44 THE DUTCH IN JAPAN. [1845. 



between the worst of men. From this saying, the 

 Japanese of 1640 must certainly be excepted, for at that 

 time, only two years after the butchery of Simabara, they 

 consigned their gallant allies to the prison of Desima, 

 just emptied by the expulsion of the Portuguese. A 

 little before, the Dutch had been told, 'You observe 

 Sunday, you date from the birth of Christ, your prayer 

 is to him, and your confession of faith, that of His dis- 

 ciples; the gospels, the prophets and the apostles are 

 your sacred writings ; and there is but little difference 

 between your belief and that of the Portuguese. We 

 have known this for a long time, but we saw that you 

 were enemies of the Spaniards and Portuguese. We 

 now require you to erase the dates from your buildings, 

 to cease to observe the Sabbath ; and as for your future 

 conduct, the lords of Firando will tell you the rest.' 

 Against these instructions, and the transportation to Nan- 

 gasaki which followed, not a murmur was raised. The 

 Dutch were now left in sole possession of the trade with 

 Japan, and since that time it is well known their mono- 

 poly has never been disturbed. Their subsequent poli- 

 tical intercourse has been limited to an occasional mission 

 from Batavia, and the visits of the Dutch chief of the 

 factory to Yeddo, formally made annually, but now once 

 in four years. 



" Holland falling again under French occupation, the 

 Javan Islands were taken possession of by Great Britain, 

 in 1811 ; and the Dutch residents at Nangasaki had been 

 more than three years without communication with 

 Europe, when the expedition planned by Sir T. S. Raffles 

 arrived there, in 1813. A notice of this bold experiment, 



