Note 124 — Chapter XXV

The journals of these embassies of Waganaar, Frisius, and others, generally pretty dry documents, with extracts from Caron, furnished the basis for the “Memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors of Japan,” a splendid folio, with more than a hundred copper plates, published at Amsterdam in 1669, purporting to be compiled by Arnold Montanus, of which an English translation, made by Ogilvy, with the same cuts, appeared the next year at London, under the title of Atlas Japonensis, and a French translation, with some additions and alterations, ten years later at Amsterdam.

The materials are thrown together in the most careless and disorderly manner, and are eked out by drawing largely upon the letters of the Jesuit missionaries. The cuts, whence most of the current prints representing Japanese objects are derived, are destitute of any authenticity. Those representing Japanese idols and temples evidently were based on the descriptions of Froez, whose accounts do not seem quite to agree in all respects with the observations of more recent travellers.

The dedication of Ogilvy’s translation outdoes anything Japanese in the way of prostration, nor can the language of it hardly be called English. It is as follows: “To the supreme, most high and mighty prince, Charles II., by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c. These strange and novel relations concerning the ancient and present state of the so populous and wealthy empire of Japan, being a book of wonders, dedicated with all humility, lies prostrate at the sacred feet of your most serene majesty, by the humblest of your servants, and most loyal subject, John Ogilvy.”