of
coarse copper, delivered to us in broad flattish round cakes, and
sometimes we take in some hundred piculs or chests of copper kasies
or farthings, but not unless they be asked for at Tonquin and other
places. All the copper is sold to us by a company of united merchants,
who, by virtue of a privilege from the emperor, have the sole refining
and selling of it to foreigners.
“The other part of our cargo is made up of Japanese camphor, from six
thousand to twelve thousand, and sometimes more, pounds a year, packed
up in wooden barrels; of some hundred bales of china ware packed up
in straw; of a box or two of gold thread, of an hundred rolls to the
box; of all sorts of japanned cabinet-boxes, chests of drawers, and the
like, all of the very best workmanship we can meet with; of umbrellas,
screens, and several other manufactures, made of canes, wood, buffalo
and other horns, hard skins of fishes, which they work with uncommon
neatness and dexterity, stone, copper, gold and _Sowas_ (?), which is
an artificial metal, composed of copper, silver and gold, and esteemed
at least equal in value to silver. To these may be added paper made
transparent with oil and varnish; paper printed and colored with false
gold and silver for hanging of rooms; rice, the best to be had in Asia;
sake, a strong liquor brewed from rice; soy, a sort of pickle, fit to
be eat at table with roasted meat; pickled fruits packed in barrels;
indented tobacco; tea and marmalades; besides some thousand kobans of
gold in specie. The exportation of the following articles is strictly
forbidden. All prints, pictures, goods or stuffs, bearing the emperor’s
coat of arms. Pictures and representations, printed and others, of
soldiers and military people, of any person belonging to the court of
the Dairi, or of Japanese ships; maps of the empire or any part of it;
plans of towns, castles, temples, and the like; all sorts of silk,
cotton, and hempen stuffs; all sorts of arms, including those made in
Japan after European patterns; carpenters’ knives; silver.
“Our ships cannot be laden, nor set sail, till special leave has been
given, and the day of their departure determined by the court. When
they are laden, all our private goods and what else we have to bring on
board, must be again narrowly searched. For this purpose, two of our
landlords, two apprentices of the interpreters, and two clerks, with
some kuri, or workmen, about two or three days before the departure of
the ships, call upon every one in his room, as well those who stay at
Deshima as those who are to return, and who, during the time of sale,
have been lodged in our empty houses. These people visit every corner,
and examine all our things piece by piece, taking an exact memorandum
of what they find; then they bind them together with straw ropes, and
put their seals to them, along with a list of what the parcel contains,
for the information of the gate-guard, who would else open them again.
All contraband goods are seized at this search. Should any of these be
found upon any Dutchman, the possessor would be at least banished the
country for life, and the interpreters and servants appointed for his
service and all other suspected persons would be put to the rack, till
the seller and all his accomplices were discovered, by whose blood only
is such crime to be expiated. Of this we had a late instance in the
imperial steward’s own secretary, who, having endeavored to send over
some scymitar blades to China, was executed for it, with his only son,
not above eight years old. Upon my own departure, although my things,
for good reasons, were visited but slightly, and over a bottle, yet
they seized upon an old Japanese razor and a few other things, just
because they happened to see them.
“The day determined for the departure of our ships drawing near, they
proceed to lade their cargoes one after another. Last of all, the arms
and powder are brought on board, followed by the ship’s company, who
must again pass in review according to the list which was given in upon
ship’s arrival. The ship being ready, she must weigh her anchors that
instant and retire two leagues off the town towards the entrance of
the harbor, where she rides till the other ships are laden in the same
manner. When all the homeward-bound ships are joined, they proceed on
their voyage and after they have gotten to the main sea, to a pretty
considerable distance from the harbor, the Japanese ship-guard, which
never quitted them from their first arrival till then, leave them and
return home. If the wind proves contrary to the ship’s going out, a
good number of Japanese rowing boats, fastened to a rope, tow them out
by force one after another. For the emperor’s orders must be executed
in spite of wind and weather, should even afterwards all the ships run
the hazard of being wrecked.
“All these several strict orders and regulations of the Japanese have
been made chiefly with an intent to prevent smuggling. The penalty
put upon this crime is death without hope of reprieve; but it extends
only to the person convicted and his accomplices, and not to their
families, as the punishment of some other crimes does. And yet the
Japanese are so addicted to it, that, according to computation, no less
than three hundred persons have been executed in six or seven years’
time for smuggling with the Chinese, whose departing junks they follow
to the main sea, and buy of them at a low price what goods they could
not dispose of at their sale at Nagasaki. But these unhappy wretches
are almost as frequently caught by the Japanese boats particularly
appointed for that purpose, and delivered up to justice at Nagasaki,
which constantly proves severe and unmerciful enough.”
Not long after Kämpfer’s arrival in Japan, eleven smugglers were
caught in one boat, and brought to Nagasaki, where they were executed
a few days after. On the 28th of December, 1691, twenty-three persons
suffered death for smuggling, ten of whom were beheaded, and the others
crucified. Among the latter were five who, upon being taken, made away
with themselves, to avoid the shame of an unavoidable public execution;
but their bodies were nevertheless preserved in salt, on purpose to be
afterwards fixed to the cross. During Kämpfer’s stay in Japan, which
was not above two years, upwards of fifty smugglers lost their lives.
“Though there are not many instances of people executed for smuggling
with the Dutch, yet such a case occurred in 1691, when,” says Kämpfer,
“two Japanese were executed on our island for having smuggled from
a Dutchman one pound of camphor of Borneo, which was found upon the
buyer just as he endeavored to carry it off from our island. Early in
the morning on the day of execution the acting governor of Nagasaki
sent notice by the Otona to our director to keep himself with the rest
of the Dutchmen in readiness to see the criminals executed. About
an hour after came over the numerous flocks of our interpreters,
landlords, cooks and all the train of Deshima, with the sheriffs and
other officers of justice, in all to the number of at least two hundred
people. Before the company was carried a pike with a tablet, whereupon
the crime for which the criminals were to suffer was specified in large
characters. Then followed the two criminals, surrounded with bailiffs.
The first was the buyer, a young man of twenty-three years of age,
very meanly clad, upon whom the camphor was found. The second was a
well-looking man, well clad, about forty years of age, who suffered
only for having lent the other, formerly a servant of his, the money to
buy it with.
“One of the bailiffs carried an instrument upright, formed like a
rake, but with iron hooks instead of teeth, proper to be made use of
if any of the malefactors should attempt to make his escape, because
it easily catches hold of one’s clothes. Another carried another
instrument proper to cut, to stab, and to pin one fast to a wall. Then
followed two officers of the governor’s court, with their retinues,
as commissioners to preside at this act, and at some distance came
two clerks. In this order they marched across our island to the place
designed for this execution.
“We Dutchmen, only seven in number (our ship being already gone),
resolved not to come near. But our director advised us to go, as he had
heard that on our refusal we would be compelled by force. I followed
this advice, and went without delay to see the execution done. I found
the two criminals in the middle of the place, one behind the other,
kneeling, their shoulders uncovered, and their hands tied to their
backs. Each had his executioner standing by him, the one a tanner (for
tanners in this country do the office of executioners), the other his
best friend and comrade, whom he earnestly desired, as the custom is
in this country, by doing him this piece of service, to confirm the
friendship he had always had for him. At about twenty paces from the
criminals sat the two commissioners upon one bench, and the two clerks
upon another. A third was left empty for our director, who, however,
did not appear. The rest of the people stood promiscuously where they
pleased. I myself crowded with my Japanese servant as near one of the
malefactors as possibly we could. While they were waiting for the rest
of the Dutchmen I overheard a very extraordinary discourse between the
two criminals; for as the elderly man was grumbling between his teeth
his Kwannongyō, or short prayer to the hundred-hand idol Kwannon, the
other, to whom I stood nearest, rebuked him for it. ‘Fy!’said he. ‘For
shame, to appear thus frightened out of your wits!’‘Ah, ah!’ says the
other, ‘I only pray a little.’‘You have had time enough to pray,’
replied the first; ‘it serves no purpose now, but to expose yourself
and to show the Dutch what a coward you are!’and this discourse so
wrought upon the other that he actually left off praying.
“The minute that the Dutch were all assembled at the place of
execution, a signal was given, and that instant both executioners
cut off each his criminal’s head, with a short scymitar, in such a
manner that their bodies fell forward to the ground. The bodies were
wrapped up, each in a coarse rush mat, and both their heads together
in a third, and so carried away from Deshima to the ordinary place of
execution, a field not far from Nagasaki, where, it was said, young
people tried their strength and the sharpness of their scymitars upon
the dead bodies, by hacking them into small pieces. Both heads were
fixed upon a pole, according to custom, and exposed to view for seven
days. The execution being over, the company marched off from Deshima
without any order. Our director went to meet the two commissioners, and
afterwards the two clerks upon the street, as they were returning home,
thanked them for the trouble they had been at on this occasion, and
invited them to his house to smoke a pipe; but he had nothing in return
for this kind invitation but a sharp reprimand, with an admonition to
take care of his people, that no more such accidents should happen for
the future. This was the first time criminal blood was shed upon our
island.”
The proceedings at the Chinese sales, and the articles imported and
exported by them, were according to Kämpfer, much the same as in the
case of the Dutch, except that they were not allowed to take away any
money, but merchandise only.