See TURKS (THE SELJUK): A. D. 1073-1092.
{1871}
JALULA, Battle of.
One of the battles in which the Arabs, under the first
successors of Mahomet, conquered the Persian empire. Fought A.
D. 637.
G. Rawlinson,
Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy,
chapter 26.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 632-651.
----------JAMAICA: Start--------
JAMAICA: A. D. 1494.
Discovery by Columbus.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1493-1496.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1509.
Granted to Ojeda and Nicuesa.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1509-1511.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1655
The English conquest and colonization.
In the spring of 1655, having determined upon an alliance with
France and war with Spain, Cromwell fitted out an expedition
under admirals Venables and Pen, secretly commissioned to
attack Cuba and St. Domingo. Frustrated in an attempt against
the latter island, the expedition made a descent on the island
of Jamaica with better success. "This great gain was yet held
insufficient to balance the first defeat; and on the return of
Pen and Venables they were both committed to the Tower. I may
pause for an instant here to notice a sound example of
Cromwell's far-seeing sagacity. Though men scouted in that day
the acquisition of Jamaica, he saw its value in itself, and
its importance in relation to future attempts on the continent
of America. Exerting the inhuman power of a
despot—occasionally, as hurricanes and other horrors,
necessary for the purification of the world—he ordered his
son Henry to seize on 1,000 young girls in Ireland and send
them over to Jamaica, for the purpose of increasing population
there. A year later, and while the Italian Sagredo was in
London, he issued an order that all females of disorderly
lives should be arrested and shipped for Barbadoes for the
like purpose. Twelve hundred were accordingly sent in three
ships."
_J. Forster,
Statesmen of the Commonwealth: Cromwell._
ALSO IN:
_G. Penn,
Memorials of Sir Wm. Penn, Admiral,
volume 2, page 124, and appendix H._
See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1655-1658.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1655-1796.
Development of the British colony.
The Buccaneers.
The Maroon wars.
"Cromwell set himself to maintain and develop his new
conquest. He issued a proclamation encouraging trade and
settlement in the island by exemption from taxes. In order to
'people and plant' it, he ordered an equal number of young men
and women to be sent over from Ireland, he instructed the
Scotch government to apprehend and transport the idle and
vagrant, and he sent agents to the New England colonies and
the other West Indian islands in order to attract settlers.
After the first three or four years this policy of encouraging
emigration, continued in spite of the Protector's death, bore
due fruit, and Jamaica became to a singular extent a
receptacle for the most varied types of settlers, for freemen
as well as for political offenders or criminals from Newgate,
and for immigrants from the colonies as well as from the
mother country. … The death of Cromwell brought over
adherents of the Parliamentary party, ill content with the
restoration of the Stuarts; the evacuation of Surinam in
favour of the Dutch brought in a contingent of planters in
1675; the survivors of the ill-fated Scotch colony at Darien
came over in 1699; and the Rye House Plot, Sedgmoor, and the
risings of 1715 and 1745 all contributed to the population of
the island. Most of all, however, the buccaneers made Jamaica
great and prosperous. … Situated as the island was, well
inside the ring of the Spanish possessions, the English
occupation of Jamaica was a godsend to the buccaneers, while
their privateering trade was exactly suited to the restless
soldiers who formed the large bulk of the early colonists. So
Port Royal became in a few years a great emporium of
ill-gotten wealth, and the man who sacked Panama became Sir
Henry Morgan, Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica. … In 1661
Charles II. sanctioned the beginnings of civil government. …
Municipal institutions were introduced, judges and magistrates
were appointed, land grants were issued, and the island began
to take the form and substance of an English colony. The
constitution thenceforward consisted of a Governor, a
nominated Council, and an elected Assembly; and the first
Assembly, consisting of 30 persons, met in January, 1664. …
It was not long before the representative body began to assert
its independence by opposition to the Crown, and in 1678 the
Home government invited conflict by trying to apply to Jamaica
the system which had been introduced into Ireland by the
notorious Poynings' law. Under this system no Assembly could
be summoned for legislative purposes except under special
directions from home, and its functions would have been
limited to registering consent to laws which had already been
put into approved shape in England." Conflict over this,
attempt to deal with Jamaica as "a conquered and tributary
dependency" did not end until 1728, when the colonists bought
relief from it by settling on the Crown an "irrevocable
revenue" of £8,000 per annum. "About the time when the
constitutional difficulty was settled, the Maroon question was
pressing itself more and more upon the attention of the
colonial government. The penalty which Jamaica paid for being
a large and mountainous island was, that it harboured in its
forests and ravines a body of men who, throughout its history
down to the present century, were a source of anxiety and
danger. The original Maroons, or mountaineers, for that is the
real meaning of the term, were … the slaves of Spaniards who
retreated into the interior when the English took the island,
and sallied out from time to time to harass the invaders and
cut off stragglers and detached parties. … Maroon or Maron
is an abbreviation of Cimaron, and is derived from the Spanish
or Portuguese 'Cima,' or mountain top. Skeat points out that
the word is probably of Portuguese origin, the 'C' having been
pronounced as 'S.' Benzoni (edited by the Hakluyt Society),
who wrote about 1565, speaks of 'Cimaroui' as being the
Spanish name for outlawed slaves in Hispaniola. … It is
probable that the danger would have been greater if the
outlaws had been a united band, but there were divisions of
race and origin among them. The Maroons proper, the slaves of
the Spaniards and their descendants, were mainly in the east
of the island among the Blue Mountains, while the mountains of
the central district were the refuge of runaways from English
masters, including Africans of different races, as well as
Madagascars or Malays. Towards the end of the seventeenth
century the newer fugitives had found in a negro named Cudjoe
an able and determined leader, and thenceforward the
resistance to the government became more organised and
systematic. …
{1872}
Finally, in 1738, Governor Trelawny made overtures of peace to
the rebels, which were accepted. … By this treaty the
freedom of the negroes was guaranteed, special reserves were
assigned to them, they were left under the rule of their own
captains assisted by white superintendents, but were bound
over to help the government against foreign invasion from
without and slave rebellions from within. A similar treaty was
made with the eastern Maroons, and the whole of these blacks,
some 600 in number, were established in five settlements. …
Under these conditions the Maroons gave little trouble till
the end of the 18th century. … The last Maroon war occurred
in 1795." When the insurgent Maroons surrendered, the next
year, they were, in violation of the terms made with them,
transported to Nova Scotia, and afterwards to the warmer
climate of Sierra Leone. "Thus ended the last Maroon
rebellion; but … it affected only one section of these negro
freemen, and even their descendants returned in many cases to
Jamaica at a later date."
_C. P. Lucas,
Historical Geography of the British Colonies,
volume 2, section 2, chapter 3, with foot-note._
ALSO IN:
_G. W. Bridges,
Annals of Jamaica,
volume 1, and volume 2, chapters 1-16._
_R. C. Dallas,
History of the Maroons._
JAMAICA: A. D. 1689-1762.
The English slave trade.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1698-1776.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1692.
Destructive Earthquake.
"An earthquake of terrible violence laid waste in less than
three minutes the flourishing colony of Jamaica. Whole
plantations changed their place. Whole villages were swallowed
up. Port Royal, the fairest and wealthiest city which the
English had yet built in the New World, renowned for its
quays, for its warehouses, and for its stately streets, which
were said to rival Cheapside, was turned into a mass of ruins.
Fifteen hundred of the inhabitants were buried under their own
dwellings."
_Lord Macaulay,
History of England,
chapter 19 (volume 4)._
JAMAICA: A. D. 1834-1838.
Emancipation of Slaves.
See SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1834-1838.
JAMAICA: A. D. 1865.
Governor Eyre's suppression of Insurrection.
In October, 1865, there occurred an insurrection among the
colored people of one district of Jamaica, the suppression of
which throws "a not altogether pleasant light upon English
methods, when applied to the government of a subject race. …
The disturbances were confined to the district and parish of
St. Thomas in the East. There were local grievances arising
from a dispute between Mr. Gordon, a native [colored]
proprietor, and Baron Ketelholdt, the custos of the parish.
Mr. Gordon, a dissenter, and apparently a reformer of abuses
and unpopular among his fellows, had been deprived of his
place among the magistrates, and prevented from filling the
office of churchwarden to which he was elected. The expenses
of the suits against him had been defrayed from the public
purse. The native Baptists, the sect to which he belonged,
were angry with what they regarded as at once an act of
persecution and a misappropriation of the public money.
Indignation meetings had been held. … Behind this quarrel,
which would not of itself have produced much result, there lay
more general grievances. … There was a real grievance in the
difficulty of obtaining redress through law administered
entirely by landlords; and as a natural consequence there had
grown up a strong mistrust of the law itself, and a complete
alienation between the employer and the employed. To this was
added a feeling on the part of the class above the ordinary
labourer, known as the free settlers, that they were unduly
rented, and obliged to pay rent for land which they should
have held free; and there was a very general though vague
expectation that in some way or other the occupiers would be
freed from the payment of rent. The insurrection broke out in
October;" a small riot, at first, at Morant Bay, in which a
policeman was beaten; then an attempt to arrest one of the
alleged rioters, a colored preacher, Paul Bogle by name, and a
formidable resistance to the attempt by 400 of his friends.
"On the next day, when the Magistrates and Vestry were
assembled in the Court-House at Morant Bay, a crowd of
insurgents made their appearance, the volunteers were called
out, and the Riot Act read; and after a skirmish the
Court-House was taken and burnt, 18 of the defenders killed
and 30 wounded. The jail was broken open and several stores
sacked. There was some evidence that the rising was
premeditated, and that a good deal of drilling had been going
on among the blacks under the command of Bogle. From Morant
Bay armed parties of the insurgents passed inland through the
country attacking the plantations, driving the inhabitants to
take refuge in the bush, and putting some of the whites to
death. The Governor of the Island at the time was Mr. Eyre
[former explorer of Australia]. He at once summoned his Privy
Council, and with their advice declared martial law over the
county of Surrey, With the exception of the town of Kingston.
Bodies of troops were also at once despatched to surround the
insurgent district. … 439 persons fell victims to summary
punishment, and not less than 1,000 dwellings were burnt;
besides which, it would appear that at least 600 men and women
were subjected to flogging, in some instances with
circumstances of unusual cruelty. But the event which chiefly
fixed the attention of the public in England was the summary
conviction and execution of Mr. Gordon. He was undoubtedly a
troublesome person, and there were circumstances raising a
suspicion that he possessed a guilty knowledge of the intended
insurrection. They were however far too slight to have secured
his conviction before a Court of Law. But Governor Eyre caused
him to be arrested in Kingston, where martial law did not
exist, hurried on board ship and carried to Morant Bay, within
the proclaimed district. He was there tried by a
court-martial, consisting of three young officers," was
sentenced to death, and immediately hanged.
_J. F. Bright,
History of England: period 4,
pages 413-415._
"When the story reached England, in clear and trustworthy
form, two antagonistic parties were instantly formed. The
extreme on the one side glorified Governor Eyre, and held that
by his prompt action he had saved the white population of
Jamaica from all the horrors of triumphant negro insurrection.
The extreme on the other side denounced him as a mere fiend.
The majority on both sides were more reasonable; but the
difference between them was only less wide. An association
called the Jamaica Committee was formed for the avowed purpose
of seeing that justice was done. It comprised some of the most
illustrious Englishmen. …
{1873}
Another association was founded, on the opposite side, for the
purpose of sustaining Governor Eyre; and it must be owned that
it too had great names. Mr. Mill may be said to have led the
one side, and Mr. Carlyle the other. The natural bent of each
man's genius and temper turned him to the side of the Jamaica
negroes, or of the Jamaica Governor. Mr. Tennyson, Mr.
Kingsley, Mr. Ruskin, followed Mr. Carlyle; we know now that
Mr. Dickens was of the same way of thinking. Mr. Herbert
Spencer, Professor Huxley, Mr. Goldwin Smith, were in
agreement with Mr. Mill. … No one needs to be told that Mr.
Bright took the side of the oppressed, and Mr. Disraeli that
of authority." A Commission of Inquiry sent out to investigate
the whole matter, reported in April, 1866, commending the
vigorous promptitude with which Governor Eyre had dealt with
the disturbances at the beginning, but condemning the
brutalities which followed, under cover of martial law, and
especially the infamous execution of Gordon. The Jamaica
Committee made repeated efforts to bring Governor Eyre's
conduct to judicial trial; but without success. "The bills of
indictment never got beyond the grand jury stage. The grand
jury always threw them out. On one memorable occasion the
attempt gave the Lord Chief Justice [Cockburn] of England an
opportunity of delivering … to the grand jury … a charge
entitled to the rank of a historical declaration of the law of
England, and the limits of the military power even in cases of
insurrection."
_J. McCarthy,
History of Our Own Times,
chapter 49 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_G. B. Smith,
Life and Speeches of John Bright,
volume 2, chapter 5._
_W. F. Finlason,
History of the Jamaica Case._
----------JAMAICA: End----------
JAMES I.,
King of Aragon, A. D. 1213-1276.
James I., King of England, A. D. 1603-1625
(he being, also, James VI., King of Scotland, 1567-1625).
James I., King of Scotland, 1406-1437.
James II., King of Aragon, 1291-1327;
King of Sicily, 1285-1295.
James II:, King of England, 1685-1689.
James II., King of Scotland, 1437-1460.
James III., King of Scotland, 1460-1488.
James IV., King of Scotland, 1488-1513.
James V., King of Scotland, 1513-1542.
JAMES ISLAND, Battle on.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JULY: SOUTH CAROLINA).
JAMESTOWN, Virginia: A. D. 1607-1610.
The founding of the colony.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1606-1607; and 1607-1610.
JAMNIA, Battle of.
A defeat by Gorgias, the Syrian general, of part of the army
of Judas Maccabæus which he left under his generals Joseph and
Azarius, B. C. 164.
_Josephus,
Antiquity of the Jews,
book 12, chapter 8._
JAMNIA, The School of.
A famous school of Jewish theology, established by Jochanan,
who escaped from Jerusalem during the siege by Titus.
_H. Graetz,
History of the Jews,
volume 2, page 327._
JANICULUM, The.
See LATIUM, and VATICAN.
JANISSARIES, Creation and destruction of the.
See TURKS: A. D. 1326-1359; and 1826.
JANKOWITZ, Battle of (1645).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1640-1645.
JANSENISTS, The.
See PORT ROYAL AND THE JANSENISTS.
JANUS, The Temple of.
See TEMPLE OF JANUS.
----------JAPAN: Start----------
JAPAN:
Sketch of history to 1869.
"To the eye of the critical investigator, Japanese history,
properly so-called, opens only in the latter part of the 5th
or the beginning of the 6th century after Christ, when the
gradual spread of Chinese culture, filtering in through Korea,
had sufficiently dispelled the gloom of original barbarism to
allow of the keeping of records. The whole question of the
credibility of the early history of Japan has been carefully
gone into during the last ten years by Aston and others, with
the result that the first date pronounced trustworthy is A. D.
461, and it is discovered that even the annals of the 6th
century are to be received with caution. We have ourselves no
doubt of the justice of this negative criticism, and can only
stand in amazement at the simplicity of most European writers,
who have accepted without sifting them the uncritical
statements of the Japanese annalists. … Japanese art and
literature contain frequent allusions to the early history
(so-called) of the country … as preserved in the works
entitled Kojiki and Nihongi, both dating from the 8th century
after Christ. … We include the mythology under the same
heading, for the reason that it is absolutely impossible to
separate the two. Why, indeed, attempt to do so, where both
are equally fabulous? … Arrived at A. D. 600, we stand on
terra firma. … About that time occurred the greatest event
of Japanese history, the conversion of the nation to Buddhism
(approximately A. D. 552-621). So far as can be gathered from
the accounts of the early Chinese travellers, Chinese
civilisation had slowly—very slowly—been gaining ground in
the archipelago ever since the 3rd century after Christ. But
when the Buddhist missionaries crossed the water, all Chinese
institutions followed them and came in with a rush.
Mathematical instruments and calendars were introduced; books
began to be written (the earliest that has survived, and
indeed nearly the earliest of all, is the already mentioned
Kojiki, dating from A. D. 712); the custom of abdicating the
throne in order to spend old age in prayer was adopted—a
custom which, more than anything else, led to the effacement
of the Mikado's authority during the Middle Ages. Sweeping
changes in political arrangements began to be made in the year
645, and before the end of the 8th century, the government had
been entirely remodelled on the Chinese centralised
bureaucratic plan, with a regular system of ministers
responsible to the sovereign, who, as 'Son of Heaven,' was
theoretically absolute. In practice this absolutism lasted but
a short time, because the entourage and mode of life of the
Mikados were not such as to make of them able rulers. They
passed their time surrounded only by women and priests,
oscillating between indolence and debauchery, between
poetastering and gorgeous temple services. This was the
brilliant age of Japanese classical literature, which lived
and moved and had its being in the atmosphere of an effeminate
court. The Fujiwara family engrossed the power of the state
during this early epoch (A. D. 670-1050). While their sons
held all the great posts of government, the daughters were
married to puppet emperors. The next change resulted from the
impatience of the always manly and warlike Japanese gentry at
the sight of this sort of petticoat government.
{1874}
The great clans of Taira and Minamoto arose, and struggled for
and alternately held the reins of power during the second half
of the 11th and the whole of the 12th century. … By the
final overthrow of the Taira family at the sea fight of
Dan-no-Ura in A. D. 1185, Yoritomo, the chief of the
Minamotos, rose to supreme power, and obtained from the Court
at Kyoto the title of Shogun [converted by western tongues
into Tycoon], literally 'Generalissimo,' which had till then
been applied in its proper meaning to those generals who were
sent from time to time to subdue the Ainos or rebellious
provincials, but which thenceforth took to itself a special
sense, somewhat as the word Imperator (also meaning originally
'general') did in Rome. The coincidence is striking. So is the
contrast. For, as Imperial Rome never ceased to be
theoretically a republic, Japan contrariwise, though
practically and indeed avowedly ruled by the Shoguns from A.
D. 1190 to 1867, always retained the Mikado as theoretical
head of the state, descendant of the Sun-Goddess, fountain of
all honour. There never were two emperors, acknowledged as
such, one spiritual and one secular, as has been so often
asserted by European writers. There never was but one
emperor—an emperor powerless it is true, seen only by the
women who attended him, often a mere infant in arms, who was
discarded on reaching adolescence for another infant in arms.
Still, he was the theoretical head of the state, whose
authority was merely delegated to the Shogun as, so to say,
Mayor of the Palace. By a curious parallelism of destiny, the
Shogunate itself more than once showed signs of fading away
from substance into shadow. Yoritomo's descendants did not
prove worthy of him, and for more than a century (A. D.
1205-1333) the real authority was wielded by the so-called
'Regents' of the Hojo family. … Their rule was made
memorable by the repulse of the Mongol fleet sent by Kublai
Khan with the purpose of adding Japan to his gigantic
dominions. This was at the end of the 13th century, since
which time Japan has never been attacked from without. During
the 14th century, even the dowager-like calm of the Court of
Kyoto was broken by internecine strife. Two branches of the
Imperial house, supported each by different feudal chiefs,
disputed the crown. One was called the Hokucho, or 'Northern
Court,' the other the Nancho, or 'Southern Court.' After
lasting some sixty years, this contest terminated in A. D.
1392 by the triumph of the Northern dynasty, whose cause the
powerful Ashikaga family had espoused. From 1338 to 1565, the
Ashikagas ruled Japan as Shoguns. … Meanwhile Japan had been
discovered by the Portuguese (A. D. 1542); and the imprudent
conduct of the Portuguese and Spanish friars (bateren, as they
were called—a corruption of the word padre) made of the
Christian religion an additional source of discord. Japan fell
into utter anarchy. Each baron in his fastness was a law unto
himself. Then, in the latter half of the 16th century, there
arose successively three great men—Ota Nobunaga, the Taiko
Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu. The first of these conceived
the idea of centralising all the authority of the state in a
single person; the second, Hideyoshi, who has been called the
Napoleon of Japan, actually put the idea into practice, and
joined the conquest of Korea (A. D. 1592-1598) to his domestic
triumphs. Death overtook him in 1598, while he was revolving
no less a scheme than the conquest of China. Ieyasu, setting
Hideyoshi's youthful son aside, stepped into the vacant place.
An able general, unsurpassed as a diplomat and administrator,
he first quelled all the turbulent barons, then bestowed a
considerable portion of their lands on his own kinsmen and
dependents, and either broke or balanced, by a judicious
distribution of other fiefs over different provinces of the
Empire, the might of those greater feudal lords, such as
Satsuma and Choshu, whom it was impossible to put altogether
out of the way. The Court of Kyoto was treated by him
respectfully, and investiture as Shogun for himself and his
heirs duly obtained from the Mikado. In order further to break
the might of the daimyos, Ieyasu compelled them to live at
Yedo, which he had chosen for his capital in 1590, during six
months of the year, and to leave their wives and families
there as hostages during the other half. What Ieyasu sketched
out, the third Shogun of his line, Iemitsu, perfected. From
that time forward, 'Old Japan,' as we know it from the Dutch
accounts, from art, from the stage, was crystallised for two
hundred and fifty years. … Unchangeable to the outward eye
of contemporaries, Japan had not passed a hundred years under
the Tokugawa régime before the seeds of the disease which
finally killed that regime were sown. Strangely enough, the
instrument of destruction was historical research. Ieyasu
himself had been a great patron of literature. His grandson,
the second Prince of Mito, inherited his taste. Under the
auspices of this Japanese Maecenas, a school of literati arose
to whom the antiquities of their country were all in
all—Japanese poetry and romance as against the Chinese
Classics; the native religion, Shinto, as against the foreign
religion, Buddhism; hence, by an inevitable extension, the
ancient legitimate dynasty of the Mikados, as against the
upstart Shoguns. … When Commodore Perry came with his big
guns (A. D. 1853-4), he found a government already tottering
to its fall, many who cared little for the Mikado's abstract
rights, caring a great deal for the chance of aggrandising
their own families at the Shogun's expense. The Shogun yielded
to the demands of Perry and of the representatives of the
other foreign powers—England, France, Russia—who followed in
Perry's train, and consented to open Yokohama, Hakodate, and
certain other ports to foreign trade and residence (1857-9).
He even sent embassies to the United States and to Europe in
1860 and 1861. The knowledge of the outer world possessed by
the Court of Yedo, though not extensive, was sufficient to
assure the Shogun and his advisers that it was vain to refuse
what the Western powers claimed. The Court of Kyoto had had no
means of acquiring even this modicum of worldly wisdom.
According to its view, Japan, 'the land of the gods,' should
never be polluted by outsiders, the ports should be closed
again, and the 'barbarians' expelled at any hazard. What
specially tended to complicate matters at this crisis was the
independent action of certain daimyos. One of them, the Prince
of Choshu, acting, as is believed, under secret instructions
from the Court of Kyoto, fired on ships belonging to Great
Britain, France, Holland, and the United States—this, too, at
the very moment (1863) when the Shogun's government … was
doing its utmost to effect by diplomacy the departure of the
foreigners whom it had been driven to admit a few years before.
{1875}
The consequence of this act was what is called 'the
Shimonoseki Affair,' namely, the bombardment of Shimonoseki,
Choshu's chief sea-port, by the combined fleets of the powers
that had been insulted, and the exaction of an indemnity of
$3,000,000. Though doubtless no feather, this broke the
Shogunate's back. The Shogun Iemochi attempted to punish
Choshu for the humiliation which he had brought on Japan, but
failed, was himself defeated by the latter's troops, and died.
Hitotsubashi, the last of his line, succeeded him. But the
Court of Kyoto, prompted by the great daimyos of Choshu and
Satsuma, suddenly decided on the abolition of the Shogunate.
The Shogun submitted to the decree, and those of his followers
who did not were routed—first at Fushimi near Kyoto (17th
January, 1868), then at Ueno in Yedo (4th July, 1868), then in
Aizu (6th November, 1868), and lastly at Hakodate (27th June,
1869), where some of them had endeavoured to set up an
independent republic. The government of the country was
reorganised during 1867-8, nominally on the basis of a pure
absolutism, with the Mikado as sole wielder of all authority
both legislative and executive. Thus the literary party had
triumphed. All their dreams were realised. They were
henceforth to have Japan for the Japanese. … From this dream
they were soon roughly wakened. The shrewd clansmen of Satsuma
find Choshu, who had humoured the ignorance of the Court and
the fads of the scholars only as long as their common enemy,
the Shogunate, remained in existence, now turned round, and
declared in favour, not merely of foreign intercourse, but of
the Europeanisation of their own country. History has never
witnessed a more sudden 'volte-face.' History has never
witnessed a wiser one."
_B. H. Chamberlain,
Things Japanese,
pages 143-160._
ALSO IN:
_F. O. Adams,
History of Japan._
_Sir E. J. Reed,
Japan,
volume 1, chapters 2-16_.
_W. E. Griffis,
The Mikado's Empire,
book 1._
_R. Hildreth,
Japan, as it was and is._
JAPAN: A. D. 1549-1686.
Jesuit Missions.
The Century of Christianity.
Its introduction and extirpation
Francis Xavier, "the Apostle of the Indies, was both the
leader and director of a widely spread missionary movement,
conducted by a rapidly increasing staff, not only of Jesuits,
but also of priests and missionaries of other orders, as well
as of native preachers and catechists. Xavier reserved for
himself the arduous task of travelling to regions as yet
unvisited by any preachers of Christianity; and his bold and
impatient imagination was carried away by the idea of bearing
the Cross to the countries of the farthest East. The islands
of Japan, already known to Europe through the travels of Marco
Polo, had been reached by the Portuguese only eight years
before, namely, in 1541, and Xavier, while at Malacca, had
conversed with navigators and traders who had visited that
remote coast. A Japanese, named Angero (Hansiro), pursued for
homicide, had fled to Malacca in a Portuguese ship. He
professed a real or feigned desire to be baptized, and was
presented to Xavier at Malacca, who sent him to Goa. There he
learned Portuguese quickly, and was baptized under the name of
Paul of the Holy Faith. … Having carefully arranged the
affairs of the Seminary of the Holy Faith at Goa and the
entire machinery of the mission, Francis Xavier took ship for
Malacca on the 14th April, 1549. On the 24th of June he sailed
for Japan, along with Angero and his two companions, in a
Chinese junk belonging to a famous pirate, an ally of the
Portuguese, who left in their hands hostages for the safety of
the apostle on the voyage. After a dangerous voyage they
reached Kagosima, the native town of Angero, under whose
auspices Xavier was well received by the governor,
magistrates, and other distinguished people. The apostle was
unable to commence his mission at once, though, according to
his biographers, he possessed the gift of tongues. 'We are
here,' he writes, 'like so many statues. They speak to us, and
make signs to us, and we remain mute. We have again become
children, and all our present occupation is to learn the
elements of the Japanese grammar.' His first impressions of
Japan were very favourable. … Xavier left Japan on the 20th
November, 1551, after a stay of two years and four months. In
his controversies with the Japanese, Xavier had been
continually met with the objection—how could the Scripture
history be true when it had escaped the notice of the learned
men of China? It was Chinese sages who had taught philosophy
and history to the Japanese, and Chinese missionaries who had
converted them to Buddhism. To China, then, would he go to
strike a blow at the root of that mighty superstition.
Accordingly he sailed from Goa about the middle of April,
1552. … Being a prey to continual anxiety to reach the new
scene of his labours, Xavier fell ill, apparently of remittent
fever, and died on the 2nd of December, 1552. … The result
of Xavier's labours was the formation of a mission which, from
Goa as a centre, radiated over much of the coast of Asia from
Ormuz to Japan. … The two missionaries, whom Xavier had left
at Japan, were soon after joined by three others: and in 1556
they were visited by the Provincial of the Order in the
Indies, Melchior Nunez, who paid much attention to the
Japanese mission and selected for it the best missionaries, as
Xavier had recommended. … The Jesuits attached themselves to
the fortunes of the King of Bungo, a restless and ambitious
prince, who in the end added four little kingdoms to his own,
and thus became master of a large part of the island of
Kiusiu. In his dominions Christianity made such progress that
the number of converts began to be counted by thousands. …
The missionaries perseveringly sought to spread their religion
by preaching, public discussion, the circulation of
controversial writings, the instruction of the youth, the
casting out of devils, the performance of those mystery plays
so common in that age, by the institution of 'confréries' like
those of Avignon, and, above all, by the well-timed
administration of alms. Nor need we be surprised to learn that
their first converts were principally the blind, the infirm,
and old men one foot in the grave. There are, however, many
proofs in their letters that they were able both to attract
proselytes of a better class and to inspire them with an
enthusiasm which promised well for the growth of the mission.
In those early days the example of Xavier was still fresh; and
his immediate successors seem to have inherited his energetic
and self-denying disposition, though none of them could equal
the great mental and moral qualities of the Apostle of the
Indies. They kept at the same time a watchful eye upon the
political events that were going on around them, and soon
began to bear a part in them. The hostility between them and
the Bonzes became more and more bitter."
_The Hundred Years of Christianity in Japan
(Quarterly Review, April, 1871)._
{1876}
"In several of the provinces of Kyushu the princes had become
converts and had freely used their influence, and sometimes
their authority, to extend Christianity among their subjects.
In Kyoto and Yamaguchi, in Osaka and Sakai, as well as in
Kyusbu, the Jesuit fathers had founded flourishing churches
and exerted a wide influence. They had established colleges
where the candidates for the church could be educated and
trained. They had organized hospitals and asylums at Nagasaki
and elsewhere, where those needing aid could be received and
treated. It is true hat the progress of the work had met with
a severe setback in A. D. 1587, when Taiko Sam a issued an
edict expelling all foreign religious teachers from Japan. In
pursuance of this edict nine foreigners who had evaded
expulsion were burnt at Nagasaki. The reason for this decisive
action on the part of Taiko Sama is usually attributed to the
suspicion which had been awakened in him by the loose and
unguarded talk of a Portuguese sea captain. But other causes
undoubtedly contributed to produce in him this intolerant
frame of mind. … In several of the provinces of Japan where
the Jesuits had attained the ascendancy, the most forcible
measures had been taken by the Christian princes to compel all
their subjects to follow their own example and adopt the
Christian faith. Takeyama, whom the Jesuit fathers designate
as Justo Ucondono, carried out in his territory at Akashi a
system of bitter persecution. He gave his subjects the option
of becoming Christians or leaving his territory. Konishi
Yukinaga, who received part of the province of Higo as his
fief after the Korean war, enforced with great persistency the
acceptance of the Christian faith, and robbed the Buddhist
priests of their temples and their lands. The princes of Omura
and Arima, and to a certain extent the princes of Bungo,
followed the advice of the Jesuit fathers in using their
authority to advance the cause of Christianity. The fathers
could scarcely complain of having the system of intolerance
practised upon them, which, when circumstances were favorable,
they had advised to be applied to their opponents. … During
the first years of Ieyasu's supremacy the Christians were not
disturbed. … He issued in 1606 what may be called a warning
proclamation, announcing that he had learned with pain that,
contrary to Taiko Sama's edict, many had embraced the
Christian religion. He warned all officers of his court to see
that the edict was strictly enforced, He declared that it was
for the good of the state that none should embrace the new
doctrine; and that such as had already done so must change
immediately. … In the meantime both the English and Dutch
had appeared on the scene. … Their object was solely trade,
and as the Portuguese monopoly hitherto had been mainly
secured by the Jesuit fathers, it was natural for the
new-comers to represent the motive of these fathers in an
unfavorable and suspicious light. 'Indeed,' as Hildreth says,
'they had only to confirm the truth of what the Portuguese and
Spanish said of each other to excite in the minds of the
Japanese rulers the gravest distrust as to the designs of the
priests of both nations.' Whether it is true as charged that
the minds of the Japanese rulers had been poisoned against the
Jesuit fathers by misrepresentation and falsehood, it may be
impossible to determine definitely; but it is fair to infer
that the cruel and intolerant policy of the Spanish and
Portuguese would be fully set forth and the danger to the
Japanese empire from the machinations of the foreign religious
teachers held up in the worst light. … Ieyasu, evidently
having made up his mind that for the safety of the empire
Christianity must be extirpated, in 1614 issued an edict that
the members of all religious orders, whether European or
Japanese, should be sent out of the country: that the churches
which had been erected in various localities should be pulled
down, and that the native adherents of the faith should be
compelled to renounce it. In part execution of this edict all
the members of the Society of Jesus, native and foreign, were
ordered to be sent to Nagasaki. Native Christians were sent to
Tsugaru, the northern extremity of the Main island. … In
accordance with this edict, as many as 300 persons are said to
have been shipped from Japan October 25, 1614. All the
resident Jesuits were included in this number, excepting
eighteen fathers and nine brothers, who concealed themselves
and thus escaped the search. Following his deportation of
converts the most persistent efforts continued to be made to
force the native Christians to renounce their faith. The
accounts given, both by the foreign and by the Japanese
writers, of the persecutions which now broke upon the heads of
the Christians are beyond description horrible. … Rewards
were offered for information involving Christians of every
position and rank, even of parents against their children and
of children against their parents. … The persecution began
in its worst form about 1616. This was the year in which
Ieyasu died, but his son and successor carried out the
terrible programme with heartless thoroughness. It has never
been surpassed for cruelty and brutality on the part of the
persecutors, or for courage and constancy on the part of those
who suffered. … Mr. Gubbins … says: 'We read of Christians
being executed in a barbarous manner in sight of each other,
of their being hurled from the tops of precipices, of their
being buried alive, of their being torn asunder by oxen, of
their being tied up in rice-bags, which were heaped up
together, and of the pile thus formed being set on fire.
Others were tortured before death by the insertion of sharp
spikes under the nails of their hands and feet, while some
poor wretches by a refinement of horrid cruelty were shut up
in cages and there left to starve with food before their eyes.
Let it not be supposed that we have drawn on the Jesuit
accounts solely for this information. An examination of the
Japanese records will show that the case is not overstated.'"
_D. Murray,
Story of Japan,
chapter 11._
"The persecutions went on, the discovery of Christians
occasionally occurring for several years, but in 1686 'the few
remaining had learnt how to conceal their belief and the
practice of their religion so well, that the Council issued a
circular to the chief Daimios of the south and west, stating
that none of the Kirishitan sect had been discovered of late
years, owing perhaps to laziness on the part of those whose
duty it was to search for them, and enjoining vigilance'
(Satow). Traces of the Christian religion and people lingered
in the country down to our own time."
_Sir E. J. Reed,
Japan,
page 301._
{1877}
JAPAN: A. D. 1852-1888.
Opening the ports to foreigners.
The treaty with the United States and the other treaties which
followed.
"It is estimated that about the middle of the present century,
American capital to the amount of seventeen million dollars
was invested in the whaling industry in the seas of Japan and
China. We thus see that it was not a mere outburst of French
enthusiasm when M. Michelet paid this high tribute to the
service of the whale to civilization: 'Who opened to men the
great distant navigation? Who revealed the ocean and marked
out its zones and its liquid highways? Who discovered the
secrets of the globe? The Whale and the Whaler.' … There
were causes other than the mere safety of whalers which led to
the inception of the American expedition to Japan. On the one
hand, the rise of industrial and commercial commonwealths on
the Pacific, the discovery of gold in California, the
increasing trade with China, the development of steam
navigation—necessitating coal depots and ports for shelter,
the opening of highways across the Isthmus of Central America,
the missionary enterprises on the Asiatic continent, the rise
of the Hawaiian Islands,—on the other hand, the knowledge of
foreign nations among the ruling class in Japan, the news of
the British victory in China, the progress of European
settlements in the Pacific, the dissemination of western
science among a progressive class of scholars, the advice from
the Dutch government to discontinue the antiquated policy of
exclusion—all these testified that the fulness of time for
Japan to turn a new page in her history was at hand. … About
this time, a newspaper article concerning some Japanese waifs
who had been picked up at sea by the barque Auckland—Captain
Jennings—and brought to San Francisco, attracted the
attention of Commodore Aulick. He submitted a proposal to the
government that it should take advantage of this incident to
open commercial relations with the Empire, or at least to
manifest the friendly feelings of the country. This proposal
was made on the 9th of May, 1851. Daniel Webster was then
Secretary of State, and in him Aulick found a ready friend.
… Clothed with full power to negotiate and sign treaties,
and furnished with a letter from President Fillmore to the
Emperor, Commodore Aulick was on the eve of departure when for
some reason he was prevented. Thus the project which began at
his suggestion was obstructed when it was about to be
accomplished, and another man, perhaps better fitted for the
undertaking, entered into his labors. … Commodore [Matthew
Calbraith] Perry shared the belief in the expediency of
sending a special mission for the purpose. When Commodore
Aulick was recalled, Perry proposed to the U. S. Government an
immediate expedition. The proposal was accepted, and an
expedition on the most liberal scale was resolved upon. He was
invested with extraordinary powers, naval and diplomatic. The
East India and China Seas and Japan were the official
designation of the field of service, but the real object in
view was the establishment of a coal depot in Japan. The
public announcement of the resolution was followed by
applications from all quarters of Christendom for permission
to accompany the expedition; all these were, however, refused
on prudential grounds. … Impatient of the delay caused by
the tardy preparations of his vessels, Perry sailed from
Norfolk on the 24th of November, 1852, with one ship, the
Mississippi, leaving the rest to follow as soon as ready. …
The Mississippi … touching at, several ports on her way,
reached Loo Choo in May, where the squadron united. … In the
afternoon of the 8th of July, 1853, the squadron entered the
Bay of Yedo in martial order, and about 5 o'clock in the
evening was anchored off the town of Uraga. No sooner had 'the
black ships of the evil mien' made their entry into the Bay,
than the signal guns were fired, followed by the discharge of
rockets; then were seen on the shore companies of soldiers
moving from garrison to garrison. The popular commotion in
Yedo at the news of 'a foreign invasion' was beyond
description. The whole city was in an uproar. In all
directions were seen mothers flying with children in their
arms, and men with mothers on their backs. Rumors of an
immediate action, exaggerated each time they were communicated
from mouth to mouth, added horror to the horror-stricken. …
As the squadron dropped anchor, it was surrounded by junks and
boats of all sorts, but there was no hostile sign shown. A
document in French was handed on board, which proved to be a
warning to any foreign vessel not to come nearer. The next day
was spent in informal conference between the local officials
of Uraga and the subordinate officers of the squadron. It was
Commodore Perry's policy to behave with as much reserve and
exclusiveness as the Japanese diplomats had done and would do.
He would neither see, nor talk with, any except the highest
dignitary of the realm. Meanwhile, the governor of Uraga came
on board and was received by captains and lieutenants. He
declared that the laws forbade any foreign communication to be
held elsewhere than Nagasaki; but to Nagasaki the squadron
would never go. The vexed governor would send to Yedo for
further instructions, and the 12th was fixed as a day for
another conference. Any exchange of thought was either in the
Dutch language, for which interpreters were provided on both
sides, or in Chinese, through Dr. S. Wells Williams, and
afterward in Japanese, through Manjiro Nakahama. … On the
12th, the Governor of Uraga again appeared on board and
insisted on the squadron's leaving the Yedo Bay for Nagasaki,
where the President's letter would be duly received through
the Dutch or the Chinese. This the Commodore firmly refused to
do. It was therefore decided at the court of Yedo that the
letter be received at Kurihama, a few miles from the town of
Uraga. This procedure was, in the language of the
commissioners, 'in opposition to the Japanese law;' but, on
the ground that 'the Admiral, in his quality as Ambassador of
the President, would be insulted by any other course,' the
original of Mr. Fillmore's letter to the Japanese Emperor,
enclosed in a golden box of one thousand dollars in value, was
delivered on the 14th of July to the commissioners appointed
by the Shogun. …
{1878}
Fortunately for Japan, the disturbed state of affairs in
China made it prudent for Perry to repair to the ports of that
country, which he did as though he had consulted solely the
diplomatic convenience of our country. He left word that he
would come the ensuing spring for our answer. … It was the
Taiping Rebellion which called for Perry's presence in China.
The American merchants had large interests at stake
there—their property in Shanghai alone amounting, it is said,
to $1,200,000. … While in China, Commodore Perry found that
the Russian and French admirals, who were staying in Shanghai,
contemplated a near visit to Japan. That he might not give any
advantage to them, he left Macao earlier than he had intended,
and, on the 13th of February, found himself again in the Bay
of Yedo, with a stately fleet of eight ships. As the place
where the conference had been held at the previous visit was
out of the reach of gun-shot from the anchorage, Perry
expressed a desire of holding negotiations in Yedo, a request
impossible for the Japanese to comply with. After some
hesitation, the suburb Kanagawa was mutually agreed upon as a
suitable site, and there a temporary building was accordingly
erected for the transaction of the business. On the 8th of
May, Commodore Perry, arrayed in the paraphernalia befitting
his rank, was ushered into the house. The reply of the Shogun
to the President's letter was now given—the purport of which
was, decidedly in word but reluctantly in spirit, in favor of
friendly intercourse. Conferences were repeated in the middle
and latter part of the month, and after many evasions and
equivocations, deliberations and delays, invitations to
banquets and exchanges of presents, at last, on Friday, the
31st of May, the formal treaty was signed; a synopsis of which
is here presented:
1. Peace and friendship.
2. Ports of Shimoda and Hakodate open to American ships,
and necessary provisions to be supplied them.
3. Relief to shipwrecked people; expenses thereof not to be
refunded.
4. Americans to be free as in other countries, but amenable to
just laws.
5. Americans at Shimoda and Hakodate not to be subject to
restrictions; free to go about within defined limits.
6. Careful deliberation in transacting business which affects
the welfare of either party.
7. Trade in open ports subject to local regulations.
8. Wood, water, provisions, coal, etc., to be procured through
Japanese officers only.
9. Most-favored nation clause.
10. U. S. ships restricted to ports of Shimoda and Hakodate,
except when forced by stress of weather.
11. U. S. Consuls or agents to reside at Shimoda.
12. Ratifications to be exchanged within eighteen months. …
His labors at an end, Perry bade the last farewell to Japan
and started on his home-bound voyage. This was in June, 1854.
… No sooner had Perry left, carrying off the trophy of
peaceful victory—the treaty (though the Yedo government was
in no enjoyment of peaceful rest), than the Russian Admiral
Pontiatine appeared in Nagasaki. He urged that the same
privileges be granted his country as were allowed the
Americans. … Soon, the English Rear Admiral, Sir James
Stirling, arrives at the same harbor, very kindly to notify
the government that there may be some fighting in Japanese
waters between Russians and his countrymen. … The British
convention was signed October 14, 1854, and followed, in 1858,
by the Elgin treaty. The treaty with Russia was signed January
26, 1855; Netherlands, 9th of November the same year; France,
October 9, 1858; Portugal, 3rd of August, 1860; German Customs
Union, 25th of January, 1861. The other nations which followed
the United States were Italy, Spain, Denmark, Belgium,
Switzerland, Austria-Hungary, Sweden and Norway, Peru, Hawaii,
China, Corea and Siam; lastly Mexico, with whom we concluded a
treaty on terms of perfect equality (November 30, 1888)."
_Inazo (Ota) Nitobe,
The Intercourse between the U. S. and Japan,
chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_F. L. Hawks,
Narrative of the Expedition under Commander Perry._
_W. E. Griffis,
Matthew Calbraith Perry,
chapters 27-33._
JAPAN: A. D. 1869-1890.
Constitutional development.
"In 1869 was convened the Kogisho or 'Parliament,' as Sir
Harry Parkes translates it in his despatch to the Earl of
Clarendon. … The Kogisho was composed mostly of the
retainers of the Daimios, for the latter, having no experience
of the earnest business of life, 'were not eager to devote
themselves to the labors of an onerous and voluntary office.'
… The object of the Kogisho was to enable the government to
sound public opinion on the various topics of the day, and to
obtain the assistance of the country in the work of
legislation by ascertaining whether the projects of the
government were likely to be favorably received. The Kogisho,
like the Councils of Kuges and Daimios, was nothing but an
experiment, a mere germ of a deliberative assembly, which only
time and experience could bring to maturity. … It was a
quiet, peaceful, obedient debating society. It has left the
record of its abortive undertakings in the 'Kogisho Nishi' or
journal of 'Parliament.' The Kogisho was dissolved in the year
of its birth. And the indifference of the public about its
dissolution proves how small an influence it really had. But a
greater event than the dissolution of the Kogisho was pending
before the public gaze. This was the abolition of feudalism.
… The measure to abolish feudalism was much discussed in the
Kogisho before its dissolution. … In the following noted
memorial, after reviewing the political history of Japan
during the past few hundred years, these Daimios said: 'Now
the great Government has been newly restored and the Emperor
himself undertakes the direction of affairs. This is, indeed,
a rare and mighty event. We have the name (of an Imperial
Government), we must also have the fact. Our first duty is to
illustrate our faithfulness and to prove our loyalty. … The
place where we live is the Emperor's land and the food which
we eat is grown by the Emperor's men. How can we make it our
own? We now reverently offer up the list of our possessions
and men, with the prayer that the Emperor will take good
measures for rewarding those to whom reward is due and for
taking from those to whom punishment is due. Let the imperial
orders be issued for altering and remodelling the territories
of the various clans. Let the civil and penal codes, the
military laws down to the rules for uniform and the
construction of engines of war, all proceed from the Emperor;
let all the affairs of the empire, great and small, be
referred to him.' This memorial was signed by the Daimios of
Kago, Hizen, Satsuma, Choshiu, Tosa, and some other Daimios of
the west.
{1879}
But the real author of the memorial is believed to have been
Kido, the brain of the Restoration. Thus were the fiefs of the
most powerful and most wealthy Daimios voluntarily offered to
the Emperor. The other Daimios soon followed the example of
their colleagues. And the feudalism which had existed in Japan
for over eight centuries was abolished by the following
laconic imperial decree of August, 1871: 'The clans are
abolished, and prefectures are established in their places.'
… While the government at home was thus tearing down the old
framework of state, the Iwakura Embassy in foreign lands was
gathering materials for the new. This was significant,
inasmuch as five of the best statesmen of the time, with their
staff of forty-four able men, came into association for over a
year with western peoples, and beheld in operation their
social, political and religious institutions. … In 1873,
Count Itagaki with his friends had sent in a memorial to the
government praying for the establishment of a representative
assembly, but they had not been heeded by the government. In
July, 1877, Count Itagaki with his Ri-shi-sha again addressed
a memorial to the Emperor, 'praying for a change in the form
of government, and setting forth the reasons which, in the
opinion of the members of the society, rendered such a change
necessary.' These reasons were nine in number and were
developed at great length. … The civil war being ended, in
1878, the year which marks a decade from the establishment of
the new regime, the government, persuaded that the time for
popular institutions was fast approaching, not alone through
representations of the Tosa memorialists, but through many
other signs of the times, decided to take a step in the
direction of establishing a national assembly. But the
government acted cautiously. Thinking that to bring together
hundreds of members unaccustomed to parliamentary debate and
its excitement, and to allow them a hand in the administration
of affairs of the state, might be attended with serious
dangers, as a preparation for the national assembly the
government established first local assemblies. Certainly this
was a wise course. These local assemblies have not only been
good training schools for popular government, but also proved
reasonably successful. … The qualifications for electors
(males only) are: an age of twenty years, registration, and
payment of a land tax of $5. Voting is by ballot, but the
names of the voters are to be written by themselves on the
voting papers. There are now 2,172 members who sit in these
local assemblies. … The gulf between absolute government and
popular government was thus widened more and more by the
institution of local government. The popular tide raised by
these local assemblies was swelling in volume year by year.
New waves were set in motion by the younger generation of
thinkers. Toward the close of the year 1881 the flood rose so
high that the government thought it wise not to resist longer.
His Imperial Majesty, hearing the petitions of the people,
graciously confirmed and expanded his promise of 1868 by the
famous proclamation of October 12, 1881: 'We have long had it
in view to gradually establish a constitutional form of
government. … It was with this object in view that in the
eighth year of Meiji (1875) we established the Senate, and in
the eleventh year of Meiji (1878) authorized the formation of
local assemblies. … We therefore hereby declare that we
shall, in the twenty-third year of Meiji (1890) establish a
parliament, in order to carry into full effect the
determination we have announced; and we charge our faithful
subjects bearing our commissions to make, in the meantime, all
necessary preparations to that end.'"
_T. Iyenaga,
The Constitutional Development of Japan, 1853-1881
(Johns Hopkins University Studies, 9th Series, number 9)._
See CONSTITUTION OF JAPAN.