Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 3.djvu/188

 international seclusion handed down to them through ten generations, they understood, on the other, that the measures adopted to enforce these traditions had crippled the nation's powers of resistance. Instead of following the high-handed example of Iyeyasu and Iyemitsu, they confined themselves to politely informing the Russians that a return visit from them was not desired. The Russians paid no attention to this rebuff. They repeated their visits six times in the course of the next twenty years, at one moment assuming a friendly mien, at another raiding Japan's northern islands or landing to effect surveys; to-day kidnapping Japanese subjects, to-morrow restoring them with apologies. It is certain that had not the Napoleonic wars withdrawn Russia's attention from the Far East, she would either have forced foreign intercourse upon the Japanese before the close of the nineteenth century's second decade, or annexed all the Empire's northern islands. Japan was helpless. A semblance of armed preparation was made in 1807 by bestowing the Shōgun's daughter on Date, feudal chief of Sendai, appointing him to guard the shores of Hokkaidō, and building forts to defend the approaches to Yedo Bay. But it is doubtful whether any real value was attached to these measures. Ultimately the trivial nature of Russian aggression inspired the Japanese with some confidence, and when by and by English vessels also began to