28 INTEODUCTION. 



has told his own story with captivating simplicity ; and it has heen preserved in the pages of 

 that worthy compiler, honest old Purchas. He tells us as follows: "Your worships will 

 understand that I am a Kentish man, Lorn in a town called Grillingham, two English miles from 

 Eochester, and one mile from Chatham, where the queen's ships do lie." After stating that he 

 was regularly apprenticed and bred a seaman, he thus proceeds : "I have served in the i)lace of 

 master and pilot in her Majesty's ships, and about eleven or twelve years served the worshipful 

 company of the Barhary merchants, until the Indian traffic from Holland began; in which 

 Indian traffic I was desirous to make a little experience of the small knowledge which God 

 has given me. So, in the year of our Lord God 1598, 1 hired myself for chief pilot of a fleet of 

 five sail of Hollanders," &c. 



But the " little experience" of our English pilot proved both long and sad. Sickness broke 

 out in the ships, the admiral and a great many of the men died ; after divers calamities they 

 reached the Straits of Magellan in April, 1599 ; they were forced, not by any fault of Adams 

 but by the folly of the commander, to winter in the Straits, remaining in them nearly six 

 months, until provisions were exhausted and some of the men actually died of hunger. At 

 length, after getting into the Pacific, storms dispersed the fleet ; some were lost, some captured ; 

 the savages on the islands where they landed in search of food and water, in more than one 

 instance, lay in ambush and murdered the men ; and finally, after great suifering, it was 

 resolved, on Adams' advice, to make for Japan. Of the five ships that had left Holland 

 together there remained but the one of which Adams was pilot. But he kept a stout heart, 

 and at last, on the 11th of April, ICOO, he saw the high lands of Japan in the province of 

 Bungo, and on the 12th came to anchor, when there were actually but five men of the whole 

 ship's company able to go about and do duty. They were hospitably received, soldiers were 

 placed on board to prevent a robbery of their goods, a house was provided for the sick, and 

 their bodily wants were all supplied by the prince of Bungo, who sent word to the Emperor of 

 their arrival. 



The Portuguese, it will be remembered, were already established in Japan, and one of their 

 commercial depots was at Nagasaki. Five or six days after the arrival of the Dutch, there 

 came from that place a Portuguese Jesuit, with some of his countrymen and some Japanese 

 Christians. The former of these immediately denounced the Hollanders as pirates, denying 

 that they had come for any purposes of trade, as they alleged, though their ship had a full 

 cargo of merchandize on board. This created a prejudice against them in the minds of the 

 Japanese, and the poor Hollanders lived in daily expectation of being put to death. This was 

 precisely what the Portuguese would have been glad to see, influenced by the double motive of 

 hatred of heretics and the wish to monopolize trade. But the case having been submitted to 

 the Emperor, who was then at Osaca, he ordered tliat Adams and one of the Dutch sailors 

 should be sent to him. He was sent accordingly, and furnishes a long and interesting account 

 of his interview with the monarch, (conducted through the medium of a Portuguese interpreter,) 

 in the course of which Adams had an ojiportunity of showing the Emperor samples of the 

 merchandize he had brought with him, and of begging that he and his companions might have 

 liberty to trade, as the Portuguese had. An answer was returned in Japanese, but Adams did 

 not understand it, and he was carried to prison, but his comforts seem to have been duly 

 regarded. He remained in prison forty-one days, during all which time, as he subsequently 

 discovered, the Jesuits and Portuguese residents spared no eftorts to induce the Emperor to put 



