40 INTRODUCTION. 



defeats, and covering with blackness the acts of their successful rivals. They thus taught the 

 Japanese to form an idea of the English character and ambition perfectly fatal to the establish- 

 ment of friendly relations. And, unfortunately, in many instances, (one of which, in Japan, 

 we shall detail directly,) the English were furnishing them, from time to time, with abundant 

 material. We do not mean to apologize for England's misdoings in the east ; but we do mean 

 to impute to the Dutch the seeming pursuit, from the very beginning, of a uniform system of 

 policy, which, whether it be so or not, appears, at least, to have sought the exclusion of 

 Portuguese, English, Americans, and every other commercial nation in Christendom, from any 

 participation in the trade with Japan, of which, at the price of a servility utterly unworthy 

 of the noble deeds of Holland's past history, she had procured the monopoly. 



The next English visit we have to record is that of an armed ship-of-war, in 1808. In 

 October of that year an European vessel, with Dutch colors, appeared off Nagasaki. It was the 

 time when the usual Dutch trader was expected, and M. Doeff was then director of the factory 

 at Dezima. Supposing it to be the expected annual trader from Batavia, two of the employes 

 of the factory, one of whom was a book-keeper, named G-ozeman, put off to the ship ; according 

 to Doeff's account, the native interpreters, who never went on board, reported on their return 

 that the shijj's boat put off on the approach of the boat containing the two Dutch clerks, as if 

 to meet them ; and that the crew of the ship's boat had weapons concealed on their persons. 

 The Japanese boat, with the interpreters, was astern of that from the factory. As the boats 

 approached that of the Dutchmen was boarded from the other and the two employes were forcibly 

 carried, as prisoners, on board the ship. Be this as it may, certain it is that Gozeman and his 

 companion did not return, and that they were detained on board of the strange vessel. The 

 Japanese could not conceal their astonishment, nor understand how Hollanders, in that part of 

 the Kingdom where they were permitted to be, and lawfully employed, too, could be thus treated 

 by men sailing under the Dutch flag. Doeff, however, instantly suspected that the vessel was 

 English, and he knew that war then existed between his own country and England. 



The governor of Nagasaki, enraged beyond measure, had driven the Japanese interpreters 

 from his presence, and bade them not dare appear before him again without Gozeman and his 

 companion ; and instantly set about making preparations for repelling a warlike attack. But, 

 to his horror, he discovered that, at a strong point on the harbor, where there should have been 

 a garrison of a thousand men, nearly all were absent without leave ; the commander was away, 

 and not more than sixty or seventy soldiers could be mustered. Though it was not the 

 governor's duty to command this point in person, yet to him belonged its oversight ; and from 

 the moment he discovered its condition he considered himself as a dead man. 



At eleven o'clock that night, Doeff received a note in the hand-writing of one of the detained 

 Dutchmen, in these words : " The ship has come from Bengal. The captain's name is Pellew ; 

 he wants water and provisions." The vessel was H. M. S. Photon, belonging to the squadron 

 of Admiral Drury, cruising in the eastern seas. As we have said, England was at war with 

 Holland, which at that time was a mere dependency of France. The admiral had ordered 

 Captain Fleetwood Pellew to cruise off the Japanese islands, for the purpose of intercepting the 

 Dutch traders to Nagasaki. Captain Pellew, after cruising for a month, supposed that the 

 Dutch vessels might have reached the harbor of Nagasaki, and jjut in to that port in the hope 

 of finding them there. 



Doeff did not dare to send off water and provisions without the concurrence of the Japanese 



