The whole western world, especially Christendom, was put under
ban.
Even the apparent exception made in favor of the Dutch was with the
motive of making isolation more complete, and of securing the perfect
safety which that isolation was expected to bring. For, having built,
not indeed with brick and mortar, but by means of edict and law, both
open and secret, a great wall of exclusion more powerful than that of
China's, it was necessary that there should be a port-hole, for both
sally and exit, and a slit for vigilant scrutiny of any attempt to force
seclusion or violate the frontier. Hence, the Hollanders were allowed to
have a small place of residence in front of a large city and at the head
of a land-locked harbor. There, the foreigners being isolated and under
strict guard, the government could have, as it were, a nerve which
touched the distant nations, and could also, as with a telescope, sweep
the horizon for signs of danger.
So, in 1640, the Hollanders were ordered to evacuate Hirado, and occupy
the little "outer island" called Deshima, in front of the city of
Nagasaki, and connected therewith by a bridge. Any ships entering this
hill-girdled harbor, it was believed, could be easily managed by the
military resources possessed by the government.
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