13.
its proper location, right at the city (I, ix, 235). The dimensions of the bridge which separated Dejima from Nagasaki proper were, according to Cornwallis, 660 feet by 240 feet, but these dimensions were actually the dimensions of Dejima itself.[1]
The question might finally be asked, was Cornwallis ever in Japan? Was his book merely a compilation with absolutely no basis in fact, and worth listing in bibliographies only as evidence of contemporary interest in Japan? As the reviewer in the London Spectator Supplement points out, Cornwallis claims to have gone to Japan first on an American "sloop of war," then on an American "steam-frigate," but where the sloop or frigate hailed from, how Cornwallis got on board, what capacity he filled, and how he came to be on board at all, is not to be gathered from his account.[2]
The dates are questionable because Cornwallis' first entry into and experiences at Shimoda are said to have occurred in 1856 at a time when certain Sandwich islanders were still there. But the Islanders to whom Cornwallis probably refers had already left the port more than one year before, in early June, 1855.[3] The first date which we get concerning Cornwallis'
