THE TOWN OF Nagasaki is not only one of the oldest cities in the empire, but is one that in the eyes of a foreigner possesses peculiar interest. From its position in the extreme West, and its consequent distance from the Capital, it was chosen as the site of the Dutch factories at the final closing of the country to all other European powers, and for two centuries was the only port in the mysterious empire of Japan where vessels were allowed to trade, or whence information respecting the manners and customs of its people could be derived. Our earlier records of the discovery of this singular Eastern nation are found in the sixteenth century (when Francis Xavier and his followers gained a footing in Japan), and it appears that in all past intercourse Nagasaki has been one of the chief places through which communication has been carried on.

It has witnessed the arrival of the high-sterned galleons of Portugal and Spain bringing with them the Jesuits who finally caused the seclusion of the country; it benefited by the friendly and unrestricted intercourse which once existed between the great nations of the West and the government of Japan; it probably witnessed the departure of the princes who went to Europe to pay obeisance to Pope Gregory XIII, — a mission memorable from the fact that even while these same men were at the Vatican the Imperial despot Taico Sama, fearing for the safety of his temporal power, was converting the neighbourhood of Nagasaki into a scene of Christian Martyrdom. This same stern ruler, when with a merciless hand he had crushed the Christian religion, then gaining ground in the kingdom, and expelled the hated foreigners, gave to the Dutch only the right of trading with Japan. It is said that when the Imperial edict was issued forbidding any but natives of the country to remain on Japanese soil, he was asked what the shape of the ground to be given to the merchants should be, and contemptuously flinging out his fan, he intimated his will that it should be built in that form.