Theatre of the World

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The Voiages and Travels of John Struys is a remarkable early modern travel narrative that recounts the extraordinary journeys of Jan Janszoon Struys, a Dutch sailor and adventurer, across Europe, Africa, and Asia. First published in Dutch in 1676 and translated into English in 1684, this work is the youngest book featured in this exhibit. Despite its later publication date, it is a vital piece of English-language history, particularly for its rare account of Japan, a country that had largely closed itself off from external influences by this period.

Struys’ narrative is not merely a travelogue but an account of survival, exploration, and cultural observation. His voyages took him through Italy, Greece, Muscovy, Tartary, Persia, the East Indies, and Japan, offering one of the most extensive European travel accounts of the 17th century. Along the way, he endured shipwreck, robbery, slavery, hunger, and torture, making his work as much a tale of personal hardship as it is an ethnographic and geographic record.

What It Is & How It Was Made

Struys’ account was compiled from firsthand experiences during his time as a sailor, mercenary, and trader between 1647 and 1673. The book, originally published in Dutch, was later translated into English by John Morrison and printed in London in 1684.

A key feature of the work is its copperplate illustrations, designed by Struys himself, which provide visual depictions of landscapes, cities, people, and customs. These images add an important documentary dimension to the text, making it one of the few contemporary European sources to visually and textually describe parts of Japan, Persia, and the Russian frontier.

Who Used It & How Far It Reached

The Voiages and Travels was aimed at European readers with an interest in foreign lands, including merchants, scholars, and naval officers. The English translation broadened its audience, offering one of the few widely available accounts of Japan in English, a language that had very few records of the country due to Japan’s self-imposed isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate.

Because Struys' travels coincided with a period of intensifying European colonial and commercial activity, his book was widely read in England and the Netherlands, influencing European perceptions of Russia, Persia, and Japan.

What It Depicts & What It Tries to Show

Struys’ Voiages and Travels provides:

• One of the earliest English-language accounts of Japan, detailing customs, governance, and daily life at a time when the country had restricted European contact to a single Dutch trading post at Dejima.
• Descriptions of major cities and regions, including Moscow, Astrakhan, Isfahan, Java, and Edo (Tokyo), offering rare glimpses into political and military structures.
• Ethnographic observations, noting the manners, clothing, and religions of people across Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and the Indian Ocean world.
• Accounts of extreme hardship, including Struys’ capture and enslavement by Tartars, his forced service in Russian campaigns, and his survival of multiple shipwrecks and battles.

His descriptions—while sometimes exaggerated—provide a rare firsthand record of areas that few Europeans of his time had visited.

Challenges & Considerations

• Fact vs. Embellishment
  Struys’ narrative is a blend of fact and dramatic storytelling. As was common in early travel writing, he sometimes sensationalizes events or relies on secondhand reports. However, many of his descriptions—particularly of Japan and Persia—are consistent with other historical records, lending credibility to key portions of his account.
• Japan’s Isolation & the Rarity of English Accounts
  By the time Struys reached Japan, the country had severely restricted foreign contact, limiting trade and diplomacy to Dutch merchants at Nagasaki’s Dejima island. This makes Struys’ observations exceptionally rare in English-language sources, offering one of the only 17th-century English records of Japan before the country reopened to the West in the 19th century.
• The Role of Visual Documentation
  The copperplate engravings add an important documentary element to the book, capturing early depictions of Japan, Persia, and Russia. While some of the illustrations may have been embellished for dramatic effect, they remain significant as one of the earliest visual representations of these regions in a widely circulated European text.

Why It Matters

The Voiages and Travels of John Struys is one of the most wide-ranging European travel accounts of the 17th century, covering vast territories from Moscow to Persia, Java to Japan. Despite its adventurous and sometimes exaggerated tone, it remains a vital historical source, particularly in English-language accounts of Japan—a country that had already sealed itself off from most of the Western world. Its mix of personal survival, cultural documentation, and geopolitical observation makes it an invaluable record of early modern global encounters.