522 TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



on the Japanese coast, at Funai, in Bungo. The ship that carried 

 it had, with four others, formed a small commercial flotilla of the 

 Dutch house van der Veek, which had left the harbour of Texel 

 in June, 1598, to carry on trade on the Pacific coast of South 

 America. The expedition was sent out too late in the year, and 

 suffered great losses in consequence of bad steering, heavy storms, 

 and hostile attacks, so that at last only one ship, the Erasmus, re- 

 mained, with but a small crew. They directed her course from 

 the Peruvian coast to Japan, in the hope of finding there a market 

 for her cargo of cloths. When they landed in Funai, only five men 

 were fit for duty, among them William Adams, an Englishman 

 and first-mate of the Erasmus. These and the sick as well were 

 given a friendly reception by the native population, though repre- 

 sented as pirates by the Portuguese. The latter contrived to have 

 Adams sent as a prisoner to lyeyasu, who was then in Osaka, 

 lyeyasu received him kindly, questioned him, and sent him to 

 Yedo, where he was set at liberty, and lived for the most part till 

 his death, in 1620. William Adams won a position of respect 

 among the Japanese, serving at first the interests of the Dutch, and 

 later of the English ; and he probably contributed towards feeding 

 the feeling of envy towards the Catholic Spaniards and Portuguese, 

 and bringing about the well-known crisis (see vol. i. p. 330 ff.). 



In June, 1609, the Dutch ship Roode Loeuw (Red Lion) ap- 

 peared in the harbour of Hirado, and was hospitably received by 

 the Daimio of the island. In the following year, Jacques Spexx 

 (Jacob Spex), the commercial representative of the Dutch East 

 India Company, and M. Sandvoort, betook themselves to Suruga, 

 to negotiate a commercial treaty with lyeyasu, and then to Yedo, 

 to treat with his son, the Shogun. William Adams acted as in- 

 terpreter. The Dutch obtained permission to erect a factory in 

 Hirado, and to trade with Japan under similar conditions to the 

 Portuguese and Spaniards in Nagasaki. The latter had done all 

 they could to keep away the incoming heretics, whom they repre- 

 sented to lyeyasu as sea-robbers, and rebels against their lord, the 

 King of Spain — men to whom he could not possibly lend atten- 

 tion. But the wise and mighty prince had no intention of letting 

 slip the opportunity of encouraging a competing foreign influence. 

 He answered, in effect, that European affairs did not concern him, 

 and that he was mindful only of the peace and welfare of his own 

 land and people. Every foreigner who obeyed the laws and would 

 trade honestly, and to the advantage of his subjects, was welcome ; 

 " yea, even if devils came from hell, they should be treated like 

 angels from heaven," as long as they heartily submitted to the 

 rules he had established. 



Induced by letters from William Adams, the English East India 

 Company soon thereafter determined to enter into trade with 

 Japan. To this end they sent three ships under the command ol 

 Captain John Saris, which cast anchor before Hirado, on the nth 



