A GLIMPSE OF SOCIAL LIFE IN JAPAN 123 



appealed to the fair-minded Englishman, and he readily 

 gave his word to do what he could for them. Again the 

 Portuguese interfered and denounced the Dutch as 

 heretics and outlaws from Christendom, and altogether 

 untrustworthy. This calumny, however, had no effect. 

 Adams succeeded in obtaining the desired privilege. But 

 the distrust of all Europeans, created by the artifice and 

 unscrupulous dealings of the Portuguese, led the Shogun to 

 restrict the Dutch to the port at which they had landed. 

 They, however, established a factory at Firando. Mr. W. E. 

 Griffis in his admirable history of Japan, commenting upon 

 the influence of the Dutch in that country, says, ' After a 

 hundred years of Christianity and foreign intercourse the 

 only apparent results of this contact with another religion 

 and civilization were the adoption of gunpowder and fire- 

 arms as weapons, and the use of tobacco and the habit of 

 smoking.' 



To round off the story of our countryman in Japan, it 

 may be well to tell of the great yearning that came over 

 him to return home to the wife and two children he had 

 left at Limehouse. The Shogun, however, was loth to part 

 with him, and his appeals for leave to do so, made, he 

 says, 'according to nature and conscience,' were put off 

 from time to time. When at last permission was granted, 

 circumstances had arisen which prevented acceptance. 

 Adams, however, was not unmindful of the interests of his 

 native country. His desire to get into communication 

 with England is shown in a letter which he addressed as 

 follows : 



' To my unknown friends and countrymen, desiring this 

 letter by your good means, or news, or copy of this, may 

 come into the hands of one or more of my acquaintances 

 in Limehouse, or elsewhere, or in Kent, in Gillingham by 



