Shortly after this renewal of the old Dutch intercourse, a new English attempt was made at commerce with Japan. Captain Gordon of the British navy, entered, in June, 1818, the bay of Yedo, in a little trading brig, from Okhotsk, of sixty-five tons’ burden. He was immediately visited by two officers, to whom he said that he had come merely to obtain permission to return with a cargo of goods for sale. They insisted upon unshipping his rudder, and required all his arms to be given up. The vessel was then surrounded by a circle of some twenty boats, and beyond by a circle of sixty larger ones, besides two or three junks, mounting a number of guns. Two interpreters came on board, one speaking Dutch, the other some Russian, and both a little English. They inquired if the vessel belonged to the East India Company, if the English were friends of the Dutch, and if Captain Golownin was at Okhotsk. They asked after the king of Holland, the king of France, and Bonaparte. They knew the names and uses of the various nautical instruments, and said that the best were made at London. In a subsequent visit they told Captain Gordon that permission could not be granted for his trading to Japan, as by their laws all foreign intercourse was interdicted, except at Nagasaki, and there only allowed with the Dutch and Chinese, and he was requested to depart the moment the wind was fair. The interpreters declined any presents, being prohibited, they said, from accepting any. Captain Gordon was much struck with the polite and affable conduct of the Japanese, both towards him and towards each other. Everything that had been taken on shore was carefully returned, and thirty boats were sent to tow the vessel out of the bay. The shores were lined with spectators, and as soon as the guard-boats had left, not less than two thousand visitors came on board in succession, all eager to barter for trifles.[103] In 1820, J. F. Van Overmeer Fisscher arrived at Nagasaki, as a member of the factory. He resided there for seven years, and after his return to Holland published, in 1833, a work in the Dutch language, entitled “Contributions towards a Knowledge of the Japanese Empire,” embellished with engravings from Japanese drawings, so superior to former specimens as to give occasion for some suspicion of aid from the European engraver.