After the audience the Dutch received many visits, particularly from physicians and astronomers. On the subject of astronomy Doeff was more puzzled than even Thunberg had been, for, since Thunberg’s time, the Japanese would seem to have made considerable advances in that science. They had a translation of La Lande’s astronomy, and the chief astronomer, Takaro Sampei (?) (to whom Doeff, at his special request for a name, gave that of _Globius_, and who proved, on subsequent occasions, a good friend of the Dutch), could calculate eclipses with much precision. To a grandson of one of Thunberg’s medical friends, who was also a physician, Doeff gave the name of _Johannis Botanicus_. The honor of a Dutch name, exceedingly coveted by the Japanese, was solicited even by the prince of Satsuma and his secretary. Being attacked with colic on his return from Yedo, Doeff submitted to the Japanese remedy of acupuncture; but he does not give any high idea of its efficacy. Two accounts current of the trade of Japan for the years 1804 and 1806, published by Raffles, will serve to show its condition at this time. The articles sent to Japan were sugar, spices, woollens, cottons, tin, lead, quicksilver, sapan-wood, saffron, liquorice, elephant’s-teeth, catechu, and ducatoons, sugar forming about half the cargo in value. The prime cost at Batavia was, in 1804, 211,896, in 1806, 161,008 rix dollars, to which were to be added freight and charges at Batavia, amounting in 1804 to 150,000, in 1806 to 106,244 rix dollars, making the whole cost in 1804, 361,807, in 1806, 266,252 rix dollars. The sales at Deshima amounted in 1804 to 160,378, in 1806 to 108,797 rix dollars; but this included, in 1804, 3,333 rix dollars from old goods, and, in 1806, 5,428 rix dollars borrowed of the Japanese to complete the cargo. From these amounts were to be deducted the expenses of the establishment at Deshima, and loss in weight on the sugar, viz., in 1804, 67,952,[85] and in 1806, 39,625 rix dollars, leaving to be employed in the purchase of copper and camphor, in 1804, 92,426, in 1806, 69,172 rix dollars, to which were added 13,125 rix dollars from the sale of old goods. The copper brought back by the ship of 1804 having been coined at Batavia, the entire profit of the voyage amounted to 507,147 rix dollars, but the larger part of this profit belonged, in fact, to the mint, the copper being coined at a rate above its intrinsic value. In 1808, the copper being sold, the balance in favor of the voyage was but 175,505 rix dollars, deducting the amount borrowed in Japan. It was only the low rate at which copper was furnished by the Japanese government that enabled these voyages to pay. [Illustration: THE PROCESSES OF WEIGHING AND POUNDING RICE]