PREFACE.

Since [Japan] is closed, and opens only a single port to two Dutch ships arriving annually and a few Chinese vessels, and thus receives about two hundred Europeans each year—who are themselves closely confined and guarded—and a nearly equal number of Chinese, all of whom (except for a very few who remain) must depart after three or four months have passed; it was especially necessary for me to sufficiently understand and speak the Dutch language original: "Belgicam... linguam". However, neither my brief stay in the Netherlands nor the Japanese voyage itself seemed sufficient to learn this language more accurately and perfectly. Hence, as I had greatly desired, it happened that I spent three years at the Cape of Good Hope in Southern Africa original: "Africes australis Promontorio bonae spei", a place renowned for its singular and rare types of plants; from there, by a sea voyage, I was conveyed in the year 1775 to Java, and from there in the same year to Japan.

The Trading Post original: "Emporium" of the Dutch East India Company is situated on a small island named Deshima original: "Dezima", near the city of Nagasaki, in the only port of the entire kingdom where any foreign ship is permitted to cast anchor, in the southernmost part of this most powerful realm. This island is surrounded by a wall and possesses two well-guarded gates, through which no European is permitted to enter or exit without permission and a crowd of guards—and indeed only after a double and most exact inspection—except for the fact that Europeans, three or four times a year, [receive] permission from the Gover- The text cuts off mid-word; "Gubernatore" or Governor is implied.