Up to 1809,[88] the ships from Batavia had arrived regularly; but from that time till 1818 neither goods nor news reached the lonely Dutchmen at Deshima. The first and second failure they bore with some resignation, looking confidently forward to the next year; “but, alas!” says our by this time very thirsty, and somewhat ragged, director, “it passed away without relief or intelligence, either from Europe or Batavia! All our provision from Java was by this time consumed. Butter we had not seen since the supply of 1807, for the ship “Goede Frouw” (good wife, but not good housewife) “had brought us none in 1809. To the honor of the Japanese, I must acknowledge that they did everything in their power to supply our special wants.... The inspector, Shige Dennozen, among others, gave himself much trouble to distil gin for us, for which purpose I supplied him with a still-kettle and a tin worm, which I chanced to possess. He had tolerable success, but could not remove the resinous flavor of the juniper. The corn spirit (whiskey), which he managed to distil, was excellent. As we had also been without wine since the supply of 1807, with the exception of a small quantity brought by the “Goede Frouw,” he likewise endeavored to press it for us from the wild grapes of the country, but with less success. He obtained, indeed, a red and fermented liquor, but it was not wine. I myself endeavored to make beer; and, with the help of the domestic dictionaries of Chaud and Bays, I got so far as to produce a whitish liquor, with something of the flavor of the white beer of Haerlem, but which would not keep above four days, as I could not make it work sufficiently, and had no bitter with which to flavor it. Our great deficiency was in the articles of shoes and winter clothing. We procured Japanese slippers of straw, and covered the instep with undressed leather, and thus draggled along the street. Long breeches we manufactured from an old carpet which I had by me. Thus we provided for our wants as well as we could. There was no distinction among us. Every one who had saved anything threw it into the common stock, and we thus lived under a literal community of goods.”