30 INTKODUCTION. 



Dutcli, his hopes of once more seeing his family hegan to revive. He thought that in some of 

 their vessels God might at last provide a way for his return to England. But, though thus 

 saddened at heart, he never lost his self-j)ossession and prudence. He thought that, should he 

 never he ahle to go himself, he might at least let his beloved family know where he was, and 

 assure them of his unabated affection. From the Dutch ship which came in 1611, he for the 

 first time learned that his countrymen, the English, were carrying on considerable trade in the 

 East Indies, and had made a humble beginning, in the way of factories, on the Malabar coast. 

 He, of course, knew not who of his countrymen might be there, or elsewhere in the east, but 

 whoever or wherever they might be, they were English, and through them he might tell the 

 sad story of his thirteen long years of separation from home and wife and children. He accord- 

 ingly wrote two long letters, the one addressed to his wife, the other endorsed as follows : "To 

 my unknown friends and countrymen, desiring this letter, by your good means or the news or 

 copy of this letter, may come to the hands of one or many of my acquaintance in Limehouse or 

 elsewhere, or in Kent, in Gillingham by Eochester." The last sentence in this is in these 

 words : 



" Thus, in short, I am constrained to write, hoping that by one means or other, in process 

 of time, I shall hear of my wife and children ; and so with patience I wait the good will and 

 pleasure of God Almighty, desiring all those to whom this my letter shall come to use the 

 means to acquaint my good friends with it, that so my wife and children may hear of me ; by 

 which means there may be hope that I may hear of my wife and children before my death ; the 

 which the Lord grant to his glory and my comfort. Amen. 



"Done in Japan, the two and twentieth of October, 1611, by your unworthy friend and 



servant to command in what I can, 



"WILLIAM ADAMS." 



In both these letters Adams related the principal occurrences that had befallen him since he 

 left the Texel, and from these we have drawn the facts previously related. The letters did 

 reach England, but whether they found his wife and children living, or whether he ever heard 

 from them we cannot tell. As to himself, he might have sadly appropriated the words of the poet : 



" Nor wife nor children more shall he behold, 

 Nor friends nor sacred home." 



He died at Eirando, in Japan, in 1619 or 1620, after having resided there from the year 1600; 

 and we have dwelt the longer on his personal history, not merely on account of its melancholy 

 interest, but because when we come to speak of the doings of his own countrymen in Japan, 

 these letters will be necessary to elucidate our narrative. 



Leaving now these letters, we proceed with the history of the Dutch commerce. The first 

 factory of the Hollanders was at Eirando, and was on an humble scale. That of the Portuguese 

 was at Nagasaki, on the island Dezima, which is now occupied by the Dutch. The rivalry 

 between the two establishments was, of course, very great, and each sought to injure the other 

 as much as possible with the Japanese authorities. At length, before the close of 1639, the 

 Portuguese were totally expelled the country ; and then occurred an act on the part of the Dutch 

 in Japan too clearly proved to admit of denial, and too wicked and infamous to allow of 

 palliation. It was no better than cold blooded murder, prompted by no higher motive than the 

 base love of commercial gain. The facts were these : Though no Portuguese Christian remained 

 in Japan, yet tlie native Christians were not all extirpated. Tliese poor creatures, deprived of 



