In the spring of 1806, Deoff made his first journey to Yedo. In the arrangements of the journey and the audience, there seems to have been no change since the time of Thunberg. While he was at Yedo a tremendous fire broke out. It began, at a distance from his lodgings, at ten in the morning. At one the Dutch took the alarm, and began to pack. At three they fled. “On issuing into the street,” says Doeff, “we saw everything in flames. There was great danger in endeavoring to escape before the wind, in the same direction taken by the fire. We, therefore, took a slanting direction, through a street already burning, and thus succeeded in reaching an open field. It was studded with the standards of princes whose dwellings had been destroyed, and whose wives and children had fled thither for refuge. We followed their example, and marked out a spot with our Dutch flags. We had now a full view of the fire, and never did I see anything so terrific. The terrors of this ocean of flame were enhanced by the heart-rending cries of the fugitive women and children.” The fire raged till noon the next day, when it was extinguished by a fall of rain.[84] The Dutch learned from their host, that, within five minutes after they left, the fire took his house, and destroyed everything—as an indemnity for which, the Dutch East India Company allowed him annually for three years from twelve to fourteen hundred-weight of sugar. The palaces of thirty-seven princes had been destroyed. The weight of fugitives broke down the famous Nihonbashi, or bridge of Japan, so that, besides those burned to death, many were drowned, including a daughter of the prince of Awa. Twelve hundred lives were said to have been lost. On this occasion the Dutch were greatly aided by a wealthy Japanese merchant, who sent forty men to assist them in removing. He lost his shop, or store, and a warehouse, containing a hundred thousand pounds of spun silk, yet the day after the fire was engaged in rebuilding his premises. The Dutch, burnt out of their inn, were lodged at first in the house of the governor of Nagasaki; but, four days after, procured a new inn. This was in a more public place than the old obscure lodging. The appearance of the Dutch on the balcony attracted crowds of curious spectators, and soon drew out an order, from the governor of Yedo, that they should keep within doors. But Doeff refused to obey this order, on the ground that, during their entire embassy, the Dutch were under the authority only of the governor of Nagasaki; and in this position he was sustained by that personage.