Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/332

 5l6 INTEnCOLONIAL COMMERCE. sketch of the commercial capabilities of Japan, which will enable the reader to understand some additional causes, which have contributed to the restricted intercourse which now subsists between that nation and foreigners. Japan is the only great and civilized empire of Asia, situated in the temperate zone. It lies between the latitudes of thirty and forty degrees, the happiest climate of our globe. In winter there is a considerable fall of snow, and the summers are hot, but the climate is, upon the whole, remarkable for salubrity. The land is rather sterile than fertile, but, by the in- dustry of a numerous people, highly cultivated. It is rich in mines of the most precious and of the most useful of the metals, gold and silver, iron and copper. These, and a few manufactures in which the Japanese excel all mankind, they could af- ford to exchange for the productions of tropical countries which do not grow in their own, and for the manufactures of commercial Europe, which must necessarily be suited to the natural wants of a people inhabiting similar climates with ourselves. From the east coast of America, Japan is probably not distant above a month or five weeks* sail. It is but four or five days' sail from some of the richest provinces of China j from Manilla not probably above six or seven days' voyage, and from Batavia, at the most, not above twenty. From these last it could receive every species of colonial produce, and