INTERCOLONIAL COMMERCE. - 307 is palisadoed all round, as well as surrounded by a guard. From this imprisonment the Dutch are allowed to peep twice or thrice a-year, rather to be exhibited to the great as a curiosity than out of indulgence. A corps of constables and interpre- ters are appointed to watch over their minutest ac- tions, and the most degrading servilities are exact- ed from the highest among them, by the meanest. oflScers of the Japanese government. *
- The Dutch have not now even the excuse which they
had in the time of Kajmpfer, when he tells us, •' So great was the covetousness of the Dutch, and so great the alluring power of the Japanese gold, that rather than quit the pro- spect of a trade, indeed most advantageous, they willingly underwent an almost habitual imprisonment, for such, in fact, is our stay at Desima, and chose to suffer many hardships in a foreign and heathen country, to be remiss in performing divine service on Sundays, and solemn festivals ; to leave off praying and singing psalms in public, entirely to avoid the sign of the cross, the calling upon Christ in the presence of the natives, and all the outward marks of Christianity ; and lastly, patiently and submissively to bear the abusive and in- jurious behaviour of these proud infidels towards us, than which nothing can be offered more shocking to a generous and noble mind. — Vol. I. p. 325. The following is a specimen of the conduct expected from the Dutch towards the officers of the Japanese government. The Banjos alluded to are a sort of constables or superior police-officers : " The Opperhoofd, or director of the Dutch factory, Myn Heer van DoefF, was also brought along with the banjos ; but it wi;s upwards of an hour before he was
