“The next day after her arrival, the commissioners of the governor come on board, with their usual attendance of soldiers, interpreters, and subordinate officers, to make an exact review, in presence of our director, of all the people on board, according to the list which hath been given them, and wherein is set down every one’s name, age, birth, place of residence, and office, examining them from top to toe. Many questions are asked, as to those who died on the voyage, when and of what distemper they died. Even now and then a dead monkey or parrot may occasion a strict inquiry to be made after the cause and manner of their death, and they are so scrupulous that they will not give their verdict, without sitting upon the body itself, and carefully examining it. “After this, the orders of our director, and likewise of the governors of Nagasaki, relating to our behavior with regard to the natives, are read in Low Dutch, and afterwards, for every one’s inspection, stuck up in several places on board the ship, and at Deshima. The same rules are observed with all our ships, of which there are two, three, or four, sent from Batavia to Japan every year, according to the quantity of copper they have occasion for; one of which goes first to Siam, to make up part of her cargo with the commodities of that country. Formerly, when the Dutch as yet enjoyed a free trade, they sent seldom less than six or seven ships, and sometimes more. “The review being over, they proceed to unlade the ships, during which, several of the governors’ officers, a chief interpreter, a deputy interpreter, and an apprentice, besides several clerks and inferior officers, remain on board, taking possession of every corner, to see that nothing be carried away privately. The water gates of our island, through which the cargo is to be brought in, are opened in presence of the _karō_, that is, high commissioners of the governors, and their retinue. So long as the gates are kept open, the karō, with their deputies and other assistants, stay in a room built for this purpose, not far off. The whole body of interpreters, as also our landlords, clerks, and other officers of our island, give their attendance, and also their assistance, at that time. They fall to work with three hundred or more kuri, or workmen—always at least twice the number there is occasion for. The unlading of every ship ought to be performed in two days, but notwithstanding the number of men they employ, they generally make a three days’ work of it, in order to make it so much the more beneficial to the town.