160 DISCOVERIES 01" 1596. 



he is silent on this subject.'* It could not, how- 

 ever, be any other than himself who gave the narra- 

 tive, which follows, to the Portugueze Jesuits at 

 the court of Japan ; for his good friend Timothy 

 Shelton of London, who, he tells us, was pilot of 

 the Admiral, was lost in that ship, and Thomas 

 Adams, his brother, was slain in battle. 



It is well known that William Adams was 

 engaged as master-pilot of a Dutch fleet of five 

 ships, bound on a voyage to the East Indies 

 through the strait of Magellan, which circum- 

 stance alone proves that his character must have 

 been well established in Holland. We know also 

 that the only vessel which escaped shipwreck was 

 that in which he was pilot ; and that it was saved 

 only to be cast away on the coast of Japan ; 

 that throu2:h the favour which he found in the 

 eyes of the Emperor, on account of his skill in 

 building ships, and instructing his people in mathe- 

 matics and navigation, he was the means of in- 

 troducing both the English and the Dutch to trade 

 with that empire ; and that he was never per- 

 mitted to leave the country, f 



Now it is mentioned incidentally in the records 

 of Portugueze navigation, that an Englishman 

 had performed a voyage to the northward, to a 



* Purchas's Pilgrims, vol. i. p. 125. 



t Purchas's Pilgrims, ibid. — Harris, Coll.of Voy. vol.i. p. 856 

 — Astlev,Coll. &c. 



