seeking trade, no
preparations existed to impose the local government's will on the
strangers. They were simply promised an answer in the following year,
and that answer proved to be that all Japan's oversea trade must by
law be confined to Nagasaki.

The Russians did not attempt to dispute this ruling. They retired
quietly. But their two visits had shown them that Yezo was capable of
much development, and they gradually began to flock thither as
colonists. Officials sent from Japan proper to make an investigation
reported that Kamchatka, hitherto a dependency of Japan, had been
taken possession of by Russians, who had established themselves in
the island of Urup and at other places. The report added that the
situation would be altogether lost unless resolute steps were taken
to restore it. Unfortunately, the death of the tenth shogun having
just then occurred, the Yedo Court found it inconvenient to take
action in remote Yezo. Thus, Russian immigration and Japanese
inaction continued for some time, and not until 1792 were commissions
again despatched from Yedo to inquire and report. They made an
exhaustive investigation, and just as it reached the hands of the
Bakufu, a large Russian vessel arrived off Nemuro, carrying some
ship-wrecked Japanese sailors whom her commander offered to restore
to their country, accompanying this offer with an application for the
opening of trade between Russia and Japan. Negotiations ensued, the
result being that Nagasaki was again referred to as the only port
where foreign trade might be lawfully conducted, and the Russians,
therefore, declared their intention of proceeding thither, a passport
being handed to them for the purpose. It does not appear, however,
that they availed themselves of this permit, and in the mean while
the Yedo commissioners pursued their journey northward, and pulled up
a number of boundary posts which had been erected by the Russians in
Urup.

The Bakufu now began to appreciate the situation more fully. They
took under their own immediate control the eastern half of Yezo,
entrusting the western half to Matsumae. The next incident of note
was a survey of the northern islands, made in 1800 by the famous
mathematician, Ino Tadayoshi, and the despatch of another party of
Bakufu investigators. Nothing practical was done, however, and, in
1804, a Russian ship arrived at Nagasaki carrying a number of
Japanese castaways and again applying for permission to trade. But