rmer, Mizuno, was Tokugawa
Nariaki (1800-1860), daimyo of Mito, who opposed the conciliatory
foreign policy, soon to be described, of Ii Naosuke (Kamon no Kami).
Nariaki inherited the literary tastes of his ancestor, Mitsukuni, and
at his court a number of earnest students and loyal soldiers
assembled. Among them were Fujita Toko (1806-1855) and Toda Tadanori,
who are not less remarkable as scholars and historians than as
administrators.

RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES

Japan now began to make the acquaintance of American citizens, who,
pursuing the whaling industry in the seas off Alaska and China,
passed frequently in their ships within easy sight of the island of
Yezo. Occasionally, one of these schooners was cast away on Japan's
shores, and as a rule, her people were treated with consideration and
sent to Deshima for shipment to Batavia. Japanese sailors, also, were
occasionally swept by hurricanes and currents to the Aleutian
Islands, to Oregon, or to California, and in several cases these
mariners were sent back to Japan by American vessels. It was on such
an errand of mercy that the sailing ship Morrison entered Yedo Bay,
in 1837, and being required to repair to Kagoshima, was driven from
the latter place by cannon shot. It was on such an errand, also, that
the Manhattan reached Uraga and lay there four days before she was
compelled to take her departure. It would seem that the experiences
collected by Cooper, master of the latter vessel, and published after
his return to the United States, induced the Washington Government to
essay the opening of Japan. A ninety-gun ship of the line and a
sloop, sent on this errand, anchored off Uraga in 1846, and their
commander, Commodore Biddle, applied for the sanction of trade. He
received a positive refusal, and in pursuance of his instructions to
abstain from any act calculated to excite hostility or distrust, he
weighed anchor and sailed away.

GREAT BRITAIN AND OTHER POWERS

In this same year, 1846, a French ship touched at the Ryukyu
archipelago, and attempted to persuade the islanders that if they
wished for security against British aggression, they must place
themselves under the protection of France. England, indeed, was now
much in evidence in the seas of southern China, and the Dutch at
Deshima, obeying the instincts of commercial rivalry, warned Japan
that she must be prepared for a visit from an English squadron at any
moment. The King of Holland now (18