Japan and the Japanese

494: JAPAN. A. D. 18171850.
In 1843, probably in consequence of this visit of the Morrison,
the Japanese authorities promulgated an edict, of which the follow-
ing is a translation, as given by the Dutch at Desima, who were
requested to communicate to the other European nations the first
attempt ever made to employ their agency for that purpose.
" Shipwrecked persons of the Japanese nation must not be brought back
to their country, except on board of Dutch or Chinese ships, for, in case
these shipwrecked persons shall be brought back in the ships of other nations,
they will not be received. Considering the express prohibition, even
to Japanese subjects, to explore or make examinations of the coasts or isl mda
of the empire, this prohibition, for greater reason, is extended to foreigners."
The British opium war in China, of the progress of which the
Japanese were well informed, if it increased the desire of the English
to gain access to Japan, did not, by any means, diminish the
Japanese dread of foreigners.*
In 1845, the British surveying frigate Sarainang entered the
1838, and a third by King, New York, 1800. It is possible that outrages
by whaling vessels, which had begun to frequent the seas of Japan in considerable
numbers, might have somewhat increased the antipathy of the
Japanese towards foreigners. Of transactions of that kind we should be
litlle likely to hear, but that they did sometimes occur, seems to be proved
by a p-iragraph in the Sil'iey Gazelle of Feb. 184'J, warning mariners to be
cautious how they landed on Japan, as a Japanese village on the east coast
of the islands, somewhere near 43~ north latitude, had been recently de-
stroyed by the crew of the Lad}' Rowena, then in the harbor of Sidney, and
whose captain openly boasted of the fact.
* Had the Japanese been readers of the London newspapers, they might
have foutid in the following paragraph, which appeared in the Examiner of
January '21st, 1843, fresh motives for persisting in their exclusive policy :
" MISSION-ABIES TO CHINA. One of the largest meetings, perhaps, ever
held in Exeter Flail, was held on Tuesday evening, convened by the London
Missionary Society, to consider the means of extending and promoting in China
the objects of the society. Win. T. Blair, Esq., of Bath, presided. Dr. Liet-
child moved the first resolution, expressive of thanksgiving to God for the
war belu-een China and Great Britain [the infamous opium war], and for
the greatly enlarged facilities secured by the treaty of peace for the introduc-
tion of Christianity into that empire. This resolution was seconded by the
Rev. Dr. Adler, and was carried unanimously." I hive met with nothing in
the letters of the Jesuit missionaries, nor in the history of the Jesuit missions,
that can be compared with this specimen of Protestant zeaL