This is the only full-length portrait we possess of a Japanese merchant; and, if it represents the class, the fraternity have reason to be proud of their Japanese brethren. “The class of merchants in Japan,” says Golownin, “is very extensive and rich, but not held in honor. The merchants have not the right to bear arms;[101] but though their profession is not respected, their wealth is; for this, as in Europe, supplies the place of talents and dignity, and attains privileges and honorable places. The Japanese told us that their officers of state and men of rank behave themselves outwardly with great haughtiness to the merchants, but in private are very familiar with the rich ones, and are often under great obligations to them. We had with us for some time a young officer, who was the son of a rich merchant, and who, as the Japanese said, owed his rank not to his own merit, but to his father’s gold. Thus, though the laws do not favor the mercantile profession, yet wealth raises it; for even in Japan, where the laws are so rigorously enforced, they are often weighed down by the influence of gold.” CHAPTER XLIV _Renewal of the Dutch Trade—Captain Gordon in the Bay of Yedo—Fisscher—Meylan—Siebold—British Mutineers—Voyage of the Morrison—Japanese Edict—The “Saramang” at Nagasaki—The “Mercator” in the Bay of Yedo—Commodore Biddle in the Bay of Yedo—Shipwrecked Americans—French Ships of War at Nagasaki—The “Preble” at Nagasaki—Surveying ship “Mariner” in the Bays of Yedo and Shimoda—New Notification through the Dutch—A.D. 1817-1850._ Great was the delight of Heer Doeff, when, in the year 1817, two vessels arrived at last from Batavia, bringing news of its restoration to the Dutch; also—what was hardly less welcome—a supply of butter, wine, and other European creature comforts; together with goods for renewing the trade, and a decoration of the order of the Lion for Doeff, whose conduct in holding out against the English had been highly approved in Holland. On board these ships were several women, among others the wife of Herr Blomhoff, appointed to succeed Doeff as director, who had with her an infant child. This novelty greatly disturbed the Japanese. It was with the utmost difficulty that permission was obtained for the wife of the new director to land; her remaining was a thing not to be listened to, and she was obliged to leave her husband and to return to Batavia in the departing ships.[102]