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250 HONDA THE SAMURAI.
single man, I can afford to believe what I think
to be true, or to die for my conviction if necessary."
The reference of the cautious Rai was to the
famous and brilliant scholar Takano Choy6 who,
having learned Dutch at Nagasaki, gathered a knot
of scholars around him, translated European books
on fc^Taphy and history, and even instructed a
high officer ..amed Watanabe* Noboru. The two
kindred spirits tried to reform the barbarous customs
of Japan, and to cast away the infantile
notions and the useless learning of China, and in
their place to introduce western science.
When in 1839 the American ship Morrison, with
seven Japanese castaways on board with their interpeter
Dr. S. Wells Williams, visited Yedo Bay
to return these men to their native country, the
ship was fired on and driven away. This was the
act of a cowardly government afraid of the light ;
for although the unarmed ship came in the interests
of humanity, to offer an olive-branch and not to
fight, yet the Yedo officers were terrified at the
very thought of a foreign vessel entering the waters
of Japan, when there were nothing but arrows, matchlocks,
and cannon not much bigger than a goose-gun
to repel them. Taking advice with his friend Watanabe",
Takano Choy wrote, in fascinating literary
style, his book entitled "Dream Story," in which
he depicted the power of England and of the western
nations. He described England particularly, because
the ship, though owned and sent by Americans,
was named after the English missionary Dr.