G4 INTRODUCTION. 



in the bombardment at Simabara, and contribute to the extirjiation of the native Christians, who 

 were siqiposed to sympathize with the Portuguese? Did they not manifest liostility toward 

 their Protestant neighbors of the English factory at Firando, established by Saris and conducted 

 by Cockes, until the English left? When, in the reign of Charles II, the English sought to 

 renew tlie trade with Japan, was it not the Dutch who hastened to inform the imperial 

 government that the wife of Charles was the daughter of the King of Portugal, thus arraying 

 the deep-seated and ancient Japanese hatred of the Portuguese against the English? When 

 the 'PhfBton,' iinder Pellew, visited Nagasaki, in 1808, was it not M. Doeif, the Dutch chief 

 at Dezima, who devised and counselled the plan whereby the English were to have been 

 murdered to a man? When Java was in possession of the English, and Holland, for a time, 

 had been blotted from the list of nations, was it not the same M. Doeff, who, to the craft of the 

 trader added the cunning of the dii)lomatist, and, by treachery to the Japanese in the bribery of 

 their officials, contrived, at one and the same time, to pay the debts of Dezima and enrich 

 himself personally, out of the two expeditions sent by Sir Stamford Raflies?" 



And noio, when the United States have, without seeing a Dutchman, or using a Dutch 

 document, successfully negotiated a treaty, Holland stands forth, and by a formal official report 

 from her minister of colonies, declares that she will now "perform the agreeable task of showing 

 the persevering and disinterested efforts which the Dutch government has made' ' to cause Japan 

 to open her ports to the commerce of the United States. A brief notice of this extraordinary 

 document is called for by a regard to the truth of history. 



The statement of the Dutch "minister of colonies," when condensed, is substantially this: 

 That in the year 1844, about the time of Commodore Biddle's visit to Japan, the then King of 

 Holland, William II, wrote a letter to the Emperor of Japan, in which attention was called to 

 the introduction of steam in navigation, the consequent increased development of commerce in 

 the Japanese seas, and the danger likely to result to Japan from her rigid system of excluding 

 foreigners from the Kingdom. It recommended friendly and commercial relations as the surest 

 means of avoiding collisions ; and finally, from a grateful sense of the long continued favor 

 shown to the Dutch by the Japanese, it tendered to the latter the "disinterested counsel to 

 relax the laws against foreigners," and offered to send an envoy to give fuller explanations to 

 Japan of what she should do, provided the Emperor desired it. This letter, the Dutch 

 document states, contains the principles which have formed the basis of all Holland's subsequent 

 action, so far as other powers are concerned. 



In 1845, the Emperor caused an answer to be sent to the letter, in which it was politely, but 

 very decidedly, announced that Japan had no wish to alter her ancient laws with rcsiject to 

 foreigners. 



With this the Dutch remained content ; and, so far from pressing the subject in any way, in 

 1846 they became the medium of announcing to the civilized world an edict of Japan forbidding 

 foreigners to make charts and drawings of the Japanese waters and coasts, and forbidding ship- 

 wrecked Japanese sailors to return to their country in any ships hut those of the Netherlands and 

 China. 



Presently, when, in 1852, it became certain that an expedition was to be sent from the United 

 States, under Commodore Perry, the Dutch forthwith sent out orders to their governor general 

 in the Indies to address the governor of Nagasaki, requesting that he would appoint a confi- 

 dential agent to enter into negotiations with the Dutch chief at Dezima, "about the means that 



