Directory_and_Chronicle_1841 — Page 91

74

Notices of Japan, No. VI.

FEB.

posts. To a Japanese, his proper course under such circumstances could not re- quire deliberation. Nor did it. The catastrophe is thus told :*

"He so well knew the fate awaiting him, that, within half an hour of our departure, he assembled his household, and in their presence, ripped hunself up.. The commanders of the deficient posts, officers not of the siogoun but of the prince of Fizen, followed his example; thus saving their kindred from inevitable dishonor. That their neglect would indeed have been punished with the utmost severity, ap. pears from the circumstance that the prince of Fizen, although not then in his dominions, but compulsorily resident at Yedo, was punished with a hundred days of imprisonment, because the servants whom he had left behind him had not duly obeyed his orders. On the other hand, the young son of the governor of Nagasaki, who was altogether blameless on the occasion, is at this hour in high favor at court, and has obtained an excellent post. When I visited the court of Yedo in 1810, I was told the following particulars respecting this youth. The prince of Fizen, considering that the death of the governor of Nagasaki might in a great measure be imputed to him, inasmuch as the desertion of the guard posts, though occurring without his fault, had mainly contributed to it, requested permission of the council of state to make a present of two thousand koban (about £2,650) to the son of the unfortunate governor. Not only was this request granted, but the wholly unexpected and unsolicited favor was added, that, to spare him further applications, he might repeat the gift annually. This permission, being equivalent to a command, compelled the prince of Fizen to pay an annuity to the governor'a orphans." +

This story, falling within Heer Doeff's personal knowledge, accurately cha racterizes the spirit of the Japanese government, and the occasions rendering suicide imperative. It is melancholy to be obliged to add that, according to re. port, Dr. Von Siebold has had the misfortune of causing a similar catastrophe, though upon a smaller scale. The details are not yet before the public, but are said to be these. The high reputation of the doctor for science, and the favor of influential Japanese friends, obtained for him permission to remain at Yedo for the purpose of giving instruction to the learned members of the college, when Col. Van Sturler returned to Dezima; and afterwards permission, more extraordinary still,. to travel in the empire. He was, however, prohibited from taking plans or making

* Doeff.

+ Both Meylan and Fischer, in speaking shortly of this unfortunate visit of the Phaeton to the bay of Nagasaki, assert that captain Pellew insisted upon a supply of fresh beef, as the ransom of his Dutch prisoners, threatening to hang them in case of a refusal; that the governor, out of pure humanity, sacrificed a bullock to save the lives of two men, and killed himself to expiate this sin of com. mission, this violation of a positive law. Now, to say nothing of the improbability of an English gentleman's being guilty of an act so idly and so foolishly violent and cruel, neither Meylan nor Fischer, who were not then in Dezima, could know this story save by hearsay; while Doeff was not only on the spot, but one of the chief actors in the prologue to the final tragedy; and the narrative in the text is taken from his pages, with no other alteration than compression, explanation of captain Pellew's views, and omission of some vituperation of that officer in par- ticular, and his countrymen in general. Doeff, who explicitly states the governor'a reasons for killing himself, says not a word of beef; and he assuredly desires not to favor England or the English, to whom he imputes every body's misdemeanors. The tale had grown more marvelous by tradition when told to the later writers- that is all.