Japan and the Japanese

CHAPTER XXV.
POLICY OF THE DUTCH. AFFAIR OF NUYTS. HAGAXAAR'S VISITS TO JAPAN.
CAROX'S ACCODXT OF JAPAN. IXCOME OF THE EMPEROR AND THE
NOBLES. MILITARY FORCE. SOCIAL AXD POLITICAL POSITION OF THE
NOBLES. JUSTICE. RELATION OF THE DUTCH TO THE PERSECUTION OF
THE CATHOLICS. THE DUTCH REMOVED FROM FIRAXDO AXD COXFIXED IN
DES1MA. ATTEMPTS OF THE ENGLISH, PORTUGUESE AND FRENCH, AT IN-
TERCOURSE WITH JAPAN. .
A. D. 162J 1707.
FIXAL
EXTINCTION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITIL
THROUGHOUT the whole of the long and cruel persecution of the
Catholics, the Dutch had striven by extreme subserviency to recommend
themselves to the favor of the Japanese, in hopes of
exclusively engrossing a trade which appears at this time to have
been more extensive and more lucrative than at any former period.
The Japanese, however, seem not to have been insensible to the
advantages of competition ; and, so long as the Portuguese commerce
continued, they extended to the vessels of that nation a certain
protection against the Dutch, and even preference over them.
The danger from Dutch cruisers appears to have caused the substi-
tution, for the single great carac of Macao, of a number of smaller
vessels ; nor were the Dutch, however urgent their solicitations,
allowed to leave Firando till such a number of days after the de-
parture of the Portuguese from Nagasaki as would prevent all
danger of collision.
Yet, however cringing
the general policy of the Dutch East India
Company, their trade, through the folly of a single individual, was
near being exposed to a violent interruption. In the year 1626,
Conrad Kramer, the head of the Dutch factory, was extremely well
received on his visit to Jedo, and was allowed to be present at
Miuko during the visit of the emperor to the Dairi an occasion
which drew together an immense concourse, and which, according
17