AN INTRODUCTION

By the Translator

T would be needless to say anything by way of Apology for the publication of the following History of Japan. There is something, in all Books of Travels, both useful and entertaining to men of all ranks and professions. And as to this History in particular, if the Author had not already, by a former performance of his, (entituled Amœnitates Exoticæ, and publish'd at Lemgow in 1712) convinced the world of his learning, judgment, and integrity, its own curiosity and intrinsick worth, the remoteness of the Country, which is therein so particularly described, and which hath been hitherto but little known, together with the many vexatious difficulties, the Author had to struggle with in the pursuit of his enquiries, as hath been hinted by him in his Preface, and will appear throughout the whole work, would sufficiently recommend it to a favourable reception. The High German Original lay, in a manner, ready for the Press, when the Amoenitates were printed, and it was promised in the Preface, that it would be speedily publish'd, but his necessary attendance on the practise of Physick, particularly in the Count de Lippe's Family, to whom he was Physician in ordinary, with a multiplicity of other business, the want of good engravers, and probably of encouragement too, delay'd its appearing, till at least his sickness and death put an

entire stop to this and some other intended works of his, the fruit of many years indefatigable pains and industry. Sir Hans Sloane hearing of Dr. Kæmpfer's death, and having otherwise found by his Inaugural Theses, and his Amonitates Exoticæ, that he must have collected and brought with him into Europe many natural and artificial curiosities, desired Dr. Steigerthal, his Majesty's chief Physician, in one of his journies to Hanover, to enquire what was become of them. This Gentleman was so obliging, as to go to Lemgow himself, and being told that they were to be disposed of, he immediately informed Sir Hans of, who thereupon purchased them for a considerable sum of money, together with all his drawings and manuscript memoirs: And it is owing to his care and generous assistance, that this History of Japan, the original High German manuscript of which was bought at the same time, is now first published in English. It was upon his intimation, which deservedly hath with me the weight of a command, that I undertook to translate it, a Gentleman of better abilities, who intended to do it, having been called abroad, and employ'd in affairs of a different nature. And I went about it with more chearfulness, as out of his known communicative disposition, and unwearied endeavours to promote all useful, and in particular natural knowledge, he was pleased not only to grant me the use of his Library, which I may venture to call the completest in its kind in Europe, but likewise to give me leave to copy out of his invaluable treasures of curiosities in nature and art, what would serve to illustrate and embellish it, for which, and the many other marks of the favour and friendship he hath honoured me with, ever since my arrival in this Country, I take this opportunity gratefully to return my sincerest acknowledgments. My design, in this Introduction, is, in a short survey of this present work, to point out some of its peculiar excellencies, and to illustrate the whole with a few additional remarks, tending to clear up some doubtful points from the latest discoveries, and to explain others,

which have been hitherto but slightly, if at all, touched upon. As the translation and publication of this History led me into farther searches concerning the Empire of Japan, and put me upon enquiring what other authors have wrote on this subject, I thought that it would not be unacceptable, nor altogether useless, to publish a list of them, with some observations, I made upon perusal, on the character, translations and several editions of the most considerable: I have had the satisfaction to find, upon the strictest search, that there was nothing of moment wanting in the Library of Sir Hans Sloane: And it will appear by the completeness of this catalogue, what an immense charge and trouble the worthy Possessor must have been at, to bring together, from all parts of the world, so extensive a collection of Books of Physick, Natural History and Travels, and of what an advantage it would be to the learned world, to see some account of them in print, of which he was pleased to give us some hopes in the Introduction to the second volume of his Natural History of Jamaica.

This History of Japan was by the Author divided into five Books. At the beginning of the first Book is an account of his voyage from Batavia to Siam, and from thence to Japan, together with a short description of the Kingdom of Siam. One would imagine, after the many and prolix accounts of the Kingdom of Siam, published (on occasion of that memorable Embassy, which was sent from thence into France in 1684, and was return'd by two others from France to Siam) by de L'Isle, F. Tachard, the Abbot de Choisy, Nicolas Gervaise, and the two Ambassadors sent thither by the King of France, the Marquess de Chaumont, and Monsieur de la Loubere, not to mention many preceding writers, that there should have been little or nothing left to be taken notice of by other Travellers: But the observations of Dr. Kæmpfer shew, that the subject was far from being exhausted. His narrative of the late revolution in Siam, and the fall and execution of the famous Constantin Faulcon, for some

time Prime Minister to the King, hath several circumstances entirely new, and others very much differing from the accounts given by the French writers, particularly F. D'Orleans (who wrote the life of M. Constance) and it may deserve some credit, as the French, by being expelled the Country, were incapacitated to give a good account of what happen'd, and as he himself arrived there not long after this remarkable event, when as yet it was fresh in every body's memory. He hath made many pertinent remarks on the Religion, Customs, Chronology of the Siamites, and hath observed, in less than a month's stay, several things even in and about the Capital, which escaped the attention of other Travellers before him. The Pyramid Pukathon, and the Courts of Berklam's Temples, which he hath so accurately described and figured, are instances of this.

The History of Japan begins with a Geographical Description of that Empire, deliver'd in two Chapters, and taken out of their own authors, so far as it relates to the number of Provinces, or Counties, the particular districts they are divided into, and the Revenues of each Province. It hath been very much doubted by some of the latest Geographers, whether or no the Empire of Japan is contiguous to the neighbouring Country of Jesso, as the Japanese call it, and consequently, whether it is to be reckon'd among the Islands or Peninsula's. Monsieur de l'Isle, a Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, and Geographer to the King of France, seem'd rather inclined to think that it is contiguous to Jesso, and hath given the reasons of his conjectures in a Letter, which was publish'd in the third volume of the Recueil des Voyages au Nord, (p. 32.) It will not be amiss, on this occasion, to offer some observations, which will serve to clear up this doubt, and to shew that it actually is an Island. And in the first place it must be observed, that Monsieur de l'Isle lays the greatest stress of his Conjectures on the uncertainty, which the Japanese themselves are in, about the antiquity of their Empire

with a neighbouring continent, and some passages taken out of a Letter of F. Luis de Froes, and the memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors of Japan, wherein it is positively asserted, that they are contiguous. He doth not disown, but that all the Maps of the Japanese Empire, made since its discovery in 1542, particularly those of Texeira, Cosmographer to the King of Portugal, and of Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Author of the Arcano del Mare, with some others sent from China and Japan, concurring to make an Island of it, are of no small weight to make one think that it is one, the rather, as this opinion is farther supported by most accounts from those parts. As to what he quotes out of Tavernier, of a ship, which, he affirms, in the third volume of his Travels, to have sailed all round Japan, that indeed might be easily given up, though never so positively asserted. That Author, himself scarce able to read or write, and obliged to borrow the Pen of another man to write the account of his Travels, was too superficial in his description even of those Countries, where he hath been, and too apt, not only to take things upon trust at first hand, but afterwards also to confide too much to his memory, to be any ways depended on: And in his account of that ship, (whereby it is plain, he meant the Breskens and Castrecoom fitted out by the Dutch East India Company, and purposely sent upon discovery of the Country of Jesso in 1643) he hath made, whether misinform'd himself, or willing to misinform others, too many unaccountable blunders, to deserve the least credit. But without having recourse, to what might be gather'd for or against the opinion of M. de l'Isle, either from the Maps or Writings of preceding authors, though I believe he hath even there by much the minority on his side, this matter is put out of all doubt, by the Maps of the Empire of Japan made by the natives, and by the latest discoveries of the Russians. The Japanese, in all their maps, represent their Empire as consisting of very many Islands, great and small, the largest whereof, which is by them called