ir alleged connexion with the Shimabara
rebellion induced the Japanese to issue the final edict that
henceforth any Portuguese ship coming to Japan should be burned,
together with her cargo, and everyone on board should be executed.

This law was not enforced with any undue haste; ample time was given
for compliance with its provisions. Possibly misled by this
procrastination, the Portuguese at Macao continued to strive for the
re-establishment of commercial relations until 1640, when a very sad
event put an end finally to all intercourse. Four aged men, selected
from among the most respected citizens of Macao, were sent to
Nagasaki as ambassadors. Their ships carried rich presents and an
earnest petition for the renewal of commercial intercourse. They were
at once imprisoned, and having declined to save their lives by
abjuring the Christian faith, the four old men and fifty-seven of
their companions were decapitated, thirteen only being left alive for
the purpose of conveying the facts to Macao. To these thirteen there
was handed at their departure a document setting forth that, "So long
as the sun warms the earth, any Christian bold enough to come to
Japan, even if he be King Philip himself or the God of the
Christians, shall pay for it with his head." One more effort to
restore the old intimacy was made by the Portuguese in 1647, but it
failed signally, and would certainly have entailed sanguinary results
had not the two Portuguese vessels beat a timely retreat.

THE DUTCH AT DESHIMA

In 1609, the Dutch made their appearance in Japan, and received an
excellent welcome. Ieyasu gave them a written promise that "no man
should do them any wrong and that they should be maintained and
defended as his own vassals." He also granted them a charter that
wherever their ships entered, they should be shown "all manner of
help, favour, and assistance." Left free to choose their own trading
port, they made the mistake of selecting Hirado, which was eminently
unsuited to be a permanent emporium of interstate commerce.
Nevertheless, owing partly to their shrewdness, partly to their
exclusive possession of the Spice Islands, and partly to their
belligerent co-operation with the English against the Spaniards, they
succeeded in faring prosperously for a time.

The day came, however, when, being deprived of freedom of trade and
limited to dealings with a guild of Nagasaki and Osaka merchants,
they found their gains seriously affecte