Four days after, the travellers set off for Suruga, on a visit to the emperor. The road is thus described: “On whatsoever side the traveller turns his eyes, he perceives a concourse of people passing to and fro, as in the most populous cities of Europe. The roads are lined on both sides with superb pine-trees, which keep off the sun. The distances are marked by little eminences planted with two trees.” In the hundred leagues between Suruga and Miyako, several towns were passed, estimated to contain one hundred thousand inhabitants, and a village occurred at every quarter of a league. Rodrigo declares himself so delighted with Japan, that, “if he could have prevailed upon himself to renounce his God and his king, he should have preferred that country to his own.” He estimated Suruga to contain from five to six hundred thousand inhabitants. The climate was more agreeable than that of Yedo, but the city not so handsome. As at Yedo, a convenient residence was provided for him, which the crowd besieged as they had done there. The emperor sent a secretary to compliment him on his arrival, with a present of rich dresses, and in about a week he had his presentation. He was conveyed in an elegant litter to the palace, which was a fortress like that at Yedo. On the whole, there was less display than at the prince’s court, but more marks of power and fear. The interview with the emperor is thus described: “I followed the minister, who conducted me into the presence of the sovereign, whom I saluted. He was in a kind of square box, not very large, but astonishingly rich. It was placed two steps above the floor, and surrounded at four paces’ distance by a gold lattice-work, six feet high, in which were small doors, by which the emperor’s attendants went in and out, as they were called from the crowd, prostrate on their hands and knees around the lattice.[72] The monarch was encircled by nearly twenty grandees, ministers or principal courtiers, in long silk mantles, and trousers of the same material, so long that they entirely concealed the feet. The emperor was seated on a kind of stool, of blue satin, worked with stars and half-moons of silver. In his girdle he wore a sword, and had his hair tied up with ribbons of different colors, but had no other head-dress. His age appeared to be about sixty.[73] He was of the middle stature, and of a very full person. His countenance was venerable and gracious; his complexion not near so brown as that of the prince.”