Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 90

!

1841.

Notices of Japan, No. VỈ.

73

With this demand the governor declared himself little disposed to comply; and he was busily engaged in making preparations for destroying the strange vessel, ac- cording to the general tenor of his instructions. His first measure was to summon the troops from the nearest post, one of the prince of Fizen's, where a thousand men were bound to be constantly on duty; only sixty or seventy were found there, the commandant himself being amongst the missing. This neglect of orders by others nearly sealed the governor's own fate: but he did not intermit his efforts to regain the Dutchmen, and his scheme for succeeding by negociation was truly Japanese. The chief secretary waited upon Doeff, informing him that he had received orders to fetch back the captives; and to the question, “How ?" replied, “Even as the ship has seized the Dutchmen, treacherously; so shall I go on board quite alone, and with the strongest professions of friendship; I am then to ask for the captain, to request the restoration of the Dutchmen; and in case of a refusal, tó stab him first, and then myself." Doeff's representations to both the secretary and the governor, that such an act must infallibly cause the death of the captives by the hands of the enraged crew, could with difficulty induce them to abandon this wildly-vindictive project.

羹

One of the Dutch captives was now sent on shore, on parole, to fetch the pre. visions asked for. He reported that he and his comrade had been strictly inter- rogated as to the annual Dutch ship; and that the English captain threatened, should he detect any attempt at deception respecting them, to put both captives to death, and burn every vessel in the harbor, Japanese or Chinese. The go- vernor was most unwilling to let his recovered Dutchman return to captivity, but was at length convinced of the necessity of suffering him to keep his word, for the sake of the other. He then gave him provisions and water to take on board, but in very small quantities, hoping thus to detain the ship until he should be ready for hostilities. Capt. Pellew had by this time satisfied himself that his intended prizes were not in Nagasaki bay, and in consequence, upon receiving this scanty supply, he sent both Dutchmen on shore. Their release was to the two police officers, who were still rowing despondingly round and round the Phæton, meditating upon the impossibility of executing their commission, a respite from certain death.

difficult

Meanwhile, the governor was collecting troops to attack the English frigate : but his operations proceeded slowly, and other subsidiary measures were suggest. ed. The prince of Omura, who came to Nagasaki with his troops before dawn, advised burning her, by means of fifty small boats filled with combustibles, the Dutch president preventing her escape by sinking vessels laden with stones in the passage out of the harbor. But whilst all these plans were under con. sideration, whilst troops were assembling as fast as possible, and commissioners rowing from shore to shore to gain time by proposals to negociate respecting com. merce, the Englishman, who had no further object in remaining, sailed out of the harbor as he had sailed in, unpiloted, leaving the Japanese even more confounded than before.

The Dutch now returned to Dezima, and as far as they were concerned, the whole affair was over.

Not so with respect to the Japanese. The governor had, involuntarily indeed, disobeyed his orders, by suffering the escape of the intruder ; and he felt that he had been negligent in not knowing the state of the coast-guard

YOL. X. NO. II.

10

Page 90Page 91