With one of the earliest Portuguese ships came the great missionary apostle of the Jesuits, Francis Xavier, who landed at Kagoshima in 1549. He was kindly received, and during his short sojourn his labors were attended with wonderful success. Other laborers followed, and the toleration was so complete that in a few years the Christians numbered hundreds of thousands, and within fifty years it was estimated that they had increased to nearly two million adherents. Among them were found princes, generals, and the flower of the nobility. Both in regard to religion and commerce it may be said that the government of Japan at that period exhibited more liberality to the nations of Euthan the latter exhibited to each other. Velasco, the governor-general of the Philippines, in an account of a visit which he made to the country in 1608, relates an anecdote of the Shogun, who was urged by the Buddhist priests to suppress the Christians. "How many sects may there be in Japan?" he asked. "Thirty-five," was the reply, referring to the many Buddhist sects. "Well," he said, "we can easily bear with thirtysix." 2

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In 1582 three of the nobility, representing as many of the Christian princes, attended by a suite befitting their station, made a visit to Rome to pay their respects to the head of the Catholic Church. They were received with distinguished attention by the crowned heads and people in their journey through Portugal, Spain, and

1 Memorials of Japon, Hakluyt Society, preface, v.; The United States and Japan, by I. Nittobe, Baltimore, 1891, p. 10.

2 Memorials of Japon, 184.

the various states of Italy. They were welcomed with all possible pomp and ceremony by the aged Pope, who at the close of the audience pronounced the words of Simeon Nunc dimittis. Throughout Catholic Europe their visit was accepted as the assurance that Japan was soon to become a Christian nation. They reached Nagasaki in 1590, after an absence of eight years. They were received in audience by the Shogun and told their marvelous story. It was anticipated that it would have a favorable effect on the government, but events were taking place which were to bring about other results.1

For forty years the Catholic missionaries were freely permitted to carry on their propaganda, and the native Christians enjoyed the same treatment by the authorities as the Buddhists. In 1587 the first indication of trouble with the government arose, when the Shogun dispatched commissioners to make investigations of charges brought against the Christians. These commissioners reported that they were overzealous in pressing their faith on the people, that they had destroyed national temples, insulted and ridiculed the Buddhist priests and assaulted their monasteries, and that Christian traders were carrying away the natives into slavery. Based upon this report, the Shogun issued an edict expelling the priests, but exempting the traders so long as they observed the laws of the empire. But the order was not generally put into force, and the missionaries were able to evade it.

1 Histoire du Japon, Charlevoix. An account of the embassy based upon Charlevoix will be found in 8 Chinese Repository, 273.

The country was filled with friars of various orders; their conduct and habits were not always exemplary, and they were not politic in making prominent their devotion to the Pope. Their claim of a superior obedience to a foreign potentate and the visit of the Japanese embassy to Rome alarmed the imperial authorities, and orders were issued for a strict enforcement of the edict. This caused a rebellion of the native Christians, which was with great difficulty suppressed. Incensed at these events, the Shogun issued a second edict in 1637, expelling, not only the missionaries, but all foreigners, prohibiting their entrance into the country, and forbidding the Japanese to go abroad. In the language of the Dutch historian of the period, "Japan was shut up." By 1639 not a single Portuguese or Spaniard - merchant or missionary remained in the country, and it was supposed that every native Christian had recanted or been slaughtered. Only the Dutch, not of the "evil sect," were permitted to remain, and they were confined to the little island of Deshima in the harbor of Nagasaki. Thenceforward for more than two centuries the liberal policy of foreign intercourse was reversed, and only through this small Dutch factory did the Japanese government and people communicate with the outside world.1

Merchants of all nationalities for a century had found

11 History of Japan, Kaempfer, passim; 3 Histoire du Japon, Charlevoix; Letters of William Adams. A full discussion of the accounts of the persecution, by Kaempfer (Protestant) and Charlevoix (Catholic), will be found in the preface to Memorials of Japan, already cited. The Mikado's Empire, by W. E. Griffis, New York, 1876, pp.

248-259.

a free and open market, and the ports of Japan had furnished a friendly harbor for all vessels. The market had been not only free but very remunerative, as one hundred per cent. profit was not an unusual return.1 The testimony of all writers of the period is that the Japanese in their intercourse with foreigners were distinguished for high-bred courtesy, combined with refined liberality and generous hospitality. On the other hand, the merchants and mariners with whom they came in contact were usually of bad manners and morals, overreaching, avaricious, and cruel; the missionaries were often arrogant, ambitious, and without proper respect for native customs; and the naval and other officials of foreign governments were haughty, actuated by a spirit of aggression, and unmindful of the comity of nations. The history of the time shows that the policy of exclusion adopted by Japan in the seventeenth century was not inherent in the constitution of the state or the character of the people, but that it was adopted in consequence of the unfavorable character of the relations with Europeans.

It will be of interest to note the conditions under which the limited intercourse with the Dutch factory was carried on. The island of Deshima, artificially built in the harbor of Nagasaki, six hundred feet long and two hundred and forty feet wide, was surrounded by a high stone wall, which permitted only a distant view to its inmates. It was connected with the mainland by a stone bridge guarded by Japanese police and had only one other outlet, the sea gate. Both of these gates were 1 Memorials of Japon, p. iv.; Chamberlain's Things Japanese, 296.

closed and guarded by night. .In this veritable prison eleven Dutchmen were permitted to reside. They were occasionally allowed to pass beyond its walls for exercise, but only on written application to the governor of the province twenty-four hours in advance, and then always accompanied by a numerous police retinue. Owing to the bitter hostility of the Dutch to the Catholic missionaries and merchants, the Japanese supposed that the Christians worshiped two Christs, and when it was found that both sects acknowledged the same God, the Dutch at Deshima were prohibited from observing the Sabbath and were carefully to abstain from any manifestation of their faith. The Japanese assistants and servants employed by them were not permitted to remain on the island overnight; and before entering on their duties they were obliged to sign, with their blood, an oath to contract no friendship with the Dutch, to afford them no information, and have no communication with them except in their recognized functions. No persons except these employees and government officials were ever admitted to the island.1

Two Dutch vessels annually were permitted to come to the factory, but under the strictest surveillance. The cargoes when landed were delivered to Japanese authorities, who sold the imported merchandise, fixed the price on the goods to be exported, and gave in their unchecked accounts to the Dutch president of the factory. The trade thus carried on was comparatively

1 A similar establishment was allowed certain Chinese merchants in another quarter of the harbor of Nagasaki. For account of Chinese trade, 9 Chinese Repository, 378.