Note (return) — Chapter XII · - TWO CENTURIES OF SILENCE

Besides these men with religious motives, the ships of the West came with offers of trade and threats of invasion. These were English, French, Russian and American, and the story of the frequent episodes has been told by Hildreth, Aston,9 Nitobé, and others. There is also a considerable body of native literature which gives the inside view of these efforts to force the seclusion of the hermit nation, and coax or compel the Japanese to be more sociable and more human. All were in vain until the peaceful armada, under the flag of thirty-one stars, led by Matthew Calbraith Perry,10 broke the long seclusion of this Thorn-rose of the Pacific, and the unarmed diplomacy of Townsend Harris,11 brought Japan into the brotherhood of commercial and Christian nations.