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 European Aggression in Asia 3^1 history. She Uved on in a state of picturesque feudalism in which about five per cent, of the population, the samurai, or fighting men, and the nobles and their families, tyrannized without restraint over the rest of the population. Mean- while the great world outside went on to wider visions and new powers. Strange shipping became more frequent, passing the Japanese headlands ; sometimes ships were wrecked and sailors brought ashore. Through the Dutch settle- ment in the island of Deshima, their one link with the outer uni- verse, came warnings that Japan was not keeping pace with the power of the Western world. In 1837 a ship sailed into Yedo Bay flying a strange flag of stripes and stars, and carrying some Japanese sailors she had picked up far adrift in the Pacific. She was driven off by cannon shot. This flag presently reappeared on other ships. One in 1849 came to demand the liberation of eighteen shipwrecked American sailors. Then in 1853 came four American warships under Com- modore Perry, and refused to be driven away. He lay at anchor in forbidden waters, and sent messages to the two rulers who at that time shared the control of Japan. In 1854 he returned with ten ships, amazing ships propelled by steam, and equipped with big guns, and he made proposals for trade and intercourse that the. ^^ 'I"^- Japanese had no power to resist. Japanese soldier of the TT, 1 J -i-u J J? c«n eighteenth CENTURY He landed with a guard of 500 men ^.^^^^ ^„j mich muscu,,,)