“I must beg leave to observe that, besides the several things hitherto mentioned, which travellers usually carry along with them in their journeys, I had for my own private use a very large Javan box, which I had brought with me from Batavia. In this box I privately kept a large mariner’s compass, in order to measure the directions of the roads, mountains, and coasts; but open and exposed to everybody’s view, was an inkhorn; and I usually filled it with plants, flowers, and branches of trees, which I figured and described (nay, under this pretext whatever occurred to me remarkable). Doing this, as I did it free and unhindered, to everybody’s knowledge, I should be wrongly accused to have done anything which might have proved disadvantageous to the Company’s trade in this country, or to have thereby thrown any ill suspicion upon our conduct from so jealous and circumspect a nation. Nay, far from it, I must own that, from the very first day of our setting out, till our return to Nagasaki, all the Japanese companions of our journey, and particularly the Bugiō or commander-in-chief, were extremely forward to communicate to me what uncommon plants they met with, together with their names, characters, and uses, which they diligently inquired into among the natives. The Japanese, a very reasonable and sensible people, and themselves great lovers of plants, look upon botany as a study both useful and innocent, which, pursuant to the very dictates of reason and the law of nature, ought to be encouraged by everybody. Thus much I know, by my own experience, that of all the nations I saw and conversed with in my long and tedious travels, those the least favored botanical learning who ought to have encouraged it most. Upon my return to Nagasaki, _Tōnemon_, secretary and chief counsellor to the governors, being at Deshima, sent for me, and made me, by the chief interpreter, the following compliment: That he had heard with great pleasure from our late Bugiō, how agreeably I had spent my time, and what diversion I had taken upon our journey in that excellent and most commendable study of botany, whereof he, _Tōnemon_, himself was a great lover and encourager. But I must confess, likewise, that at the beginning of our journey I took what pains and tried what means I could to procure the friendship and assistance of my fellow-travellers, obliging some with a submissive humble conduct and ready assistance, as to physic and physical advice, others with secret rewards for the very meanest services and favors. “A traveller must not forget to provide himself with a cloak, against rainy weather, made of double-varnished oiled paper, and withal so very large and wide that it covers and shelters at once man, horse, and baggage. It seems the Japanese have learned the use of it, together with the name _Kappa_, from the Portuguese.