On the twenty-ninth the officers of the factory came on board, and calling the ship’s company together, read to them the orders of the Dutch East India Company, and of the governor of Nagasaki, to the effect that every one was to behave soberly and discreetly with respect to the natives and to the laws and customs of the country. A paper containing these orders, written in Dutch, was, according to the Japanese custom, left on board for everybody to read. No one, except the captain of the ship and the director, or head officer (in Dutch, _Opperhoofd_), of the factory, could leave the ship for Deshima, or return on board again, without a written passport, in the one case granted by the Japanese officers on board, in the other by those upon the island. On the twenty-sixth Kämpfer took his goods and landed for his two years’ residence on the island. It was his object to get all the knowledge he possibly could of the present state and past history of Japan; but in this he encountered many difficulties. The Japanese officers, with whom the Dutch came in contact, were all bound by an oath, renewed every year, not to talk with the Dutch, nor to make any disclosures to them, respecting the domestic affairs of the country, its religion, or its politics; and not only that, they were also bound by oath to watch and report each other—which fear of being informed against was indeed their chief dread and restraint. “Naturally the Japanese were,” in Kämpfer’s opinion, “their pride of warlike humor being set aside, as civil, as polite and curious a nation as any in the world, naturally inclined to commerce and familiarity with foreigners, and desirous to excess to be informed of their histories, arts and sciences. But,” he adds, “as we are only merchants, whom they place in the lowest class of mankind, and as the narrow inspection we are kept under must naturally lead them to some jealousy and mistrust, so there is no other way to gain their friendship, and to win them over to our interest, but a willingness to comply with their desire, a liberality to please their avaricious inclinations, and a submissive conduct to flatter their vanity. ’Twas by this means I worked myself into such a friendship and familiarity with my interpreters, and the officers of our island, who daily came over to us, as I believe none before me could boast of, ever since we have been put under such narrow regulations. Liberally assisting them as I did with my advice and medicines, with what information I was able to give them in astronomy and mathematics, and with a cordial and plentiful supply of European liquors, I could also in my turn freely put to them what questions I pleased about the affairs of their country, whether relating to the government in civil or ecclesiastical affairs, to the customs of the natives, to the natural and political history; and there was none that ever refused to give me all the information he could, when we were