On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, envoy of the United States of America, entered the Bay of Uraga with a squadron consisting of two frigates, the _Susquehanna_ and the _Mississippi_, and two sloops-of-war, the _Plymouth_ and the _Saratoga_, and sought to open commercial relations with Japan. His visit exercised a powerful influence, entirely unknown to himself, on the domestic affairs of the country. Ever since the early part of the seventeenth century anti-foreign feeling had been so intense that only the Chinese and the Dutch had been allowed to carry on trade at Nagasaki, and other European nations, owing to various circumstances, gave themselves little, if any, concern about Japan. But from the beginning of the eighteenth century the spirit of aggrandizement made itself felt in the Occident, and Western states began to vie with one another in attempts to extend their territories and commerce. Eastward of Japan across the Pacific lay the United States of America, which had shaken off the yoke of Great Britain, and the latter, deprived of this flourishing colony, sought compensation in India and farther eastward, while France also, as well as Russia, turned covetous eyes to the Orient. Nine years before the arrival of the American squadron in Uraga Bay, or in 1844, the Dutch addressed a letter to the Tokugawa government advising that Japan be opened to all foreign nations, and subsequently they often repeated this counsel, at the same time explaining the conditions of the various states of Europe. Among the Japanese, many who had studied the Dutch language and acquired some knowledge of Western affairs were in favor of a liberal foreign policy, but among the bulk of the nation the prejudices engendered by the violent and lawless conduct of the early Christian propagandists remained as strong as ever. Moreover, fresh reasons for resentment had been furnished by various encroachments of the Russians between the Kwansei (1789-1800) and Bunka (1804-1817) eras, and by disorderly conduct of English sailors in Nagasaki. Indeed, the Tokugawa government had once gone so far as to order that any foreign ship approaching the coast of Japan should be fired on, and any Japanese whose studies of Dutch led them to advocate the opening of the country were deprived of their official positions or otherwise punished.