to restore them to their original owners
should the English company desire to re-open business in Japan. The
company did think of doing so on more than one occasion, but the idea
did not mature until the year 1673, when a merchantman, the Return,
was sent to obtain permission. "The Japanese authorities, after
mature reflection, made answer that as the king of England was
married to a Portuguese princess, British subjects could not be
permitted to visit Japan. That this reply was suggested by the Dutch
is very probable; that it truly reflected the feeling of the Japanese
Government towards Roman Catholics is certain."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th Edition)'; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.

END OF THE PORTUGUESE TRADE WITH JAPAN

In the year 1624, the expulsion of the Spaniards from Japan took
place, and in 1638 the Portuguese met the same fate. Two years prior
to the latter event, the Yedo Bakufu adopted a measure which
effectually terminated foreign intercourse. They ruled that to leave
the country, or to attempt to do so, should constitute a capital
crime; that any Japanese subject residing abroad should be executed
if he returned; that the entire kith and kin of the Spaniards in
Japan should be expelled, and that no ships of ocean-going dimensions
should be built in Japan. This meant not only the driving out of all
professing Christians, but also the imprisonment of the entire nation
within the limits of the Japanese islands, as well as an effectual
veto on the growth of the mercantile marine. It is worth noting that
no act of spoliation was practised against these tabooed people.
Thus, when those indicated by the edict--to the number of 287--left
the country for Macao, they were allowed to carry away with them
their whole fortunes.

The expulsion of the Spaniards did not leave the Portuguese in an
improved condition. Humiliating restrictions continued to be imposed
upon them. If a foreign priest were found upon any galleon bound for
Japan, such priest and the whole of the crew of the galleon were
liable to be executed, and many other irksome conditions were
instituted for the control of the trade. Nor had the aliens even the
satisfaction of an open market, for all the goods carried in their
galleons had to be sold at a fixed price to a ring of licensed
Japanese merchants from Osaka. In spite of all these deterrents,
however, the Portuguese continued to send galleons to Nagasaki until
the year 1637, when the