Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/44

 between China and Japan from the proclamation of the Manchu dynasty in Peking in 1644 until the commercial treaty of Tientsin of 1871.

It is necessary to consider this matter from a special point of view.

Whilst the Ming emperors did not greatly welcome the first appearance of Western navigators in their seas in 1518—i.e. twenty-six years before they reached Japan—no direct action was taken by them until the savagery of the Portuguese trading-crews and their raids into the country in search of women spread alarm and led to popular reprisals. Then only was intercourse confined to Macao and Canton, and a policy of control inaugurated.

Canton was well-fitted to maintain trade relations with unknown nations. Originally founded by Chinese sea-adventurers, who had sailed down the Chinese coasts and forced their way into the small aboriginal kingdoms during the first centuries of the Christian era, it had not been formally incorporated in the Empire until the T'ang dynasty ( 618—907). In the eighth and ninth centuries the spread of Islamism had brought Arab navigators to the uttermost East, and soon Chinese