30 ENGLISH IN JAPAN. [1845. 



canie impossible to quit the coast without inevitable 

 danger. 



" Cut off from all other nations, encompassed by a sea 

 liable to hurricanes, not less tremendous for their sud- 

 denness than their violence, and thereby secured from 

 the continuance of hostile fleets in these parts, the Ja- 

 panese gradually turned their whole attention to their 

 domestic affairs. Their respect for the Dutch by degrees 

 diminished. A mortal blow was given to our importance 

 in this country by the removal of our establishment from 

 Firando to Nangasaki in 1640, the chief objects of which 

 were, 1 . To afford some relief to the inhabitants of that 

 imperial city, who, since the expulsion of the Spaniards 

 and Portuguese, were daily becoming more and more 

 impoverished ; 2. To keep us more dependent, by placing 

 us under the superintendence of their Governors. For 

 the sake of our commerce, we patiently submitted to the 

 destruction of our recently erected store-houses, the 

 heavy expense incurred by the removal, and our impri- 

 sonment in the Island of Desima, where the Portuguese 

 had their buildings, and which we had heretofore in 

 derision denominated their dungeon. The humiliating 

 treatment to which they then first subjected us, according 

 to our records of those times, caused the Japanese to 

 remark that they might act towards us in a still more 

 arbitrary manner." 



At that period, 1609, the Japanese may have fully 

 merited the opinion expressed by M. Titsingh of their 

 military importance, but this is now sadly changed ; they 

 are even behind the Chinese in this respect. Nor can 1 

 agree with the writer in his opinions as to the contempt 



