Japan and the Japanese

THE FRIGATE PHAETON. 455
stationed, there Mere only sixty or manded."
seventy, and these uncom-
After a while came a letter from one of the detained Dutchmen,
" A ship is arrived from Bengal. The captain's
in these words :
name is Pellew ; he asks for water and provisions." The governor
was little disposed to yield to this demand, and, about midnight,
his secretary waited on Doeff to inform him that he was going to
rescue the prisoners. Being questioned as to the manner how, ho
replied, "Your countrymen have been seized by treachery ; I shall,
therefore, go alone, obtain admission on board by every demonstra-
tion of friendship, seek an interview with the captain, and, on his
refusal to deliver his prisoners, stab him first, and then myself."
It cost Doeff a good deal of trouble to dissuade the secretary and
the governor from this wild scheme. The plan finally adopted was
to manage to detain the ship till vessels and men could be collected
to attack her.
The next afternoon one of the detained Dutchmen brought on
shore the following epistle from the English captain : " I have
ordered my own boat to set Goseman on shore, to procure me pro-
visions and water ; if he does not return with such before evening,
I will sail in to-morrow early, and burn the Japanese and Chinese
vessels in the harbor." The provisions and water were furnished,
though the Japanese were very unwilling to have Goseman return
on board. This done, the two Dutchmen were dismissed.
The governor, however, was still intent upon calling the foreign
ship to account. One scheme was to prevent her departure by
sinking vessels, laden with stones, in the channel. The prince of
Omura proposed to burn her, by means of boats, filled with reeds
and straw, offering himself to lead ; but while these schemes were
under discussion, the frigate weighed and sailed out of the harbor.
The affair, however, had a tragical ending. Within half an hour
after her departure, the governor,
to save himself from impending
disgrace, cut himself open, as did several officers of the harborguard.
The prince of Fizen, though resident at Jedo at the time,
was 'a imprisoned hundred days, for the
negligence of his servants
in the maintenance of the guard, and he was also required to pay
an annual pension to the son of the self-executed governor, whom