310 INTERCOLONIAL COMMERCE. after the East India Company had voluntarily abandoned the trade to Japan, they made an at- tempt to re-establish it in the reign of Charles II., and while at war with the Dutch. On the representation of the latter we were, on this occa- sion, excluded, on the ixasoiiahle pretext that the king of England had espoused a princess of Portu- gal ! As this attempt was made the very year after the Dutch trade was placed under limitations, any thing short of discomfiture could hardly be looked for. Attempts equally unsuccessful were made in 1G81, 1683, and 1689, the Japanese pertinacious- ly persevering in their resolution to exclude us from the empire in common with all other foreign- ers. These failures, after the tide of popularity had begun to run against the European character, are hardly to be regretted. Any partial success on the part of a body of men exhibiting a military and political power, along with commercial transactions, among a people so jealous and so proud as the Ja- panese, could not be lasting, and the national character, presented even under the most disad- vantageous form, could never have brooked the contumelies necessary to be borne for establishing such a connection as that of the Dutch. In the year 1813, we made, under the Dutch flag, ano- ther attempt to open an intercourse with Japan, totally unsuccessful. We found, on this occasion, that time had softened the prejudices of the na-
