868 
AfucctnB Account of the Adventures Book I. 
and flatter, that they may not cut deep into the Mire, 
and have alfo Sails like a Ship ; by which Contrivance, 
obferving proper Winds, they pafs all thefe Bogs eafily. 
The Country affords Damafk, Sattins, Taffaties, and other 
Silks, as China does *, but they carry moft of their Goods 
up and down in thefe Sailing- Waggons. 
We have like wife fome other Letters of a later Date 
from the fame Factory, but very immaterial, and con- 
taining fcarce any Circumftances worthy of Notice, ex- 
cept that the Japonefe were very importunate in demand- 
ing a Promife, that the Englijh would bring no Padres, 
that is, Priefts, among them ; for the Perfecution being, 
at this time, very hot, the common People did not care 
to run any Hazards, as not knowing how to diftinguifh 
between one fort of Chriftian Priefts and another. °But 
the Etiglijh did not give them any trouble upon that head, 
but, on the contrary, feemed to bend all their Endeavours 
towards the adding the Trade of China to that of Japon ; 
in which, perhaps, they went too far, and might have 
done for themfelves, and their Country more, if they had 
ftudied this Point lefs ; for the JaponeJe , who are a very 
fenfible People, confidered this extending their Commerce 
in a bad Light; and, as they were naturally fulpicious of 
Strangers, could not help fearing they would at laft employ 
Force, in cafe fair means did not fucceed. In thefe No- 
tions they were confirmed, by the News they received, 
from time to time, of the great Difputes between the Por- 
tuguefe , the Englijh , and Dutch, in the Eaji-Indies ; mea- 
furing their Force at home, by their Aftions abroad, and 
fuppofing that they wanted nothing but a fpecious Pretence 
to attack the two great Empires of China and Japon. The 
laft Letter we have is dated from Fir undo March the ioth 
1619, and in that there are fome Particulars worthy the 
Attention of the Reader. 
The Perfecution in this Country, which before proceed- 
ed no farther than Banilhment, and Lofs of civil and reli- 
gious Liberties, has fince (as this Letter tells us) run up 
to all the Severities of corporal Punifhment. The Chri- 
ftians fuffered as many forts of Deaths and Torments as 
thofe in the primitive Perfecutions, and fuch was their Con- 
ftancy, that their Adverfaries were fooner weary of inflict- 
ing Punifhments, than they of enduring the EffeCts of their 
Rage : Very few, if any at all, renounced their Profeflion. 
The moft hideous Forms, in which Death appeared, by 
the Contrivance of their Adverfaries, would not fcare them, 
nor all the Terrors of a folemn Execution over-power that 
Strength of Mind with which they feemed to go through 
their Sufferings. They made their very Children Martyrs 
with them, and carried them in their Arms to the Stake, 
chufing rather to refign them to the Flames, than leave 
them to the Bonzees to be educated in the Pagan Re- 
ligion. All the Churches which the laft Storm left Hand- 
ing, this had entirely blown down, and demolifhed, and 
Heathen Pagods were erefted upon their Ruins. 
The Dead were perfecuted too, as well as the Living, 
and the Graves were torn open, and the Bodies there in- 
clofed thrown out into fome bafer Receptacle ; fo that now, 
if ever Chriftianity flourifhes again in Japan , it muft be 
upon a fecond Plantation, the firft Stock feeming at this 
time to be compleatly pulled up by the Roots. There were 
other Troubles and Stirs befides thefe in Japon ; at this 
Time another dangerous Rebellion was rifling at Frujhma , 
but the Prince of that Place happening to be at that Time 
In the Court, the Emperor commanded him, either to write 
to his Subjects to lay down Arms, or immediately to rip 
open his own Belly : He chofe rather to do the former, and 
fo the Tumult was at an End ; but he was turned out of 
that Government, and fent into a Corner of the Northern 
Part of Japon , and the great Caftle of Frujloma (bigger, by 
Report, than the City of Rochefter ) levelled with the 
Ground, all the Stones being carried away to Ofaca to re- 
build that noble Piece which the laft Emperor Ogojhofam 
deftroyed after his routing the Army of the Prince Fidaia ; 
for it muft be noted (though our Author does not exprefly 
tell us of it) that the Emperor fpoken of in this Letter 
was not Ogojhofam , but fome other his Succeffor, of whom 
we have no other Account than thefe Actions of his given 
us. It is faid alfo, that this Prince Fidaia was gotten fafe 
out of the great Battle, and lay incognito fome where 
3 
about Meaco ; but this our Author hardly credits, it having 
been often reported fo before. 
Laftly, he gives us an Account of the horrid, barbarous, 
and cruel Deportment of the Dutch towards the Englijh 
then refid ing in Firando ; without any manner of Provoca- 
tion they openly declared War againft them, declared they 
would burn their Ships and EffbCb, and deftroy their Per- 
fons where-ever they could meet them ; and this they did 
folemnly by Sound of Trumpet both alhore and aboard all 
their Ships ; and to be as good as their Word, they broke 
into the Englijh Houfe with all their Force, and had actu- 
ally facrificed every Perfon there, if the Japonefe had not 
come in and fought vigoroufly in their Defence ; for the 
Odds were vaftly great,' and one Englijhman had at leaft 
one hundred Dutch to deal witn. All this, and much more 
oi this kind, they did ; but for what Reafon it cannot be 
imagined, unlels became they would be Matters every- 
where, and have the whole World to themfelves. One 
Paffage only, which Ihews their Modefty in thofe Parts of 
the World, is not to be forgotten ; and the rather, becaufe 
it was in the Prefence of the great Emperor of Japon him- 
felf, and all his Court. Our Author being there to do his 
Duty to the Emperor, upon the coming of the Englijh 
Ships, found in the Prefence a certain boafting Dutchman , 
that told the Emperor ftrange Stories of his own Country, 
and extolled his King of Holland to the Skies, as the 
greateft and moft potent Prince in all that Part of the 
World, together with a vaft deal of fuch Stuff as that. 
But he, who underftood the Japon Language, tho’ the 
Dutchman thought he had not, told him before the Empe- 
ror, he need not have told his Majefty fo loud a Lye as 
that, fince all the World knew they had no King in Hol- 
land, but only a Stadt-holder, who did not fo much govern 
the People, as the People govern him ; and whereas he 
had the Forehead to fay, that his King, as he called him, 
held all other Princes in Chriftendom in Subjection. It was 
well known, the King of England had been his Country’s 
ProteCtor, or they had never been in a Condition to come 
and make a Noife abroad in the World. The Dutchman 
was, it feems, pretty much confounded to lofe his King 
fo all of a fudden ; but there was no Help 'for it, and the 
Spaniards and Portuguese that were there at the fame time, 
well knew the Truth of what was faid. Upon the whole’ 
our Author adds, that the Company were extreamly di- 
verted with this Paffage, and that there was old laughing, 
efpecially among the Europeans , to fee the Dutchman fo 
bewildered to find out this King, which they very well 
knew he could never do. 
Ali thefe Trania&ions happened during the Life-time of 
Mr .Adams, who fpent the Remainder of his Days with 
Honour in Japon, where he deceafed in 1631 ; but with 
refpeCt to any of the fubfequent ACtions of his Life, they 
are not recorded in any of the Writers I have met with ; 
but though there be fomething very fingular in this, yet I 
think it much more ftrange, that we have no diftinCt Ac- 
count of the Time that the Englijh withdrew themfelves 
from this Country, or of the Reafons which induced them 
to take that Step ; but, I think it is pretty dear, that they 
were reduced thereto, either by the Frauds, or by the 
Power of the Dutch ; for it is clear enough from the Let- 
ters which the Reader has already feen, but elpecially from 
the laft, that thefe two Nations began to differ with each 
other as foon as they found that they were become too 
ftrong for the Portuguese. It was after the Expulfion of 
this laft mentioned Nation, that the Dutch Found them- 
felves not a little hurt by their own Politicks ; for having 
taught the japonefe how to be on their Guard againft all 
Foreign Nations, this drew upon them thofe Hardlhips 
which they have laboured under ever fince, though they 
have not fpared any Pains to free themfelves from foch dif- 
agreeable Marks of flavifli Submiffion ; but as we have 
already infilled fufficiently upon this Point in another Place, 
we fliall not dwell upon it any longer here. 
Before we conclude this SeCtion, however, it will be 
proper to take notice of a Tranfadlion which is not com- 
monly known, and that is, of an Attempt made by us 
to recover the Commerce of Japon in the Year 1673. It 
feems to have been undertaken by the Eajl-India Company, 
for the Ship fent for that Purpofe failed from the Englijh 
Factory 
