A GLIMPSE OF SOCIAL LIFE IN JAPAN 121 



course lay by way of Cape Horn, in rounding which stormy 

 seas scattered the ships. Two were lost, two found their 

 way back to Holland, the remaining one called the Charity 

 alone reached the far East. This latter was commanded 

 by Adams. Tempest-tossed and worn-out, he, with his 

 crew of twenty-four men were cast ashore on the Japanese 

 island of Kiushiu, after a voyage which had lasted two 

 years. He landed on Japanese soil on the ipth of April 

 1600, and in such a plight that out of a crew of twenty- 

 four Adams, in one of his letters home, says, ' There were 

 no more than six besides myself that could stand upon 

 their feet.' They were taken to Osaka in order to give an 

 account of themselves to the great Shogun, lyeyasu. Adams 

 speaks of the house in which the potentate dwelt as 

 wonderful and costly, and gilded with gold in abundance. 

 Called upon to declare his nationality and business he 

 produced his charts and explained through an interpreter 

 (doubtless a Portuguese), whence he had come, adding, 

 'We are a people that seek friendship with all nations.' 

 The Portuguese, jealous of their interests in the island, 

 represented the English and the Dutch as pirates living by 

 plunder on the high seas, having no country of their own. 

 At the close of the examination Adams was placed under 

 arrest and detained thirty-nine days. He says that he was 

 well treated. Something in his manner gained upon the 

 Shogun ; he gradually rose in favour, notwithstanding the 

 efforts of his enemies to damage him and his country. 

 Their motives were seen through ; the sagacious lyeyasu 

 in a moment of exasperation declared that, ' if devils from 

 hell visited his country they should be treated like angels 

 from heaven so long as they behaved like gentlemen.' 

 The Shogun was not slow in forming a just estimate of 

 Adams. Indeed, his manly bearing and simple straight- 



