For the purpose of making a second experiment, on the 20th of August the “Morrison” entered the bay of Kagoshima, in the principality of Satsuma. The shores, rising gradually from the water, were under high cultivation. A boat from the ship boarded a Japanese fishing vessel, and proceeded to a little village, where they found the people in great commotion. The “Morrison” followed, and when opposite the village, was visited by a richly dressed officer, with a number of almost naked attendants. He stated that, supposing the ship to be a pirate, preparations had been made to fire on her; but, satisfied by the representations of the Japanese on board of the true state of the case, he received, with much apparent interest, the despatches prepared for the prince of Satsuma and the emperor, which he promised to deliver to a superior officer. He left a pilot on board; a supply of water was sent, and the ship was visited by many boat-loads of people, superior in appearance to those seen in the bay of Yedo; but they brought nothing to sell.
The despatches were soon brought back by several officers, the superior officer, it was stated, declining to receive them. They added that the depositions of the Japanese passengers, who had landed for the purpose of giving them, had been forwarded to Kagoshima, and that a superior officer might be expected from that city. Provisions were promised, and that the vessel should be towed higher up the bay; early in the morning of the twelfth, the crew of a fishing-boat communicated to the Japanese on board a rumor that the ship was to be expelled. Warlike preparations were soon seen on shore, in strips of blue and white canvas stretched from tree to tree. The Japanese on board stated, with rueful faces, that these preparations portended war; nor, according to their description, were these cloth batteries so contemptible as they might seem, as four or five pieces of heavy canvas, loosely stretched, one behind another, at short intervals, would weaken the force of, indeed almost stop, a cannon ball.
Officers on horseback, and several hundred soldiers, soon made their appearance, and a fire of musketry and artillery was commenced. The anchor was weighed, and the sails set, but there was no wind. For eighteen hours the ship was exposed, without any means of offering resistance, to two fires from opposite sides of the bay, which was from three to five miles broad, till at last she was with difficulty conducted clear of the shoals and past the forts.
All hope of friendly intercourse, or of returning the men, was now abandoned. The poor fellows suffered severely at this unexpected extinction of their prospect of revisiting their families. They expressed great indignation at the conduct of their countrymen, and two of them shaved their heads entirely in token, as it was understood, of having renounced their native soil. As it was not deemed expedient to go to Nagasaki, where the Japanese on board expressed their determination not to land, the “Morrison” returned to Macao.[106]
In 1843, probably in consequence of this visit of the “Morrison,” the Japanese authorities promulgated an edict, of which the following is a translation, as given by the Dutch at Deshima, who were requested to communicate to the other European nations,—the first attempt ever made to employ their agency for that purpose.
A Buddhist Funeral
“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 islands 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.[107]
In 1845, the British surveying frigate “Saramang” entered the harbor of Nagasaki. As she approached she was surrounded by numerous guard-boats, from one of which a letter was handed, in Dutch and French, directing her to anchor off the entrance, till visited by the authorities. The Japanese officers who came on board stated that they had been apprised of this intended visit by the Dutch, and that they were acquainted with the recent visit of the “Saramang” to the Lew Chew and other islands, and of her operations there.