Japan and the Japanese

XOGUX-SAMA. 17T
estate, to recover his father's authority a rebellion in which
many of the converts joined in hopes of gaining something by the
change.
On the 10th of December, 1G14, Cocks, the English resident
at Firando, wrote to Saris that, since his departure, the emperor
had banished all Jesuits, priests, friars and nuns, out of Japan,
and had pulled down and burned all their churches and monasteries,
shipping them away, some for Macao and others for M tnilla ;
that
old king Foyne was dead, on which occasion three of his servants
had cut themselves open to bear him company, according to a common
Japanese fashion of expressing attachment and gratitude ;
that a civil war had broken out between the emperor and his im-
prisoned son-in-law ; and that all Osaka, except
the castle, where
the rebels were entrenched and besieged, had been burned to the
ground. Jedo had also suffered exceedingly by a terrible tuffon
or hurricane, which the Christians ascribed to the judgment of
God, and the pagan Japanese to the conjurations of the Jesuits.
Sayer, another of the English Company, wrote, December 5,
1G15, that the emperor had got the victory, with the loss doubt-
less exaggerated
of four hundred thousand men on both sides.
The death of Ogosho-Sama,* in 1616, left his son Xogun-Sama
sole emperor. He continued to reside at Jedo, which, thenceforth,
became the capital. He diligently followed up the policy of his
three predecessors, that of weakening the particular kings and
princes so as to reduce them to political insignificance ;
nor does it
appear that, from that time to this, the empire, formerly so turbulent,
has ever been disturbed by civil wars, or internal commo-
tions; He also began that system of foreign policy since pushed to
such extremes. The English, by a new version of their privileges,!
were restricted to the single port of Firanclo, while the new emperor
* He was deified, and is still worshipped under the name of Gonsen-Sama,
given to him after his death. It is from him that the reigning emperors of
Japan trace their descent. He is buried at the temple of Niko, built in
1636, three days' journey from Jedo, of the splendor of which marvellous
stories are told. Caron, who wrote about the time it was built, speaks as if
he had seen it. In 1782, M. Titsingh, then Dutch director, solicited per-
mission to visit this temple, but was refused, as there was no precedent for
euch a favor.
+ These modified privileges have been printed for the first time by Randall.