ABSTRACT
Nicolae Gavrilovich Milescu, variously known by his court rank as Spatarul, Spafarii or Spatharius, was a Moldavian nobleman, diplomat and polymath educated in Constantinople, and widely travelled in western Europe. In 1675 he was entrusted with an embassy to China, for which he prepared extensively through research in the available archives. The great and remarkable island of Japan, according to the Chinese geographers, begins opposite the mouth of the Amur river and stretches along the Chinese coastline for a long distance. The inhabitants of Japan are mostly descended from Chinese, who have changed their customs. The name of Japan itself is Chinese, as the Chinese call it Gepuen, and the Japanese also call it Gepuen, that is the rising of the sun, or the first place of the sun. The Chinese call Japan this because their country is the furthest and best-known country to the east, for the sun comes from there to China.
