Exotic Pleasures (Persia and Asia observations)

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...was then in the Persian Gulf, I was carried away to Java, and having progressed from its capital Batavia, modern-day Jakarta. into more distant provinces and islands, I finally visited the Siamese Court. From there, after inspecting Cambodia, Southern China, and the adjacent regions in passing original: "per tranfennam," literally "through a lattice," meaning he viewed them briefly or from a distance while in transit., I reached Japan, the furthest Thule In classical geography, "Thule" represented the most distant northern location; here, Kaempfer uses it metaphorically for Japan as the extreme edge of the known world. of the Orient. Having stayed there for two full years, by no means idly, and having remained in Asia for a total of a decade, I made a direct return across the ocean to the Netherlands original: "Belgium," a common Latin term at the time for the Low Countries/Dutch Republic.. I spent one year at sea, except for a few weeks in which I traversed the wilderness of the African Promontory The Cape of Good Hope.. These regions of the world, I say, I follow in my Travelogue: from which very source I have drawn and compiled the greater part of the miscellaneous descriptions and observations for this introductory work original: "prodromi". I have done this, however, in such a way that I have not impoverished the main work; I have not let happen to it what often occurs in smaller gardens, where once a few choice flowers are plucked, only the stalks and leaves remain. If indeed it were my pleasure for the whole travel record original: "Hodœporicum," from the Greek term for a travel narrative. to be torn into such individual accounts and transcribed here, this treatise could be expanded into many volumes; but it is better to eventually present the whole machine itself, rather than merely its building stones.