mediation of the Mikado, the Son of Heaven, or the inferior spirits called Kami, to whom temples are specially erected. The priests of this sect are allowed to marry.

The amount of the population is entirely unknown, but has been variously estimated. Balbi, in the assumption that Japan is equally populous with China, rates it at 25,000,000; but as China rates double the number this geographer has assigned to it, the population of Japan should, on this principle, amount to fifty or sixty millions.

The government is a hereditary absolute monarchy. The sovereignty was formerly vested directly in an Emperor, called the Mikado, or DairiLama; but in A. D. 1593, the Emperor's "Seogun," (called also Kubo,) or military commander, usurped the chief civil power, and the Mikado has ever since been a mere tool in the government, though he has been left the entire superintendence of religion and education. All public acts, however, must have his sanction, and to him alone belongs the power of conferring honorary distinctions. He lives at Miyako, secluded in a large palace, called the Dairi, or Imperial Court, and is treated with almost divine honors. His income, however, is so small that he may be said to live in splendid poverty. The Kubo keeps a guard and a governor over him, but at the same time acknowledges himself to be the Mikado's first subject, and sends an embassy every year, to acknowledge his inferiority, with presents. The Kubo holds his court at Iedo; exercises full authority over the lives and property of his fellow subjects, and directly administers the local government of the five great towns of Iedo, Miyako, Osaka, Sakai, and Nangasaki. The rest of the Empire is divided into provinces, and the smaller districts, which are governed by daímios and síomios, appointed by the Kubo, and who are abjectly dependent on him. They usually reside in the large towns, and occupy castles defended by strong gates and lofty towers; but even the least dependent daímios are obliged once a year to repair to Iedo, attended by numerous and splendid retinues, bearing valuable presents, which form a main portion of the Kubo's revenues; and some of them are obliged to leave their wives and families at Iedo, as hostages for their faithful conduct. Their own revenues are derived from their respective districts, with which, besides maintaining their state and dignity, they have to support an armed force, make and repair roads, and erect other public works.

The general executive government is confided to seven councillors; the supreme judicial council is composed of five daímios, who assist the Kubo in deciding on political offences, and a senate of fifteen daímios form the ordinary court of criminal and civil law. The laws are severe, and often sanguinary; and death by decapitation and crucifixion are ordinary punishments. Minor offences are punished by exile to the penal settlements of Fatsisio-banishment, imprisonment, torture, &c.; and it often happens that the courts visit with punishment, not only the delinquent, but his relatives and friends, or the stranger that has happened to witness the crime. The prisons are gloomy and frightful dungeons, and the police is extremely strict. The whole government, indeed, is conducted under a state of terrorism, and no part of it is free from restraint. From the Kubo to the lowest menial a mutual spy-system obtains, and even the Emperor himself is liable to inquisitorial strictures.

The public revenues are derived from taxes on land and houses: the land is assumed to be the property of the state; and taxes, as in all

Asiatic countries, are considered as a part of the rent. The army, in times of peace, is rated at 12,000 infantry, and 20,000 cavalry. The arms of the former are muskets, pikes, bows, sabres, and daggers; and of the latter, lances, sabres and pistols. The artillery is confined to a few brass cannon and light guns. Discipline and the science of fortification are little understood. There is no armed navy. Japan has, however, from nature formidable defences in reefs, which encircle the islands, and make her harbors accessible only by channels so tortuous and involved, that a fleet overtaken by a storm while in them, could scarcely escape destruction. Spared dangers of that sort, an invader would meet on the strand a people greatly superior in physical ability and intelligence to any that have succumbed to British power in India or in China. Blockades, however rigid, would prove harmless, for such is the fertility of the soil, and the skill and industry of the people, that Japan is perhaps the most independent power on earth. Neither the bread of the poor nor the luxuries of the rich come from abroad. Japan subsists per se. It is even doubtful whether a foreigner could do anything more agreeable to the islanders than to blockade them rigorously, since non-intercourse with the civilized world, unrelieved even by smuggling, seems the consummation of Japanese hope and policy.

The Japanese have many of the arts in a perfection not yet attained by their more civilized cotemporaries. In those of smelting and refining metals they excel-their copper, iron, and steel, being celebrated for their purity. Their manufactures of them show uncommon skill in the mechanic arts. The blades of their national weapon, the sabre, are quite equal to the best of those of Damascus; and the wares, to which the empire gives name, are not equalled elsewhere. The finer products of European art are imitated by them, and telescopes, thermometers, and clocks, are manufactured at Nangasaki. Mr. Meyler* saw one of the latter, made there in 1827 as a present for the Emperor, which was five feet long and three high; it exhibited a varied landscape and a golden sun; on the striking of the hour a bird clapped its wings, a mouse issued from the cave and climbed a mountain, and a tortoise hastened slowly to point the hour upon the dial! In agriculture they are superior, and the country is cultivated like a garden to the hill tops. The soil rewards the labor of the tiller, by yielding in equal perfection and abundance the vegetable products of the tropics and of Southern Europe. The radish attains the weight of forty pounds. They have also an extraordinary perfection in the art of producing miniature-specimens of trees and shrubs. Mr. Meyler saw offered for sale to the Dutch Governor, a box three inches long by one wide, in which were flourishing a fir-tree, a bamboo, and a plum-tree-the latter in blossom.

The coasting and inland trade of the empire is very extensive; the former is carried on in junks, in many respects similar to those of China, and the latter by fairs which are held periodically in the large cities. Native industry is protected and encouraged by a variety of regulations, but on the other hand there are no customs or excise duties, and communication is facilitated by numerous coasting vessels and by excellent roads. The shops and markets are always well provided, and the great fairs are attended by crowds of people from all quarters. Foreign commerce, however, so far from being encouraged, is rigorously opposed by the government,

*Sketches in Japan, 1840.

in consequence of the attempts made by the Jesuits to christianize the people. Nangasaki is the only port open to foreign trade, and the Dutch are the only Europeans allowed to engage in it, while the number of vessels, and the kinds and quantities of goods, are strictly defined; and the number of residents in the factory is restricted to eleven. The ships on arrival are minutely searched; and the crews confined on the small island of Desima, which is close to the harbor. All the business is transacted by the Japanese, who even unload and reload the vessels. The superintendent of the factory is likewise obliged to send valuable presents to the Kubo, and once in four years he is required to make an official visit to Iedo, with great pomp, and gifts of more than usual value. The imports comprise raw silk, woollen, cotton and linen cloths, sugar, dye-woods, seal-skins, pepper and other spices; mercury, tin, iron, cinnabar, glassware, &c., from the Dutch; and silk, tea, sugar, dried fish and whale oil from the Chinese. The exports consist chiefly of copper in bars, and to a small amount, of camphor, silk fabrics, lackered ware, porcelain, &c.

MIYAKO, (i. e. the capital,) or Kro, (the residence,) the metropolis of the empire, is a very large city, situated in a plain surrounded by hills, in the south-western part of Niphon, about 40 miles from the sea. It is regularly built, with straight streets crossing each other at right angles, but here, as everywhere else in the country, the houses are of wood and very inferior. Among the great number of public buildings the principal is the palace of the Mikado, an enclosure of vast extent, surrounded with walls and ditches, and overlooked by a fine square tower. Next to it are the palace of the Kubo, a building of hewn stone, surrounded by a wet ditch and also overlooked by a tower; the temple of Fokozi, celebrated for a colossal image of "Daïbouts" or the Great Buddha; and the temple of Kwanwon, also with a large image of that god, and numerous images of his subordinate deities. Miyako is the centre of Japanese trade and industry, and contains the mint where the money of the empire is coined. Most of the books are also printed in this city, where the "dairi" or imperial court forms a sort of imperial academy for the cultivation of literature, science and the fine arts. The city contains also a library of 150,000 volumes, and one of the six universities of the empire. Miyako contains about 500,000 inhabitants, among whom are reckoned 52,169 priests.

IEDO or YEDO, the official residence of the Kubo, and the seat of the civil and military government of the empire, is situated in a large plain, opening to the shore of a deep gulf on the south-eastern coast of Niphon, about 200 miles east north-east of Miyako. It is about 20 miles in circuit, and contains about 1,500,000 inhabitants, who carry on an extensive trade. The palace of the Seogun or Kubo is the principal building, and in its extent seems to form a separate town. It is surrounded with ramparts and wet ditches, which are crossed by draw-bridges. It contains the great imperial library, and it was here that the encyclopædia of Japan was published, a very valuable work in 80 volumes, with a great number of plates. Owing to the nature of its construction the city is very subject to fires; scarcely a day passes without several; and whole quarters of the city are sometimes

burned down.

NARA, the ancient residence of the emperors, and consequently much venerated, is situated near Miyako, and is a very flourishing place, in consequence of its numerous temples, which attract devotees. OSAKA, on the Yodo, is a large city, the richest and most commercial in the empire, and

the greatest resort of all the votaries of pleasure. The Japanese say that its population could furnish an army of 80,000 men; if so it must be an extraordinary city. NANGASAKI, on the west coast of Kiu-sui, an open town with narrow winding streets, is the only place where foreigners are allowed to trade. Its commerce and manufactures render it flourishing and populous. It is surrounded with hills crowned with numerous temples, which give it a very picturesque appearance. MATSMAI, with 50,000 inhabitants, lies on a bay at the south-west point of the island of Ieso. Its harbor is constantly filled with merchant vessels, and it has a flourishing

trade.

Among the remarkable places in Japan we must not omit to notice the island of Fatsisio, the most extraordinary place of exile in the world. It is a small island in the open sea 230 miles south by east of Iedo, and its coasts are so precipitous that there is only one landing place. The grandees, who have fallen under the Kubo's displeasure, are sent hither, where they are employed in different kinds of handiwork, and manufacture stuffs so precious for their beauty that his majesty reserves them for his own use.

The large island of Ieso, called also Mo-sin and In-su, to the northward of Niphon, and separated from it by the Strait of Sangar, though possessed and colonized by the Japanese, is also inhabited by an aboriginal people who call themselves Ainos, but are called by the Japanese, Mosins, (hairy bodies.) They are distinguished from the Japanese, says Malte Brun, (II. 509-14,) by a somewhat taller stature and more robust frame; they have large, thick, black beards, and black and somewhat frizzled hair. They live chiefly by hunting and fishing, and pay their tribute to the governor of Matsmai, in skins and other natural productions of their country. Their arms are bows and arrows. They live without laws, and almost without religion; have no alphabet and no coin, and trade entirely by barter. They live in tribes, which are just so many family associations, though they seldom form mutual alliances. Their language seems to be equally foreign to the Japanese, the Manchu, and the Kamtschatdale. The island presents on all sides lofty mountains, covered with beautiful verdure and magnificent forests, which abound with wild animals.

Marco Polo was the first to make known the existence of a country called by him "Zipangu." In 1542 Mendez Pinto, a Portuguese, was cast by storm on these shores, and a Portuguese settlement from Malacca was soon after made at Nangasaki,the commercial relations of which with the inhabitants were very considerable, and highly lucrative, till the interference, in 1585, of the Jesuits with the religious profession of the inhabitants, led to the persecution and final expulsion of the settlers. The Dutch, in 1600, with great difficulty prevailed on the Japanese to allow them to trade, on condition of their not interfering with the national religion; but the vexatious and harrassing regulations by which the trade is obstructed, and the very limited extent allowed to it, make it a matter of question how far the factory should be kept up by the Dutch government. The Russians tried some years ago to establish commercial relations with Japan; but their proposals were declined, and the envoys ordered not to return on pain of death. The internal history of Japan is almost unknown; and the statements that have reached us are too loose to admit of being classed as authentic history.

A

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF

AFRICA.

AFRICA, next to Asia, is the largest single continent of the world. It is situated between 37° 20′ north, and 34° 50' south latitude, and between 51° 30' east, and 17° 33′ west longitude; with an extreme length, from north to south, of 4,988 miles, and a greatest breadth, from east to west, of 4,618 miles. The superficial area is estimated at 11,870,000 square miles. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; on the south by the Antarctic Ocean, and on the east by the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez. This vast peninsula is joined to Asia on the northwest by a narrow neck of land only 75 miles broad; and at the Strait of Bab-el-mandeb, the mouth of the Red Sea, it approaches within 36 miles of the same continent. It is separated from Europe by the Mediterranean, and at the Strait of Gibraltar the two continents approach within ten miles of each other.

Philologists have long and diversely argued the origin of the term Africa. The Greeks called this continent " Libya," and the Romans "Africa;" the former derived from libs, (the south wind,) and the latter probably from the Latin aprica, (sunny,) or the Greek negative appice, (without cold.) It is, however, supposed by some to have been called Libya, from the name of a people found by the Greeks in a country west of Egypt, and who are called in the Hebrew Scriptures "Lehabim or Lubim." With respect of Africa it was the proper name of the city which the Romans called Carthago and the Greeks Kapxedov, and it is certain at least that it was originally applied to the country around Carthage, and afterwards to the whole continent. The term "afrygah," in the language of Carthage, signified a colony, as Carthage was of Tyre, and that term is still used by the Moors to designate the original dependencies of that city.

Unlike the other great continents, Africa presents a solid mass of land with a very regular coast, unbroken by large peninsulas, islands, bays or gulfs, except only on the south-western side, where the Gulf of Guinea makes a deep and wide indentation. The length of the coast line exceeds 16,000 miles, but throughout the whole of that space there are as yet only two navigable openings discovered, by which access to any considerable distance can be had into the interior of the continent. One of these, the Nile, has been known since the earliest dawn of history; the other, the Kawara or Niger, is of very recent discovery. In addition to this want of water communication, the access of travellers has been barred by the all but insuper