of;the : Afventm 
S E C T TO N ; XXXII, 
A fuccinB Account of the Adventures of Mr. William Adams, ^ Engliiliman, who refidei 
many Tears in the Empire of Japan, and was the P erf on who introduced both //^Englifh 
and ‘Dutch -to trade thither. 
Colledtedj as well from his own Letters, as Portuguese and i)a^ : \Wdters.. 
i. An Introduction , in which is contained a View of the Tirade to Japan beforeMr.KMmswent thither. 
2. Me -is entertained as a Pilot on Board a Dutch Fleet intended for the Eail- Indies, through the Str eights 
^Magellan. 3. His Pafage through thofe Str eights into the South-Seas, 4. The great Miferies endured 
by their Seamen on the Coafts of Chili and Pern, and their Reflation to bear away for Japan. 5. The 
many and great Difficulties they met with in their Paffage. 6. Arrival on the -North Coafi f Japan, and 
the Ufage they met with from the Reports fpread concerning them by the Portugueze. j, Mr. Adams 
fent for, a?id introduced to the Emperor, who examined him as to his Voyage, and the Defgn of it. 8. He 
grows into great Favour with the Emperor, and is very happily ejtablijhed in that Country. 9. He builds 
a Ship for the Emperor, and becomes a kind of Minifter of State in, his Court, to. The file count, given by ; 
him of the Climate , Soil, Produce, People, See. of Japan. 1 1 . Obfervations upon this Account, including 
farther Remarks. 12. The Hifi or y of Mr. Adams, continued fro?n Foreign Authors. 13. InJ lances of his 
great Power and admirable Condufl during his Refdence at the Court of Japan. 14, The Turn given ihro* 
his Management to the commercial Affairs of that Empire. 1 5: Conclufion of this Bifiory, with fome Ob - 
fervations and Remarks tending to explain the Obf cur hies in this Account, and tofet the Authorities which 
fupport it in their proper Light, for the Honour of this Man inf articular , and of our Nation in general. 
1'. Jff" T is neceflary, at our foil Entrance on this Sedition, 
S to put the Reader in mind of the Method we have 
JL purfued through the CoUrfe of this Chapter, which 
has been to -Apeak, as Occafion offered, of thofe Parts of 
the Indies which were neareft to us foil, and fo to proceed 
gradually to the moft diftant. In regard to Time, it is 
with me only a fecondary Confideration *, and this is Effi- 
cient to account for what might otherwife pafs for a Mi- 
flake, which is the placing here this Hiftory of Mr. Adams' s 
Proceedings, tho* in Point of Time, before that of the Gen- 
tlemen lafl mentioned, near one hundred Years. Now, as it 
was impoffible to report both thefe Accounts without tref- 
paffing on the natural Order, either of Time or Place, we 
chofe to difpenfe with the former rather than the latter, and 
that for this plain Reafon, becaufe it occafions but one Al- 
teration, whereas had we took the other Method, it would 
have produced many. We have already, in fpeaking of 
the Difcoveries made by the Portugueze, mentioned their 
foil coming to Japan, and have like wife taken notice of the 
great Pains they took to prevent other Nations from having 
a Share in the rich Commerce of that new found Country, 
which, though vifited by them fo early as Anno Domini 
1-542, yet had they preferved it entirely in their oym Hands, 
till after the Arrival of the Perfon, whofe Memoirs we pro- 
pofe to give in this Section, and who ought therefore to be 
confidered as the Difcoverer of Japan to all the reft of Eu- 
rope, as we ffiall fhew at large at the Clofe of this Section. 
At prefent it is our Bufinefs to obferve, that there was 
nothing the Butch coveted fo much as an Opportunity of 
vifiting the Iflands of Japan, which from the Reports they 
had received from Portugal in Spain , as well as from their 
own Settlements, appeared to them a kind of Indies in the 
.Indies.; There are fome Butch Memoirs ftill extant, which 
fay, that the Perfons employed by their Eajl- India Com- 
pany, obtained an exa£l Account of the Profits of the Trade 
from Macao to Japan, from the Year 1580 to 1600, 
from which Memoirs it appeared, that they cleared one 
Year with another one hundred Tuns of Gold, which was 
Efficient to put the Butch upon endeavouring by all means 
to gain a Share in fo lucrative a Commerce. It may not 
be amifs, however, to prevent Miftakes, to explain this 
Term of a Tun of Gold, which I take to be entirely 
Butch , and therefore, when literally translated into EngUJh, 
is in danger of remaining as much Butch as it was before. 
In the foil place, a Tun of Gold is not reftrained at all to 
that Metal, for if it had, it would not have been ufed here, 
rnoft of the Returns from Japan to Macao being made in 
Silver *, neither has it any Reference to the Value of a Tun 
of Gold, which amounts to ten times the Value of what 
is meant by this Expreftion for by a Tun of Gold the 
Butch Merchants mean one hundred thoufand Guilders,, and 
confequently the annual Value of the Trade to Japan 
might be ten Millions of .-.Guilders, '.. Or,. . m : ^eep ; ftill to. 
round. Numbers, one Million Sterling, 4 vaft Sum indeed, 
and yet faid to be much fhort of the Advantages , drawn 
from thence in the foil forty Years, after the Portugueze 
fettled in that Country. ; ; , 
But, though the Trade of Japan was a thing fo defire- 
able of itfelf, yet the acquiring any Share thereof appeared 
even to the Butch themfelves, though they were in thofe 
Days equally enterprizing, and indefatigable, a Defign 
thwarted by almoft infuperable Difficulties. In the ftrft 
place, the Navigation was difficult and dangerous to the 
laft Degree, of which they were made fenfible, not only 
by repeated Accounts from the Indies, which reprefented, 
the Commerce with Japan as a thing almoft, impradticable 
on that Account only, but were in a manner convinced of 
it from Experience, Tince they had fent a Ship thither 
Anno Domini 1584, with little or no Succefs. They were 
in hopes, however, of getting the better of this Evil, ,by 
making ufe of Portugueze Pilots, and accordingly in 158b, 
they fent another Ship, which was entrufted, to the Care of 
one Francifco Pais, a Native of Portugal, who had not, 
however, much better Fortune, which difeouraged them 
very much, and was probably the Reafon that they made 
no farther Attempts for ten Years afterwards. 
But this was far from being all ; for they, very well knew, 
that when this Difficulty was got over, there were many 
others, and fome of them ftill greater, that were yet to be 
furmounted. As for example, they knew that the Japo - 
nefe were a very powerful and a very brave People, the 
former from Report, but the latter from Experience. For 
at the Time they befteged Malacca , then in the Hands of 
the Portugueze, there was in the Place a ftnall Corps of 
Japonefe , who came, thither to trade, and who, when the 
Place was invefted, finding it impoffible to return home, 
affifted their Friends in the Defence of it, and that fo ef~ 
fedtually, that it was chiefly by the bold Sallies they made, 
that the Butch were at that Time compelled to raife the 
Siege, which they did with great Lofs. They like wife 
knew, that the Spaniards , who were at this Time Mailers- 
of Portugal, and confequently the foie Pofieflbrs of the 
Japan Trade, had prejudiced the Inhabitants of that Coun- 
try againft them to the laft Degree, by reprefenting them 
not only as Rebels to that Crown, but as Pirates and Ene- 
mies to Mankind in general ; and, indeed, their Behaviour 
in the Indies had been fuch as gave but too much Colour 
to that Report. Add to this, that a very great Part of the 
Jap on eft 
