"The tercentenary of the closing of the Hirado to the East India Company will, in all probability, have few to call this failure to the minds of men... It is surely quite impossible to call attention to this particular incident without also suggesting that the action of Sir John Saris in 1613, for which nothing but his own personal obstinacy may be held responsible, not only decided the events of Dec. 24, 1623, but also the turn which the history of the Pacific was to take for the quarter of a millennium."
