WORKS ISSUED BY
Zhc IDalUu^t Society.
THE VOYAGE
CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS TO JAPAN, 1613.
SECOND SERIES. No. V.
THE ShoGUN IyEYASU.
I A P A.
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THE VOYAG E
CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS
JAPAN, I6I3.
<!?irttrD from (JTonlfm^Joriirg larrorirs
SIR ERNEST M. SATOW, K.C.M.G.,
Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary atid Minister Plenipotentiary
to China, and late Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister PhmipotC7itiary to Japan.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
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LONDON : PRINTED AT THE BEDFORD I'RESS, 20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, W.C.
CONTENTS.
Preface.
. I'ACK
Introduction :
I. The Manuscript and its History . . . . i
II. How the East India Company came to think of trading
to Japan . . . . . . . iii
III. Saris's Previous Career; and his Instructions for the
Voyage . . . . . . . vii
IV. His Voyage from England to Bantam . . . xvii
V. European Commercial Enterprise in the Moluccas
previous to Saris's A'oyage .... xxv
VI. Saris's \'oyage from Bantam to Japan . . . xlii
• VII. Hirado ; its previous history as a commercial port . xliv
VIII. Saris's stay in Japan ..... li
IX. His Voyage Home and his Reception by the Company . Ivii
X. His Subsequent Career ..... Ixxiv
XI. Correspondence between King James I and Japanese Potentates. Saris's Petition. The Privileges. The Japanese Document in Purchas . . . Ixxvi
The JOURNAI, from Bantam to Japan and back to England . I
Appendix A. — Two Letters written by Saris on his return . 200 I. From the Cape, June i, 1614. II. P>om Plymouth, October 17, 1614.
Appendix B.— Observations of Saris on the Eastern Trade,
compiled during his residence at Bantam as Factor . . 212
Index . . . . . . • .231
197793
VI CONTENTS.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Shogun Iyeyasu .... Frontispiece
(From a Painting by Kano Tanyu, 1641.)
The Japanese Version of Saris's revised Petition
FOR Privileges . . . * . . tofacepAxxx
(From Piirchas His Pilgrimes, vol. i, p. 375.)
Signature of John Saris ..../. Ixxxvii
MATSURA HO-IN, EX-DaIMIO of HiRADO . . to face p. ^o
The Shogun Hidetada .... to face p. 136
(From a Painting by an artist of the Kano school. Date unknown, but apparently very early.)
Linschoten's Map of the Eastern Seas . . to face p. 192
(From the 1596 edition of the Voyage ofte Schipvacrt.)
PREFACE.
The MS. journal of Saris's voyage from Bantam to Jai)an was transcribed for this volume by Miss Sainsbury, and the copy carefully compared with the original by Mr. William Foster, of the India Office. A great part of the material used in the Introduction was either furnished or pointed out by that gentleman, who kindly took the trouble of copying a good deal of it from the old records of the East India Company. A large debt of gratitude is further due to him from the Editor for the useful notes he has con- tributed to the work, for his invaluable assistance in correct- ing the proofs, and for undertaking various other burdens which usually devolve upon an editor.
To Professor Mikami Sanji, of the Imperial University, Tokio, the Editor is indebted for copies of Japanese docu- ments, and to Professor Riess, of the same institution, for valuable suggestions and the loan of books. His thanks are also due to the Hon. Matsura Atsushi for the portrait of his ancestor which accompanies the volume, as well as for notes on the family pedigree ; to Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald, and Captain Ottley, R.N., for help in explaining nautical terms, etc. ; to Mr. D. F. A. Hervey, C.M.G., Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt, and Mr. G. P. Rouffaer, for explana- tions of Malay terms ; and to Professor R. K. Douglas, of the British Museum, and Mons. Leon Van de Polder, of the Netherlands Legation at Tokio, for similar assistance in identifying the Chinese and Dutch words occurring in the text. He has also been much indebted to Mr. W. G. Aston, C.M.G., and Sir Frank Swettenham, K.C.M.G., for
VIII PREFACE.
friendly help of various kinds ; and to Dr. Murray, one of the editors of A New English Dictionary, who was good enough to permit him to see unpublished slips of that monumental work.
The Index has been compiled by Miss H, F. Fenwick.
The portions included within square brackets in the text have been taken from Purchas's published version of the journal.
Amongst the strange and outlandish words in the text, some being names of places, others those of persons, others again those of textile fabrics, not a few have eluded the endeavours of the Editor and his friends to identify and elucidate them. Possibly these riddles might be solved if life were long enough to devote a dozen years or more to exploring the hidden corners of knowledge. That not being a justifiable expectation, he can only offer an apology for the imperfections of his work, which have taught him, at least, to regard with sympathy the shortcomings of fellow- workers in the same field.
London, August 15, 1900.
^ OF THE ^>'
UNJVERSIT Oa °''
INTRODUCTION.
I. — The Manuscript and its History.
HE present volume contains Saris's original journal of his vo}'age from Bantam to Japan in 1613, and of his stay in that country, printed from the manuscript in the India Office Records. To this have been added from Purchas, Cocks's narrative of the events at Hirado during Saris's absence on his journey to Court, some extracts from Purchas's version of the journal which do not appear in the MS., the abridged account of the home- ward voyage of the Clove, and a trade report drawn up by Saris during his residence at Bantam in 1605-09; also, from the India Office Records, a letter written by him at the Cape, and his report addressed to the East India Company from Plymouth on his return.
" The journal preserved at the India Office (Marine Records, No. xiv) is a volume of 135 folios, well written, and containing, in the earlier portion, rough sketches, in a green wash, of portions of the African coast. These are on sheets inserted between the leaves of the Diary, and it is possible that there were more of them, and that the rest have been lost. It is, however, more like!)' that, as the Diary itself was not finished, the later sketches were also omitted.
b
11 INTRODUCTION.
" It is in Saris's own hand, as is proved by a comparison with letters of his in the India Office. But that it is not the original (rough) log seems to be certain, for the follow- ing reasons : —
(i) It is unfinished, breaking off in the middle of a page with no apparent reason.
(2) It omits many particulars given by Purchas in his printed version, which was taken, he says, from the navi- gator's " owne journall." Some of these may of course be amplifications by Saris (who was evidently in communica- tion with Purchas when the latter was preparing his work) ; but others appear to be certainly from the original log.
(3) It is very uniformly written, apparently at leisure. The writer has had time to print many words in " Old English" characters.
(4) In some cases words are placed in brackets, as though to supply defects in the original, e.g., " I appointed the Boatswane to see [that] all [watcht], except," etc.
" There is no indication that this copy was ever in the archives of the East India Company, who would of course have received either the original log or a complete copy. At present its history cannot be traced further back than about the middle of the present century, when it was in the possession of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Best Jervis, whose book-plate still adorns the volume. After his return from India, that able and public-spirited officer formed a scheme for printing at his own private press " a series of valuable publications on the geography and statistics of Asia, translated from various languages, and containing the most important records of travellers to new regions" {Life of TJiomas Best fcrvis, by his son, the Cavaliere W. P. Jervis, London, 1898). The project vv^as given up after the issue of the first volume ; but it seems probable that Colonel Jervis had intended to include Saris's log in the series, and had purchased the present copy with that end
INTRODUCTION. iii'
in view. The Cavalicrc Jervis has been kind ciU)UL;h to v^o through his father's papers in the hope of learning how he became possessed of the journal ; but, unfortunately, nothing has been found relating to it. By 1877, when Sir Clements Markham drew attention to it in his Preface to T/ic Voyages of Sir James Lancaster (p. xii), the log had found its way to the Topographical Depot of the War Office, There are two accounts of how it got there. Sir C. Markham {loc. cit.) states that it was bought by the Depot from Mr. Kerslake, a Bristol bookseller ; but Mr. Danvers (Preface to the List of the Lndia Office Marine Records) says that it " was purchased by the War Office in 1857 for 26/. from the executors of the late Colonel Jervis," and this is probably correct. The later history is clear. Sir Clements Markham's note having called attention to the matter, the Secretary of State for War (the Right Hon. E. Stanhope, M.P.)in August, 1889, ordered the journal to be transferred to the India Office in order to make as complete as possible the collection there preserved of the logs of the East India Company's early voyages."^
II. — How THE East India Company Came to Think of Trading to Japan.
It has been stated that it was the receipt of letters from William Adams that gave the first impulse in PLngland to an attempt to establish commercial relations with Japan. This is, however, not correct. Already in 1580 Jackman and Pet,2 two sea captains in the employ of the Muscovy Company, started on a voyage to discover the North-East Passage, their instructions being : " After reaching Quin.say
^ Transcribed from a memorandum furnished by Mr. William Foster.
- Calendar of State Papers, East Indies, \o\. i, p. 61.
b2
IV INTRODUCTION.
Haven [Hangchou] the chief city in Northern China .... to take an opportunity to sail over to Japan, where Christian men, Jesuits of many countries of Christendom, and perhaps some EngHshmen " would be found. The East India Company's charter is dated the last day of 1600 ; and in April, 1602, there was an agreement made between the Company and one George Waymouth, mariner, for a voyage by the North-West Passage to Cathay, China, or Japan.^ This quest of a North- West Passage, though always unsuccessful, was not readily abandoned, and endured down to our own times, when it was finally attained, but proved to be subject to so many difficulties as to be practically valueless.
At the same time, however, the newborn spirit of enter- prise was not to be daunted ; and after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the English were less than ever disposed to admit the Spanish and Portuguese claims to divide the newly-discovered Asiatic and American regions between them. Whilst pursuing the will-of-the-wisp of a passage round the north of the European and American continents, they commenced trading to the Indies on their own account by more direct routes that lay to the south. In 1577 Drake sailed through the Straits of Magellan, crossed over from the west coast of North America to the Moluccas, and thence returned home round the Cape of Good Hope. In 1582 four vessels, under Edward Fenton, started for the East Indies by way of the Cape or through the Straits of Magellan, as might be found most convenient. They returned after reaching the coast of Brazil. Nine years later three ships, one of them commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) James Lancaster, sailed by the Cape route, with a view to preying on Portuguese commerce in the East Indies. One of his vessels had to be sent back from
^ First Letter-Book 0/ tlic East India Company, p. 24.
INTRODUCTION. V
the Cape, a second foundered at sea, and the third, after, with much difficulty, reaching the West Indies on her homeward voyag^e, was there lost. Another expedition, consisting likewise of three ships, started forth in 1596, but not a soul returned. Lancaster commanded a third expedition which sailed in February, 1601, and returned in September, 1603, having got as far as Bantam, in Java.^
In June, 1604, a licence was granted to Sir lulward Michelborne and others to discover the countries of Cathaia, China, Japan, Corea and Carnbaia. With him as pilot sailed the famous navigator, John Davis, who was killed in a desperate fight with Japanese pirates off the coast of the Malay Peninsula. An interesting descrip- tion of this affair is given at pp. 178-182 of TJic Voyages and Works of John Davis, edited by Admiral Albert H. Markham (Hakluyt Society, 1880). Henry Middleton commanded the squadron sent on the " Second Voyage " (1604) of the East India Company, with instruc- tions to proceed as far as the Moluccas, but there was no mention of Japan in his commission.
It will be seen further on that the first English navi- gator who reached Japan was William Adams, who had gone out as chief pilot of a Dutch squadron, and was cast away there in 1600. Two of his companions, Quaecker- naecq and van Santvoort, were enabled to leave Japan in 1605, and we cannot but believe that Adams seized this opportunity to send letters to England, though none is extant that can with any certainty be ascribed to that period. Professor Riess conjectures, indeed, that the frag- ment of a letter to his wife, without date, printed at p. 33 of the Memorials of Japan, may have been written on this occa- sion. In xAdams's letter of October 22, 1611, he says: " .As yet, I think, no certain newes is knowncn, whether I
* Voyages of Sir James Lancaster, Kt., edited by Sir C. R. Markham for the Hakluyt Society, 1877.
VI INTRODUCTION.
be living or dead." But, somehow or other, it had become known that Adams was in Japan, for in his letter of January 12, 161 3, addressed to Spalding at Bantam, he says letters had been sent him by his wife and other good friends out of England,^ of which he had received two that came from London by the Globe, of the Seventh Voyage (sailed January 3, 1611), written by Sir Thomas Smythe and his friend John Stokle. These letters, though the seals had not been broken, had been kept six or seven weeks from him, in accordance with the policy of the Dutch East India Com- pany, which forbad the transmission of private letters by their ships. From the commission of Saris, dated April 4, 1611, it will be seen that Adams was known to be resi- dent in Japan, and in great favour with its ruler. It is possible, too, that Adams might have got letters home through the Spaniards or Portuguese, to whom, he says in his first extant letter, he had rendered useful services. It is clear, however, that the project of opening up trade with Japan did not originate in any suggestion of Adams, but dated from a considerably earlier period even than his arrival off the coast of Bungo in 1600. It should be mentioned that, in the Company's instructions for the Seventh Voyage, the principals of the latter were directed to " take the oportunitie (from the most conuenient place you shall arriue att) to send one or twoe of our Factors in such conuenient shippinge as [you] may procure to carrie his Maiesties lettres vnto the kinge of Japan, together with such stocke of Marchandize and Comodities as wee haue appointed our said principall Marchaunts to prouide for that purpose " {First Letter-Book, p. 387). The letter thus sent to " the kinge of Japan " is given at p. 426 of that volume ; but, of course, it was never presented.
^ Apparently by the Brack and Leeuw met Pijlen, which arrived at Hirado in 161 1 and 1612 respectively.
INTRODUCTION. vli
It will be seen that the memorandum containint^ Saris's observations on the trade of Japan, printed as an appendix to the present vokime, was compiled by him during his residence at Bantam (in the course of it he speaks of " this year 1608"); and there can be little doubt that his assumed knowledge of the Japanese trade furnished the main motive for appointing him to the command of a "voyage" w'hich was to embrace that country in its scope. It may seem strange that he makes no mention in this memorandum of Adams, or of information received from him, but the probable explanation is that Adams had not written to Bantam. As there had been a factory there for several years, it seems curious that he should be ignorant of the fact ; \-et, from his letter of October 22, 161 1, he appears to have heard but recently that " certaine English marchants lye in the island of laua."
III. — Saris's Previous Career; and his In.struc- TioNs for the Voyage.^
According to the inscription upon his tombstone, John Saris was born in the year 1579 or 1580. He came of a Yorkshire family, his great-grandfather, Humphre}- Saris, being described as of " Tide," i.e., Tickhill, an ancient town situated near Doncaster. The family arms — still to be traced on the seals attached to five of John Saris's letters, now in the India Office — were : a chevron between three Saracens'^ heads couped at the neck. There are several Saris pedigrees among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum (No. 1463, f 38/;; No. 1551, f loi ; No. 4964, f lOi ; No. 6164, f. 46), and from these the following genealogical table has been compiled :
^ The greater part of this section has been furnished Ijv Mr. Foster, - Probably a punning allusion to the name.
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
Humphrey.
I Edmund, buried at Horsham, =Joan, dr. of — Day, of Tide, in Sussex. I co. York.
(I)
John, Joan, m. Edmund Lane,
of Sandwich. of London.
(2)
Katherine, dr. of=pThomas, of London,= Katherine, dr. of Henry
Edw. Lovell.
buried, 1588, in St. Andrew Undershaft.
Chevall, Draper.
Joan, m. Richard Henry, JOHN. George, Richard.
Rush, of London, of Sussex.
It will be seen that Saris was the younger^ son, by his first marriage, of a London citizen, who died while John was still a child. In these circumstances it was natural that, soon after coming of age, he should seek his fortune in the East. Of his introduction to the newly-founded East India Company we have no account, as the Court Minutes for that period are missing. We know, however, that he took part in the Second Voyage under Captain (afterwards Sir) Henry Middleton, The fleet sailed from Gravesend, March 25, 1604, and reached Bantam on December 23. Here it divided, the Hector and Susan remaining at Bantam to load pepper, while Middleton with the Dragon and Ascension proceeded to the Moluccas, returning on July 24, 1605. Whether Saris accompanied him thither or spent the interval at Bantam is not known, but probably the latter was the case. At any rate, when Middleton sailed for England, in October, 1605, Saris remained at Bantam among other factors, under Gabriel Towerson, his pay being 3/. 6s. Sd. a month, or 40/. a year. His name does not often occur in the records of the time. He is once mentioned as " Master Sarys, merchant, who receiued a cut
^ Harl. MS. 1463 states that he was the elder, but this is contra- dicted by the other pedigrees, and is in itself.unhkcly.
INTRODUCTION. IX
on the fore-finger with a sable in a brawl with the Dutch."^ A letter of his to the Company, dated Bantam, December 4, 1608,- gives some particulars about the goods which he recommended should be sent out from England, and mentions several previous letters, especially one of July 14, 160S; but none of these is extant. It was during this time that he compiled a diary of events and other papers,^ of which the most interesting, on the trade of the Far East, is given at the end of this volume. He gradually rose to be Chief Factor, having, it would seem, succeeded to that post when Towerson went home in the Dragon on December 23, 1608. By this time, no doubt, Saris was beginning to feel the need of a respite from his labours ; and on October 4, 1609, he handed over charge to Augustin Spalding, and sailed for England in the Hector^ arriving in the Downs May 10, 16 10.
The volumes containing the Court minutes of the East India Company from the beginning of 1610 to the end of 161 3 are missing, and nothing is known as to what took place on his return, or of the details of his appointment to command the next year's fleet. As already mentioned, his long residence at Bantam and the diligence shown by him in collecting useful information doubtless had their part in determining the choice of the directors. It is probable also that he had urged the desirability of attempting to open up trade with Japan. Information about that country he had, no doubt, been able to obtain from Dutch acquaintances, derived from Melchor Van Santvoort, who had been backwards and forwards more than once between Japan and Patani, though he could not have known the result of the Dutch expedition which had been despatched to Japan from Johore in May, 1609."*
1 In Edmund Scot's Discourse of lava {Pitrchas, vol. i, pp. 164-185).
2 Letters Received by the East India Compatiy^ vol. i, p. 20.
^ See Purchas, vol. i, pp. 384-395. ^ See below, p. xlix.
X INTRODUCTION.
The following is an abstract of Saris's commission from the Company, dated April 4, 1611 : — ^
"April 4, 161 1. — A Commission sett downe by us the Gouernor, Deputy and Comittees for the Marchaunts of London tradeinge to the East Indies, for better direccion of our loueinge freinds, John Sairis, Captaine and cheefe Comander, and Gabriell Tower- son, Captaine of the Hector, our principal! and cheefe Marchaunts, and others the Marchaunts, Masters and Marriners in this our intended eight Voyadge to the East Indies, which wee humblie beseech Almightie God to prosper with a happie Conclusion."
1. Having prepared three ships for a voyage to the East Indies, viz. :
The Clove - - James Foster, Master.
The Hector - - Thomas Fuller, „
The Thomas - - Richard Dawes, „
John Saris, geii (gentleman) is appointed " cheefe Captain and Comander, to goe in the Cloue and to Comand all our said shipps and the men in them .... not doubtinge butt thatt he will soe behaue himselfe in his chardge as he may be both feared and loued, and that he will with all his dilligence and endevors prosecute our designes and labour to bringe this costlie voyadge to a happie end."
2. Gabriel Towerson to be Captain of the Hector and men, and Tempest Peacock to be chief merchant in the Thomas.
3. Prayers to be said morning and evening. The purser of each ship has been furnished with a Bible, containing also the book of Common Prayer, for this purpose.
4. Blasphemy, swearing, theft, drunkenness and other disorders to be severely punished. Gaming to be strictly forbidden.
5. The ships to be kept clean and sweet.
6. Provisions to be husbanded and strictly accounted for.
7. Two Councils appointed :
{a) For special occasions of trade and merchandising : Saris, Towerson, Peacock, Cocks, Ambrose Armeway, Rich. Wickham, Edw. Camden, and George Ball.
{b) For seafaring causes : Saris, Towerson, the three Masters, and their Mates.
8. Instructions to be framed for the ships keeping company, and a rendezvous appointed in case of separation.
(gX " Contynueall and true Journalls" to be kept, not only by tnexaptains, but by the merchants, pursers, masters and master's mates; and these to be compared once or twice a week, "soe as a perfect discourse may be sett downe to be presented to the
1 First Letter-Book of the East hidia Company, pp. 396-420.
INTRODUCTION. XI
Goueriior and Company when God shall grauntc them a safe retourne, to be kept for better direccion of posteritie."
10. When watering, care to be taken that the men do not injure or wrong the natives ; also that they do not surfeit them- selves " in eatinge of fruites and fresh vietualls." Special care to be taken to relieve the sick.
11. Men to be warned not to straggle from their companions at the watering-places.
12. Order to be taken concerning the goods of any men dying in the voyage. No man to be allowed to bring more goods aboard than his chest will hold, and all these to be entered in the purser's books on pain of confiscation.
13. Water casks to be filled with sea water when emptied of fresh, to prevent " leakidge and mustines."
14. The shoals of Judea (Bassas da India) between Africa and Madagascar to be avoided.
15. Whether to refresh at Saldania (Table Bay) or at St. Augustine (Madagascar) is left to their discretion, but not to endanger their arrival at the Bar of Surat by the end of September, " which is the maine and principall scope of this our voyadge." Wherever they water, they should stay as short a time as possible, in order to have time to call at Socotra to refresh themselves and to buy four tons of aloes.
16. At Socotra it is hoped they will meet with some " Guza- itts," from whom they will learn whether Wm. Hawkins and the
Aher factors left at Surat are living, "as alsoe of the state of Sir Henrie Middleton and of those shipps thatt went with him, and in whatt state our busines there standeth, whereby you may the jetter there gouerne yourselues for performance of our desires : But yf the time of the Monsone be soe farr spent that you cannot arriue att the Barr of Suratt by thend of September or Middle of October next att the farthest, then wee will you to take the first oportunitie either to saile to Aden or Mocha allias Mochowe within the mouth of the red Sea, aboute some tenn leagues distant from Aden as wee vnderstand. Att which porte of Mocha wee haue herd that one of the shipps in the fourth voyadge^ hath traded and where wee doubt not you may sell Cloth, leade. Iron, Tynn, quicksiluer, for money or gould, for that wee thinke Comodities will be too deare in that place (consideringe our purpose that you goe to Suratt), except you may buy Cloues, Maces or Nutmeggs att a reasonable rate, which are said to be good Comodities att Suratt as well as here in England. In this place you must spend the time till oportunitie doe serue to goe to Suratt, which will not be till towards the end of August followinge, soe as you may arriue there by the end of September, which we
^ The Asscntioru
Xll INTRODUCTION.
pray you to endevor by all possible meanes. Butt, stayinge att Aden or Mocha, haue espetiall care that your men giue noe offence to the people there, still keepinge good watch and stand- inge vpon your guard, and that out of any danger of any Castle, forte, or Gallies to preuent mischeefe." 17 and 18. Special instructions for Surat.
19. If sufficient goods can be obtained at Surat to lade all three ships " wee will you to take that oportunitie to fraight them all and lett them be retourned as aforesaid ; " if only two can be laden, then the Hector 2a\^ Thomas are to be sent home under Towerson. List of goods to be purchased at Surat. Calicoes, etc., suitable for Priaman, Bantam, Banda, and the Moluccas to be bought and shipped for those places.
20. Instructions as to goods to be sold and bought at Priaman. " In performance of this busines remember still your purpose to goe for Bantam and Banda, that you slipp not the oportunitie of the Monson."
21. At Banda to purchase nutmegs and mace. A voyage may also be made to the Moluccas to purchase cloves, while nutmegs, etc., are being provided. Then to leave some factors and stock at Banda, and return to Bantam and lade the goods provided and " then in Gods name with all due speede to retourne for England." :
If repulsed at Surat, or trade found unsuitable, then the ships are to go to the Red Sea (if not visited already on the way). Any vessels not laden there may be sent to Priaman, etc., as already mentioned.
22. " Findinge faile of trade at Suratt," the " Guzaratts " should be invited to bring their goods to Socotra. A factory may be left at Mocha or some other place in the Red Sea, if thought expedient. If the ships are forced all to go on to Bantam, then the Hector and Thomas are to be laden there and sent home under Towerson, as aforesaid. " In the search of which trade," an " island neare Celebres " named " Makassa "^ is recommended to their notice, as rice bought there may be carried to Banda, and will yield three for one, to be invested in nutmegs and mace.
23. " Item, the Hector and Thomas beinge fraighted and sent for England, then wee wishe you, Capt. John Sairis, to proceede with the Clone diXi^, with all possible speede thatt you may, endevor your course for Japan, haueinge before att Bantam or ellswhere dilligently aduised, inquired and conferred with our Factors, or any other the best meanes you may attaine vnto the knowledge, whereby to inforrae your selfe for or concerninge our intended voyadge to Japan, and to procure in any of those parts (yf you may) some skilful! pilate experienced in those Coastes and take him
* Macassar.
INTRODUCTION. xiii
alonge with you, directinge your course from thence to Japan, neglectinge noe tyme, butt takeinge the bcnefitt and aduanlage of those Wynds and Monsons as you shall most certeinhe and irulie informe your selues and learne that they blowe in their seasons." Everywhere they are to enquire for safe harbours and places of trade, and invite merchants thither, especially to Socotra, as already mentioned.
24. " Item, and being arriued att Japan, wee desier you to vse the best meanes to search out the most convenient and safest harbour to trade in, where you may sell Cloth, leade, Iron, and such other of our Natiue Comodities as by your obseruacion you shall finde most vendible there, wherein you are to be very spetially carefull, both whatt Colors and sortes of Cloth and for whatt quantitie will there be vented, as alsoe to giue greate chardge that your men offer noe offence to the people there, still keepinge good watch and standinge vpon your guard, and that out of the danger of any Castle, Forte, or other Gallies or friggotts, to prevent any mischeefe that may happen, and to consult and take good aduise with the rest of the Factors and espetiallie with William Adams, an English man nowe resident there and in greate favour with the kinge as wee heare, to desire his opinion whatt course should be held, both for the delivery of his Maiesties letters nowe sent, whatt presents are to [be] geuen, to whome, by whome and in whatt manner the same is to be done, with all dilligence that shall be requisitt, obserueing carefully the tymes in keepinge the Monsons in all places wheare you shall trade, for attayneinge to other portes, as occasion shall be offered. And for presennts wee haue sent with you as appeareth in the In- voice."
25. "Item, and as you shall receiue incourradgment in the progresse of your affaires by the perswasion of the foresaid William Adams grounded vpon his longe experience in those partes and shall finde that ytt may be with saffetie, as beinge protected vnder the authoritie of the kinge of the Country and may proue Comodious and beneficiall for the good of the Com- pany, Then with the Counsell of Richard Cockes and such principall men as are in your shipp, you may aduise, resolue and leaue such Factors as you in your discrecion shall thinke fitt with such a quantitie of goods as shall be by you thought convenient for the setlinge of a factorie and mainteyneing of a trade att Japan, together with soe many and such sufficient Marriners to attend them and guard our said goods as you shall finde to be needful! and necessarie and to prouide them a good and stronge howse for the better saffetie of such goods as shall be lefte there in chardge with them. But yf you shall finde att Japan [no] convenient meanes of ventinge our Comodities or the retourne of proffitt not to answeare the length and difificultie of the voyadge, or the dangers in i)rosecuteingc this trade to exceede without
xiv INTRODUCTION.
proporcion the advantage to be hoped, then you shall frame your course and seeke vent for such Comodities as you haue either att the MoUoccoes, Philippinas or any other places thereabouts, whether you may be incourradged by any probable hopes of peaceable and proffittable tradeinge. And yf att your departure from Japan the said William Adams shall ymportune you to transporte him into his natiue Countrie to visitt his wife and Children, Wee pray you then to accomodate him with as con- venient a Cabben as you may and all other necessaries which your shipp may afford him."
26. Strict account to be kept of goods bought and sold, etc.
^hjJ "Item, for that voyadges of this Condicion and charge cannot admitt any priuate trade, but whatsoeuer is atchiued by this gcnerall and greate charge should be applied to the benefitt of the whole Companie, Therefore wee sett ytt downe as an absolute order that noe man, neither Captaines, Marchaunts, Masters or Marriners or any other person or persons whatsoeuer in theis our shipps doe trade or deale for any Marchandize whatsoeuer which wee shall prouide for our retourne or any other sorte of Marchandize more then will be conteyned within his proporcioned Chest of allowaunce for this voyadge, and the same to be registred in the pursers booke, to thend that yf any person die vpon the voyadge, their freinds and Executors may knowe whatt they had and take notice what is become of the same ; houldinge ytt most vnreasonable that those that liue by our ymployment should deale with the Comodities which wee labor to gett to produce meanes for payment of their wages and defrayinge of the chardges of this our greate and costlie voyadge."
28. Any person succeeding to higher office is not to have increased wages, but to be referred to the Company to be rewarded " att their retourne as they shall be found to haue deserued." No factors, masters, mates, etc., may be removed except by order of a council.
29. Cabins not to be altered or enlarged unless for cargo purposes.
30. Watch to be kept lest pirates surprise the ships.
31. Unnecessary expense of shooting ordnance, at drinking of healths, or on the captains or cape merchants going ashore, strictly forbidden.
32. If Saris dies, Towerson is to take his place (if present). If Towerson is not available, Cocks is to succeed. If neither be there, then a box No. I delivered to Saris is to be opened, and the name of the person who is to be appointed will be found therein.
33. No private persons to be carried in the ships.
34. " Any faire birds or beasts, or any other rare thinge fitt for vs to present to his Maiestie or any of the noble Lords that are our honorable freinds," are to be carefully kept for this purpose.
INTRODUCTION. XV
35. To observe fit seasons for sailing, and if possible to reach England on the return voyage in ISIay or June.
36. Although instructions have been given for trade at Surat, etc., yet it is left to the discretion of the Captain and his council to vary the course if good reason be found.
37. If deemed desirable, on reaching India, the ships may go to Goga [on the Gulf of Cambay] instead of Surat.
38. Stores to be carefully accounted for.
39. To prevent private trade, factors, etc., are only to be paid so much of their salaries as shall be necessary to provide apparel (and that at the rate of 5^. the rial of eight), leaving the rest to be paid in England.
40. Ships not to touch, outwards or homewards, at Falmouth, Plymouth or Dartmouth, exxept in case of great necessity.
41. "For the better comforte and recreation" of the factors resident in the Indies, the Company has sent " the works of that worthic seruant of Christe Mr. Wm. Perkins, to enstruct their mynds and feede their soules with thatt heauenlie foode of the knowledge of the trueth of Gods word, and the booke of Martirs in twoe voleumes, as alsoe Mr. Hackluits Voyadges to recreate their spiritts with varietie of historic." These works are to be left at the principal factory, "where wee requier that they should haue espetiall care to sanctifie the Sabboth daye, and to reade vpon those devyne books for the instruccion and comforte of all those that shall be there remayninge."
42. In case of shipwreck, care should be taken to land the money, or, if this be not possible, to buoy it in the sea till it can be recovered.
43. Invoices of ships' cargoes to be sent by other ships, as also particulars of goods left at Bantam.
It is clear from this commission that Saris was not sent mainly to open up trade with Japan ; that was quite a secondary object. His first business was to go to Surat,^ in order to follow up Middleton, who (the Company hoped) had settled English trade at that port ; and if sufficient lading could be obtained there, all three ships were to return direct to England. If he could not reach Surat that year, Saris was to fill in time by an experimental voyage to Mocha. As we know, this was what happened ; but the intended voyage to Surat the
1 In his journal, Saris says : "the main scope of this voyayc is for Surat."
xvi INTRODUCTION.
following monsoon was, of course, rendered out of the question by Middleton's hostile reception there, and the measures taken by him (and Saris) to retaliate on the Indian traders in the Red Sea.
The commission is rather carelessly drawn. Much of it is copied, with slight alterations, from the commissions issued for previous voyages.
Saris was also provided with two commissions from King James : one giving him authority for the Clove, the other for the whole fleet. No copy of either is known, but they doubtless followed the lines of the commissions for other voyages, which are printed in the First Letter-Book. There are minutes of both in the Grant Book, Domestic, James 1} at the Public Record Office, as follows : —
g Jac. /, JO March. A commission granted to John Sayers to be captain of the sJiipp called the " Cloue," in a voyage to the East Indyes sett fortJi by divers MarcJiants of London, with autJiority to tise Marshall Lazv.
ig Aprill. A Commission Granted to JoJin Sayers to be Captain of the shyppes called the " Clove," " Hector" and " Thomas" i)i a voyage to the East Indyes, sett forth by divers Marchants of London, witJi authority to use Marshall Law.
In Saris's diary he notes that on April 8 he received the King's commission, and that a week later (15th) he received further the King's " letters pattens for the Com- maund of the 3 shippes." It is clear, therefore, that the date of the minute of the second grant is wrong. Probably April 9 or 10 is meant.
These commissions were necessary, both as authority for the voyage, and for the government of the crews, as only thus could men be properly punished for serious crime.
^ P. 82 (in both cases).
IXTUOnUCTION.
IV.— Saris's Voyage from Enc;lani) to Bantam.'
It was on April i8, i6ii, that Saris sailed from the Downs on his venture to the Far East. He had under his command three ships, viz., the Clove, the Hector, and the Thomas, of which the first and last were new vessels. They carried crews of 89, 1 10, and 55 men respectively, and in addition the Clove and Hector had on board four " Indians" apiece, probably natives of Java, who had been brought to England in the Third Voyage, and were now returning home. The Clove, which was the flagship, was of course under the direct charge of Saris himself, with James Foster as master, and Richard Cocks as chief merchant ; Gabriel Towerson commanded the Hector, with Thomas Fuller as master ; while Tempest Peacock was captain, and Richard Dawes master, of the remaining vessel.
Saris's narrative divides naturally into two distinct portions : the first dealing with the voyage of the three ships from England to Bantam, including their visit to the Red Sea ; the second relating the further venture of the Clove alone to Japan and back 'to England. Of these the earlier portion is very detailed, and occupies a great portion of the journal ; but it is of small interest from a geographical point of view, and its principal incidents — the abortive attempt to open up trade at Mocha, and the subsequent wrangles with Sir Henry Middleton over the Indian traders — have already been treated at some length in a former publication of the Society ( Voyages of Sir Ja)nes Lancaster) and in the fust volume of Letters Received Jjy the East India Company. It has been con- sidered advisable, therefore, to restrict the text of the present work to the latter half of the voyage, which alone was in any sense a pioneer expedition. Of the earlier
* This section has been contributed l^y Mr. Foster.
XVlli INTRODUCTION.
portion the following brief account, taken chiefly from Saris's narrative as given in Purchas His Pilgrvnes (vol. i, pp. 334 <?/ segg.), will perhaps be deemed sufficient.
The outward voyage was uneventful. The fleet crossed the line on June 6, and reached Table Bay on August i. After a stay of eight days the voyage was resumed, but storms and the Agulhas current hindered them to such an extent that it was October 26 before they got as far north as the island of Mohilla, in the Comoro group. Though unwilling to lose time, Saris judged it wise to put in here, as many of his men were down with scurvy, and the water- casks were running low. The English were well treated by the natives, and before setting sail (November 3) Saris gave the king a letter of commendation to show succeeding visitors, receiving at the same time " a note under his hand of friendship."
Socotra was sighted on February 16, 161 2, and on the evening of the following day the fleet anchored in the road of Tamarida. Cocks was sent ashore to visit the King, who received him graciously and handed him a letter from Sir Henry Middleton, dated September i, 161 1, relating " his disadventures in the Red Sea by Turkish perfidie,"^
' Middleton had anchored at Mocha in November, 1610, with the ships of the Sixth Voyat^e. The local authorities received him with such apparent cordiality that he was induced to take up his residence on shore, with the principal factors and many of the sailors. On the 28th of the month, however, while sitting at his door in the cool of the evening, he was suddenly felled to the ground, bound and carried to prison ; and the other Englishmen on shore (about sixty in number) were similarly attacked, eight of them killed, and the remainder captured and imprisoned. Simultaneously an attempt was made to surprise the Darlinj^, but in this, fortunately, the Turks were repulsed with loss. After a delay of three weeks, Middleton and thirty-four of his companions were sent up in irons to Sana, the principal town of the province, where the Pasha told them that they had been captured by his orders, as he had received stringent instructions from Constan- tinople, " if any more Englishmen or any other Christians did come into those parts, to confiscate their ships and goods or to kill or captivate all the men they could get into their power." Fear of the English ships seems, however, to have restrained the Pasha from extreme measures, and some native friends exerted themselves to
INTRODUCTION. XIX
and warning all succeeding ships not to venture in that direction, as the Pasha of Sana had strict instructions to kill all Christians entering the Red Sea, whether they brought a safe-conduct or not.
This news placed Saris in a difficulty. He had stringent orders to visit Surat before going on to Bantam ; but it would be six months before the monsoon would serve for that port, and what was to be done in the meantime ? The Company had directed that in such a case the ships should go to Aden or Mocha, and for that purpose had procured through the English ambassador at Constantinople a special pass from the Grand Signor authorising them to trade in " the Dominions of Yemen, Aden and Moha, and the parts adioyning thereunto ;"^ but Middleton's experience seemed to shew that an attempt in that direction would not only be fruitless but positively dangerous. In this difficulty Saris assembled his " merchandising council," and placed before them three alternatives: (i) the fleet to remain at Socotra till the monsoon served for Surat ; (2) the Clove \.o proceed at once to Bantam and Japan, while the remaining
smooth over matters, with the result that on February 17, 161 1, the captives were permitted to return to Mocha, on the understanding that thirty of their number (including Aliddleton) should be detained there as hostages until the traders from India had reached that port unmolested ; then they were to be sent on board their ships and take their departure, with a warning never again to venture into the for- bidden waters. At Mocha Middleton nas well treated, but after waiting two months without seeing any sign of the promised release, he determined to make his escape. This was effected by a stratagem on May 11 ; and once on board the Darling, his threats "to fire the ships in the road and do my best to batter the towne about his eares" induced the Governor to surrender the rest of the prisoners, and to pay eighteen thousand rials "for satisfaction of all our goods and losses sustayned." This done, the fleet sailed in the early part of July, 161 1. Socotra was reached on August 30, and four days later Middleton sailed for Surat, leaving " letters with the King which hee promised to deliuer to the first English ship that should come there.''
* The pass is printed in PurcJms His Pil^riines, vol. i, p. 344, and in The First Letter-Book of the East India Coiiipany, p. 434. Purchas says in a marginal note (p. 274) that Saris presented the original to him.
C 2
XX INTkODUCTION.
vessels waited at Socotra until they could get to Surat ; (3) the fleet to go to the Red Sea, in spite of Middleton's warning, on the chance that the Grand Signor's pass would procure them a better reception. Saris himself was in favour of the last proposition, and he had little difficulty in persuading his colleagues to take the same view. Accord- ingly, on March i the fleet set sail, and on the i6th it passed the Straits and anchored in Mocha Road.
There they learned that the Governor who had treated Middleton so badly had been replaced by a Greek renegade, who was reported to be more favourable to merchants than his predecessor. Cocks and a companion landed, and were well received ; and a letter promising good treatment was sent on board.^ Accordingly, on March 20, two hostages having been received, Saris landed in state and was sumptuously entertained by the Governor, to whom he delivered a letter from King James, and exhibited the Grand Signor's pass. In view of the near approach of the Indian trading ships — who might fear to venture in, unless sure that the English intended them no harm — the local officials were evidently anxious to conciliate the newcomers, and Saris " reckoned himselfe sure of Trade," and had " great hope we might leave a Factorye." These hopes, however, were quickly dissipated by the receipt of a note from Sir Henry Middleton, announcing his return to the Red Sea, and warning Saris to get his men and goods aboard without delay. Middleton had been repulsed at Surat, and had consequently deter- mined to lie in wait for the Indian traders, and to force them to exchange their goods for English, " wee hauing
1 Purchas gives a translation of the Governor's letter ; also three cuts of seals from a letter of the " Captain of the Galleys" and a por- tion of a communication from the Shiihbandar of Mocha " in the Banian hand and language." The last-mentioned (which, by the way, is printed upside-down) is probably the earliest specimen of Gujaratf to be found in nn Kni^lisli liook.
INTRODUCTION. XXI
come so farre with commodities fittintj their Countrie, nowhere else in India vendable ; " and further, "to take some reuenge of the great and v^nsuffcrable wrongs and iniuries done me by the Turkes there."^ As Middleton had already taken some of the Indian vessels and had thus put trade out of the question, Saris had no option but to comply, and on April 12 he weighed and proceeded to the Straits to discuss matters with his former chief The conference was a stormy one. Middleton was evident!}' anno}'ed at the prospect of having to share his booty with aiu'one ; and he coolly proposed that he should first take what he wanted from the Indian traders, and that then Saris should help himself. This proposal Saris refused as unjust, and threatened to sail to windward and to intercept some of the vessels then expected ; to which Middleton replied angrily that if this were attempted, he would sink him without ceremony. In the end an agreement was arrived at that both fleets should join in capturing Indian ships and in forcibly bartering cargoes with them, sharing in the proportion of two-thirds for the Sixth Voyage and one- third for the Eighth Voyage. Evidenth- Saris still hoped to be allowed trade at Mocha, for, with a view to conciliate the officials there, it was stipulated that the Grand Signor was " to haue his Custome paid " — of course at the expense of the unfortunate Indian traders. 'Vhc Htxtor ?^v\d T/ioiiias accordingly joined in the blockade, while Saris returned in the Clove to Mocha to purchase some indigo which had been offered to him. The Governor, though aware of the wrongs which were being done to his co-religionists, evinced no hostility to the English, and even made some show of buying their commodities. This, however, came to nothing, as also the intended purchase of indigo, for which too high a price was asked ; and on April 25 Saris moved over to
' Middleton's account in Purf/ias,'\'o\. i, p. 272.
XXll INTRODUCTION.
Assab, where he found Middleton and Towerson, with eleven sail of Indian "junks."
Soon after his arrival Saris had to face an outbreak on the Hector, due, it would seem, to the dissatisfaction of the men with the victuals supplied. In the course of this mutiny, Thomas Fuller, the master, so far forgot himself as to strike Saris, and had it not been for the firmness, and at the same time forbearance, displayed by the latter, things would have taken a very serious turn. Fuller was seized and put in irons, and Richard Dawes was trans- ferred from the Thomas to the Hector to take his place ; while Richard Rowe was promoted to the vacancy in the former vessel.
This difficulty surmounted, another presented itself in the shape of a demand by Sir Henry that Saris should not take any calicoes from the Indian ships, on the ground that this would enable him to spoil Middleton's market in the Eastern seas. Saris of course resisted this unreasonable claim, which was thereupon waived. The forced exchange of commodities now went briskly on, the rates both for Indian and English goods being fixed by certain officers representing the two Voyages. The English wares, it appears, they rated at one hundred per cent, above cost price, except in the case of ivory, on which only fifty per cent, advance was made ; while ten, and in some cases twenty, per cent, profit was allowed on the calicoes, etc., taken from the Gujarati's.^
Meanwhile Middleton had demanded a hundred thousand rials from the Mocha officials (in addition to what had been already paid him), as " satisfaction for the losse of his mens Hues and for the making of him lose his Monson, to the overthrow of his Voyage ;" and he threat- ened to detain the Indian ships until the amount was
^ See Letters Received, vol. i, p. 169.
INTRODUCTION. XXni
paid. This led to a further dispute with Saris, who inti- mated that, as his prospects of peaceful trade at Mocha had been destroyed by Sir I lenry's return to the Red Sea, he also must claim compensation, which he thought should take the .shape (as in the case of the Indian traders) of one-third of what was obtained. This proposal was violently resisted, but in the end, finding himself without remedy, Middleton agreed to let Saris have one- fourth part of the money, leaving the Company to settle whether a larger proportion should be paid. But it proved to be easier to decide how the expected sum should be divided when obtained, than actually to obtain it. The Turks resolutely refused to pay, and were deaf to the suggestion that they could easily recoup themselves by levying a special tax upon the Indian vessels. Middleton was forced, therefore, either to go without or to extort a ransom from his captives. He chose the latter alternative, and from these luckless indi- viduals, already much wronged by the forced exchange of their goods for others they did not want, he demanded forty thousand rials, threatening, unless the money were paid, to carr)' the ships away with him. The tidkhudds wept and implored mercy, but in vain ; and at last, finding him inexorable, they compounded for thirty-two thousand rials, one-fourth of which was made over to Saris in accord- ance with the agreement, and the vessels were then set free. The jealousy of the two commanders was still smoulder- ing, and each was on the watch to forestall the other in the markets of the Far East. As far back as May 19, Middle- ton had sent away the Darling, his smallest vessel, with orders to proceed to Priaman, in Sumatra, and purchase what pepper she found available. Saris replied, four days later, by despatching the T/iojnas to the same destination ; and on August 8 the Hector also started for Priaman and Tiku. As soon as he had received his share of the plunder, Saris prepared to follow, and on August 13 he sailed for
XXIV INTRODUCTION.
Bantam. At Socotra he stayed for five days to purchase aloes. The voyage was then resumed ; Cape Comorin was passed at the end of September, and on October 24 the Clove anchored in Bantam Road, where she found the Hector, which had arrived the previous day. The Thomas came in on November 18 with a small quantit}' of pepper, obtained at Tiku.
The James, another English ship, was already in the Road, and more were expected. The result was seen in a great rise in the price of pepper. Saris's needs, however, were urgent ; and on October 28 (when " a Letter from Master William Adams out of Japan^ was read to all the Merchants, that they might take notice of the hopes of that countrey"), it was resolved that " in regard the Flemmings were so strongf and almost sole commanders of the Moluccas and Banda, and that the place heere is so vnhealthfull, besides our people dangerously disordering themselues with drinke and whores ashoare, the Hector should with all speed bee dispatched for England, and that fourteene thousand sackes of Pepper should be prouided for the lading of her and the Thomas." To look after these matters and to provide a cargo for the Cioz'e on her return from Japan, Saris established a factory ashore under George Camden. -
Preparations for the further venture to Japan were rapidly pushed forward, the more so since Middleton, who arrived on November 9 in the Peppercorn, was believed to be negotiating for the purchase of a ship with the intention of forestalling Saris. To fill the gaps which death had made in his crew, the latter recruited five Englishmen whom he found at Bantam ; later on he engaged a " Swart"
1 This was no doubt the letter dated October 22 or 23, 161 1, printed in Rundall's Memorials of the Empire of Japoi, and again in Letters Received, vol. i, p. 142. It was handed to Saris on Oct. 28 by Augustine Spalding, the Company's chief merchant at Bantam.
- Several letters from Saris to Camden at this time will be found in Letters Ixeceii'ed, \ol. i.
INTRODUCTION. XXV
named Francisco, two foreigners named Fernando and Mendes, and "one Hernando [Ximenes], a Spannyard, . , . speaking the Mallaya tongue verye perfect." He had also to pacify his sailors, who were again complaining of their food, alleging that he stinted them " to purchas [himself] a good conceite of the Company by sparing of there purses." Perhaps it was with a view of rebutting this calumny that he was so careful (as the text will show) to note each day what victuals were issued to the men.
At last all matters were satisfactorily settled, and Saris was ready to proceed. He waited only to see his other two vessels safely despatched to England. Their ladings having been completed, the Hector set sail on December 1 1, 1612, with orders to wait at the watering-place for the Thomas; and on January 12, 161 3, her con.sort followed her. Saris had previously " ordered four hole culuerin out of the Hector and two sakers out of the Thomas to be brought aboard the Cloaue, vnderstandinge by a Fleming which came latelye from Japan that it was one of the requested commodytyes they carryed theather and chiefe cause of obtai[n]ing the settling of a factorye theare, being a matter was at there first arriuall inquired for," Thus provided, on January, 15^ J613, Saris left Bantam Road on his voyage to the Moluccas and Japan.
v. — European Commercial Enterprise in the Moluccas previous to Saris's Voyage.^ In the earlier portion of his journal Saris tells us some- thing of the more recent history of the Molucca islands,
1 In the preparation of this section the editor has mainly followed Pjokemeyer's learned work, Die MoluL'ken, comparing it from time to time, especially in the latter portion, with the more detailed narrative of P. A. Tiele, to which reference has been made in the notes. He has alsocjuoted freely fnun the volumes publislietl by the Ilakluyt Society.
XXVI INTRODUCTION.
and of the contest between the Dutch and Spaniards, not then as yet concluded, for the possession of the group. We gather from his narrative that the Dutch had a fort on Bachian,^ several on Makyan,- and one, named Marieko,^ on the western side of Tidore, while the Spaniards held one on the eastern side of that island* and a castle on Ternate.^ He also speaks of warfare between the native princes of Tidore and Ternate. When his journal was being prepared for publication by Purchas, Saris added a general sketch of the state of the islands, enumerating the settlements possessed by the two contending parties, which has been inserted in its proper place in the present volume.^ This was apparently drawn up from information that came into his possession after his visit to the islands, as it includes the names of the Dutch settlements on Ternate and Mak- yan, which are not mentioned in the MS.
The existence of the islands which furnished the spices so highly valued in Europe had long been a matter of general knowledge, but their approximate situation was first ascertained after the capture of Malacca in -£6t* by the Portuguese under Albuquerque. One of his first measures was the despatch of a small squadron to effect their discovery, under Francisco Serrano, Antonio d'Abreu, and Simao Affonso. They reached the Banda group, whence the first-named of these, having twice suffered ship- wreck, made his way to Amboina, and ultimately to Ternate.
At this time the Spice Islands were divided among four native sovereigns : ist, the King of Ternate, whose autho- rity extended over the south part of Mindanao, the Talaut and Sangi groups, the Togean islands, the east and north coasts of Celebes, the Bangaai archipelago, a large part of
|
1 p. 21. 4 P. 50. |
2 P. 38. S P. 63. |
3 P. 57. « P. 58. |
INTROnUCTION. XXVll
Halmahera,^ March, Makyan, Motir, the Sula Islands, and the greater portion of the Amboina group. 2nd, the King of Tidore, recognized as suzerain over the east coast of Hahnahera, the east coast of Ceram and the islands to the east of the latter, Salwatti, Battanta and Waigiu, west of New Guinea, and the western part of that island. 3rd, the King of Bachian, with Ombi Major, Ombi-latu and the surrounding islets. 4th, the King of Gilolo or Halmahcra, who at the time of the first Portuguese visit was a vassal of the King of Ternate.-
Serrano gained the friendship of the King of Ternate, and permission to trade was readily accorded to the Por- tuguese. A squadron from Malacca, under the command of Antonio de Miranda, visited the island and obtained a valuable cargo. It would appear that the Kings of Tidore and Bachian were also disposed to be friendly at the out- set, but in 1 5 19 a quarrel occurred between the crew of a Portuguese-owned junk and some of the islanders of Bachian, which caused much ill-feeling.
Hitherto the Portuguese had been undisturbed by any European rivals, but in 1521 two Spanish vessels arrived at Tidore. These belonged to the famous expedition of Magellan, despatched by Charles V with the object of reaching the Spice Islands by an " all-Spanish " route. Serrano is said to have written letters from Ternate, con- taining information about the Moluccas, which induced him to undertake this voyage.^ How Magellan, himself a Portuguese in the service of his own sovereign, with whom he had quarrelled because he was refused a moderate
1 This is the native name for the island usually known to us as Gilolo. The spelling of these names mainly follows the Admiralty Charts.
* Bokemeyer's Die Molukkefi.
2 Pigafetta, in The First Voyage roioui the Worlds Hakluyt Society, 1874, p. 127.
XXVIU INTRODUCTION.
increase of his salary, entered the employ of Charles V, and suggested to the latter a scheme for appropriating the monopoly of the trade in spices that rightfully belonged to Portugal by the award of Pope Alexander VI, is well known ; also that he lost his life in a skirmish with natives of an island of the group afterwards named the Philippines, before reaching his goal. Of the two ships, one alone returned safely to Spain ; and from this time a lively dis- pute went on between the two nations regarding the right to trade and acquire territor}' in the Moluccas.
In 1522, a Portuguese fleet arrived from Malacca at Banda, under the command of Antonio de Brito, who, on hearing that both Serrano and the King of Ternate had been poisoned, proceeded thither to avenge Serrano, and to expel the Spaniards from the islands. He reached Tidore at the end of May, and obtained the surrender of some Spanish traders, but refused the King's proposal that he should establish a settlement on the island. Continuing his voyage to Ternate, he concluded a treaty with the Queen-regent and principal nobles, in pursuance of which he laid the foundations of a fort not far from the capital. Shortly after this, the Queen and her father, the King of Tidore, combined together to expel the Portuguese from the archipelago ; but the design being discovered, De Brito^ seized the two sons of the late King. Their mother managed to escape. The Portuguese commander, allying himself with the regent Taruwese, whom he had been able to attach to his interests, fell suddenly upon Tidore, and captured the town of Marieko, the ancient fortified seat of government. Thence he proceeded to attack the Tidorian possessions on Halmahera and Makyan.
De Brito was relieved of the command in 1525 by Garcias, and the latter in his turn, in 1527, by Menezes.
^ See The First Voyao-e, etc., p. 127.
INTRODUCTION. xxix
In 1529 a Spanish vessel arrived at Tidore, and the commander persuaded the inhabitants to join him in attackiny; the Portuguese in Ternate. A fight ensued, in which the Spaniards at first gained the advantage, and an armistice was concluded, but on its expiration the fortune of war changed. Menezes captured the native town and the Spanish citadel. The garrison was, however, allowed to march out with the honours of war, and an agreement was made that hostilities should not be renewed until the question of right was settled between the Emperor Charles V and Dom Joao of Portugal.
During this campaign, Dayalo, one of the two Ternatan princes, died, and Bohejat, the other, was recognised as sole heir to the throne. Shortly afterwards another anti- foreign conspiracy was formed, in which the regent Taru- wese took part ; but it was discovered, and he was beheaded by Menezes. In 1530 a new governor was appointed named Gonzalo Pereira, but in the following year he was assassinated by the Ternatans, and Vicentio da Fonseca was elected governor in his stead. In this affair the Portuguese chaplain acted with the natives. Fonseca then allied himself with a native chief named Kechil Pate Sarang ; but King Bohejat refused to side with them, and being driven to take flight was replaced by his step-brother Taberidji.
In October 1533, Tristan de Atayde arrived as governor of the Portuguese settlements in the Moluccas, and the Spaniards finally quitted the islands, Charles V having ceded his claim to Dom Joao III for a sum of 350,000 ducats. A new king, named Hair, was placed on the throne of Ternate, and the island of Bachian was con- quered with the aid of the Kings of Ternate and Tidore, who were thus found for once acting in accord. Shortly after this, another rising against the Portuguese took place, and they were shut up in their fortress of Gamulamu on
XXX INTRODUCTION.
Ternate, but the fortunate arrival of Simao Sodreo from Malacca with reinforcements caused the assailants to raise the siege. Nevertheless, the Portuguese continued to be hard beset by the natives until October 1536, when the appointment of Antonio Galvano promised to inaugurate a better state of things. Galvano, who was regarded by his contemporaries as an honourable and upright gentleman, initiated a conciliatory policy, and an armistice was arranged. But it was broken by the anti-foreign party, and he found himself obliged to take up arms against the native princes. He attacked Tidore, where the ex-King Bohejat was slain in the very first engagement, and both town and citadel fell once more into the hands of the Portuguese.
A principal cause of the weakness of the Portuguese had been the frequent change of governors, each new one fancying it necessary to reverse the policy of his pre- decessor. In 1540 De Castro relieved Galvano. Hair con- tinued to occupy the throne, and a period of comparative peacefulness ensued until 1570, when an insurrection in one of the neighbouring islands led to his being arrested by Diego Lopez, who was governor at the time. He was sent to Goa for trial, but was acquitted and permitted to return to Ternate. Lopez, in his turn, was sent to Goa to give an account of his proceedings, but was shortly afterwards rein- stated. Out of revenge he contrived the murder of Hair, and cut his body into pieces, which he exhibited from the walls of the fort with every mark of contumely to the infuriated inhabitants. On a complaint being carried to Goa, he was recalled and replaced by Pereira ; but the people were not to be appeased, and rose in rebellion under their new king Babu. The Portuguese were expelled from Ternate and took refuge on Tidore, where their position became one of increasing difficulty. In India, also, their power was decay- ing, while Malacca became less and less able to furnish
INTRODIU TU)N. xxxi
reliefs. Atayde, who had become Viceroy of India, attempted to restore the situation by adopting a concih'a- tory attitude towards the Ternatans, but without success.
It was in 1579 that the English first appeared upon the scene, as we learn from the account of Drake's voyage round the world. ^ He reached the Moluccas in November of that year, and received an offer from the King of Ternate to reserve the whole commerce of the island for his countrymen. Very friendly relations were established, and the ship was supplied with provisions and fruit, besides as much cloves as she could conveniently carry. The author reports that " the present king with his brethren, in reuenge of their fathers murther, so bestirred themselues, that the Portingall was wholly driuen from that Hand, and glad that he yet keepes footing in Tidore." He also tells us of a Chinese gentleman living there as an exile, who described the greatness and riches of his native country in a manner that called forth the admiration of the simple- hearted English sailors, mentioning among other things that " they had brasse ordnance of all sorts (much easier to be trauersed then ours were, and so perfectly made that they would hit a shilling) aboue 2000 yeares a goe." Drake sailed again after a stay of only six days, having created an impression on the minds of the natives that lasted for many years subsequently.
When the crown of Portugal was annexed to that of Spain by Philip II, in 1580, a stronger policy was adopted by the Portuguese. As soon as the news of that event reached the Moluccas, King Babu despatched an envoy to the sovereign of the Peninsula to complain of the op- pressive conduct of the Portuguese governors, and with further instructions that if he failed to obtain redress at
* See The World Ejicoinpassed by Sir Francis Drake, edited by the late Mr. W. S. W. Vaux for the Hakluyt Society, 1854, pp. 137 and onwards.
XXXU INTRODUCTION.
Madrid, he was to cross over to England and Holland to invoke the protection of Queen Elizabeth and the States- general. In this it is easy to see an efifect of Drake's visit. The envoy returned in 1584, with nothing but promises. During his absence King Babu was decoyed on board a Portuguese warship by the offer of negotiations, and was carried first to Amboina, whence he was despatched to Goa, but died on the way, not without a suspicion of foul play having been employed to hasten his end. He was succeeded by his son Said Berkat, who shortly afterwards treacherously slew at a feast the King of Tidore, his hereditary enemy and a friend of the Portuguese. This event led to a fresh war between the two islands.
In assuming the crown of Portugal, Philip II had promised to administer that country and its colonial possessions separately from his other dominions. It was therefore held to be unconstitutional to send succours to the distressed colonists in the Moluccas from any other quarter than Portuguese India. But as the Governor of Malacca had now for some years been unable to render any effective assistance, the settlers in their difficulties turned for aid to the Spanish authorities at Manila ; but the latter were at this period too much occupied with plundering expeditions on the coast of China to pay any attentions to applications for help from private persons.
Before long, however, a new danger made itself felt. The Dutch during their war of independence had gradually built up a powerful navy, which, after the destruction of the "Invincible Armada" in 1588, was more numerous and powerful than that of any other European nation. They had formerly traded to Lisbon for the spices and other eastern produce of which they stood in need, but now the idea suggested itself of despatching their ships direct to the eastern seas to procure these articles on the spot, and thus gain for themselves the enormous profits
INTRODUCTION. XXXlll
hitherto appropriated by the Portuguese. As was the case witli the English also, there existed no reason why they should recognise an enemy's claims based only on a Papal bull ; and now that Portugal had become part of the dominions of their oppressor the King of Spain, they could proceed to roam the ocean both to the east and to the west, and " spoil the Egyptians " at their convenience.
It was in March, 1599, that the first Dutch ships under Warwijk and Van Heemskerk arrived at Amboina. They made a commercial treaty with the native chiefs, subject to the ratification of the king of Ternate, who was still re- garded as suzerain. Heemskerk next visited the Banda group, and having established factories on Lontar and Neira, sailed for Bantam, while Warwijk proceeded for Ternate. There he was cordially received by Said Berkat, who de- sired his help in expelling the Portuguese and subjugat- ing his hereditary foe the king of Tidore. Under these circumstances, Warwijk had little difficulty in obtaining permission to trade. He was allowed to purchase a full cargo of spices, and to leave a factor and six other Dutch- men behind him when he departed, but the question ot active assistance to the king in his warlike projects was left for future consideration.
The following year Van Neck visited Ternate, and was eagerly welcomed by Said, to please whom he bombarded the Portuguese fort on Tidore. About the same time, Steven van der Haghen, arriving in the Spice Islands, besieged the Portuguese for several weeks in their fort at Ley-Timor, on the north side of Amboina. He left a small detachment of twenty-seven men at Hitu-lama in that island, who were however, re-cmbarked in 1601 by Cornelis van Heemskerk.
The Portuguese now equipped a large fleet to stop further encr<5achments of the Dutch, and to punish the native princes who had entered into friendly relations with
d
Xxxiv INTRODUCTION.
them. The intention was that this force should effect a junction with a Spanish fleet fitted out at Manila. Andre Furtado de Mendoza, who was in command, reached Bantam in December 1601, and after fighting an indecisive action with a Dutch squadron under Wolfert Harmenszoon, sailed for the Spice Islands to join the Spanish fleet. He reached Amboina on February 10, 1602, where he was disappointed in his expectation of finding the Spaniards, but he captured Hitu-lama and laid waste numerous villages. Proceeding northwards by way of Hoamohel, and passing by Ternate, he came back to Tidore, where he anchored on October 10.
Harmenszoon in the meantime had visited Ternate and, giving Furtado a wide berth, reached Banda on March 14 ; where two months later he concluded a treaty with the native chiefs, by which the latter undertook to sell their produce to the Dutch alone, and both parties bound them- selves to help one another in war.
Furtado overran Makyan in October, 1602 ; and, after establishing a fortified post there, proceeded to the harbour of Talangam, in Ternate, to wait for his Spanish allies under the command of Juan Xuarez Gallinato. The latter arrived in February, 1603 ; and the combined forces gave battle to King Said and shut him up in the fortress of Gamulamu, to which they laid siege. Owing, however, to supplies not having been sent to Furtado, his ammunition gave out, and the siege had to be abandoned, Furtado returning to Malacca, and Gallinato to Manila.^
In the beginning of 1605, Steven van der Haghen, who had left Holland in December, 1603, with a fleet of twelve sail, appeared again at Amboina, with instructions to undertake the conquest of the Moluccas. He began by
^ P. A. Tide, De Eiiropeers in den MaleiscJien Archipel, Pt. vi, p. 225.
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
capturing the Portuguese fort of Victoria. Leaving there a garrison of a hundred men, he proceeded to Banda to renew the treaty of 1602, to which the towns of Neira (on the island of that name) and Ortatan (on Great Banda), and the islands of Wai and Rhun acceded. His second in command, Cornelis Bastienszoon, had in the meantime been despatched to attack the Portuguese fort on Tidore. Finding his forces insufficient, he asked and obtained the help of King Said of Ternate, which enabled him to achieve success. A shot fell into the powder magazine of the defenders, and blew it up, rendering the fort untenable ; and the Portuguese were compelled to capitulate. The Dutch then plundered the inhabitants of Tafasoho on the west side of Makyan, and sailed away, leaving no garrison on Tidore.
A detailed account of the action, and of Sir Henry Middleton's endeavours to establish a trade with the Moluccas, is given in the narrative of his voyage to the East in the Red Dragon in 1605. Accompanied by the Ascension, he arrived at Amboina on February 12, just before the surrender of P'ort Victoria to the Dutch. Being consequently unable to obtain any spices, he determined to go on to the Moluccas, sending the Ascension to Banda for nutmegs. Off Makyan he received a visit from some natives, who refused to sell any cloves without the leave of the King of Ternate.^ The town of Tafasoho belonged to Tidore, the rest of the island to Ternate. Approaching Tidore from the south on March 22, he rescued the King of Ternate and several Dutch merchants from the pursuit of some Tidorian galleys. On learning that Middleton proposed to start trade with Tidore through the medium of the Portuguese, they would have dissuaded him, and
^ See The Voyage of Sir Henry Middleton to Bantam and the Maluco Islands^ edited by Bolton Corney for the Hakluyt Society, 1855.
d 2
xxxvi INTRODUCTION.
finally prevailed with him to go straight to Ternate, where he anchored at the port two and a half leagues off the town (Gamulamu). The King promised to give his subjects leave to sell cloves, and allowed a party of Englishmen to be stationed on shore as the nucleus of an intended factory. He also provided Middleton with a letter to the Governor of his own part of Makyan, so that he should be able to obtain a cargo, in case the Portuguese refused to trade. On the 27th, in accordance with his expressed resolve, Middleton brought his ship over to Tidore, and anchored not far from the fort, where, after some haggling over the price of goods, the Portuguese Governor agreed to let him have some cloves. While cargo was being collected, the Dutch squadron hove in sight, and Middleton made haste to be gone, especially as two Ternatan officers who were on board with him urged his departure for Makyan. Having procured a letter from the King of Tidore for the Governor of Tafasoho, and collected the money due for the cargo sold to the Portuguese, he got away on April 21, passing through the midst of the Dutch squadron during the night, and on the following evening anchored off Gnofifickia (Mofficia in Middleton) on Makyan, where the viceroy of the King of Ternate resided. Here he delivered the letter ; but, as no cloves were forthcoming, he pro- ceeded to Tafasoho (Taffasoa), on the other side of the island, a town belonging to Tidore. The Portuguese had a small blockhouse there, occupied by five men. Middleton was well received, but did not obtain any considerable quantity of spices. On May 2 he received a letter from the commandant of the Portuguese fort on Tidore, acquainting him with the burning of two galleons by the Dutch, and entreating him to hasten thither with the five men from Tafasoho, to see the impending fight, and offering to let him have all the stock of cloves in the town. So the next day found him anchored in front of the King of Tidore's
INTRODUCTION. xxxvii
town, in the middle of the Dutch fleet. The attack on the fort began on the afternoon of the 7th, and continued all the 8th and part of the 9th, when the explosion occurred that has already been mentioned. In this action, the Ternatans assisted the Dutch, while the Tidorians fought on the side of the Portuguese. The Dutch Admiral first threatened to hang all the Portuguese; but, through Middleton's intercession, he was induced to spare their lives and let them retire to Manila.
Middlcton now applied to the King of Ternate for permission for the establishment of a factory on that island, according to his promise, but was refused on the ground of a previous undertaking with the Dutch that they should have a monopoly of the trade. He therefore weighed anchor again, and proceeded to Ternate, May 21, with the object of removing the Englishmen left behind previously, and bringing away the cloves they had secured. The King followed later. Negotiations proceeded for some weeks ; but in the end Dutch influence prevailed, and the King definitely refused to allow the establishment of a factory. In a letter addressed to King James I, which he delivered to Middleton, he said it was only for the present that he yielded to the insistence of the Dutch ; but if the English were minded to pay him another visit at some future time, they should be welcome. With this promise Middleton was forced to content himself; and, weighing anchor on June 18, he arrived again atTafasoho on the 21st. The Governor offered to hand over the town to him, but he was obliged to refuse, having lost a large number of his crew by dysentery. Thus he departed from the Moluccas, and got back to Bantam on July 24.
The Spaniards now undertook operations for the relief of the Moluccas independently of the Portuguese, and in January, 1606, despatched a fleet from Manila. Tidore was captured in March, without striking a blow ; and in April
xxxviii INTRODUCTION.
they landed on Ternate to attack Gamulamu. Said, finding himself unable to defend the fortress, fled with his men to Gilolo, leaving the island in the hands of the Spaniards ; but, being induced by them to return, was seized and carried off to Manila. He had left his son Modafar behind at Gilolo ; and the people of Ternate, fearing they would never see Said again, declared Modafar his successor, and began to arm.
In the beginning of 1607, Matelieff the younger anchored with six ships at Bantam, where he heard that envoys from the Ternatans had shortly before been there to invoke the assistance of the Dutch. Following them to Amboina, he overtook them at Fort Victoria, and sent them on ahead to Gilolo with a friendly message to Modafar. He himself reached Ternate on May 10, but finding the Spaniards there and at Tidore too strong for him, he contented himself with entering into a treaty of alliance with the Ternatans. By this instrument the Dutch were to have a post at Maleyo, on the north side of the island, placing there a garrison of thirty to forty men, while the Ternatans recognised the suzerainty of the States-General and under- took to defray all expenses. The whole crop of cloves was to be sold to the Dutch, at a price to be fixed afterwards by mutual agreement. Having placed the new fort of Maleyo in a defensive condition, Matelieff sailed for China, The Spaniards attacked the place soon after he left, but were unable to reduce it.
The year 1608 saw another effort on the part of the English to establish themselves in the Moluccas. In the beginning of January, David Middleton reached the islands in the Consent. Purchas goes on to say :
"The rest of this Moneth was spent in entertainments and complements betwixt Ours and the Spaniards, as likewise with the Moluccan Princes. So was the whole Moneth of February also. The reason was, The Spaniards durst not admit vs trade till the Camp Master had giuen leaue. And he in those broyles twixt
INTRODUCTION. XXXlX
him and the Hollanders, except Ours would doe or seeme to doe some piece of seruice, at least accompanying their ships for greater shew (which our Captaine absolutely refused, being against his Commission) excused himselfc. Meancwhile they had priuy trade with the people by night, and were louiall and frolicke by day with the Spaniards, which both gaue and rcceiued kind welcomes. In the beginning of March, they were permitted open trade. But this within few dayes was countermanded, and wee commanded to bee gone. And thus they spent the time till March the foureteene, when they weighed anchor, and set saile. Some trade they had also in the way."^
Just when David Middleton was at the Moluccas, Matelieff fell in with Paulus van Caerden, who had sailed with a fresh fleet from Holland in April, 1606, and had wasted much time in vainly trying to reduce the Portuguese fortress of Mozambique and in chasing Portuguese gal- leons.* At Matelieff's suggestion. Van Caerden proceeded to Ternate with ten ships, arriving there May 18. A month later he captured Tafascho on Makyan from the Spaniards ; but in the autumn of the same year he fell into their hands, and was carried a prisoner to Manila.
A powerful fleet under Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeff, with 1,900 men on board, had been despatched from Holland in December, 1607, and on its arrival at Bantam in February, 1609, the Vice-Admiral, Francois Willert, was detached with four vessels to Ternate, via Makassar. The instructions of the Dutch East India Company, who expected a truce to be shortly concluded with Spain, were to obtain possession of the clove- and nutmeg-producing islands by treaty or by force before September i, 1609. Willert reached Ternate on June 22, renewed Matelieffs treaty with the King, established a post on Motir, which he named Nassau, and three months later sailed on a marauding expedition against the Philippines. There he encountered a complete defeat. Two out of the three ships he had
^ Ptirchas, vol. i, p. 226. '^ Tiele, op. cii., Pt. vii, p. 79.
xl INTRODUCTION.
with him were captured, with much booty that he had plundered from Chinese junks, and he himself perished.^ Verhoeff having been murdered by the Bandanese in May had been succeeded by Simon Janszoon Hoen, who got to Maleyo the day after Willert sailed on his disastrous enterprise. In December he conquered Bachian, capturing the Spanish fort in the bay of Amassing,- which he re- named Barneveldt. The garrison were put to the sword.
The truce apprehended by the directors of the Dutch East India Company was agreed upon in April, 1609, but in the East it was recognised by neither Dutch nor Spaniards. In November of the same year, Pieter Both was appointed first governor-general of the Dutch posses- sions in the East Indies, with ample powers over all the naval commanders, and complete discretion as to his pro- ceedings. He arrived at Bantam in December, 1610. Affairs at Amboina and Banda occupied his attention for some months, and it was not till the following August that he was able to proceed to the Moluccas. He found the Spanish governor of Ternate^ unwilling to recognise the truce, on the pretext that he had received no instructions from home, and he was therefore justified in strengthening the Dutch position in the island by the construction of a redoubt at Toluco, near the fort of Maleyo.
Early in the same year an expedition had been fitted out by Juan De Silva, the governor of Manila, with the object of expelling the Dutch from the islands. He carried with him King Said, his son, and the other chiefs, to make use of them in winning over the Ternatans to the Spanish side. On arriving off Ternate he found the Dutch had left, but
1 Tiele, Pt. vii, p. 108. 2 Saris's "Amasan," p. 27.
^ In a foot-note to p. 52 of Saris's Journal the editor stated, on the authority of Valentijn, that Don Jeronimo de Silva was appointed Governor of the Moluccas in 1610, but according to P. A. Tiele (in De Ei/rcpet'rs in a'en Malcische77 ArcJiipel) he came there in March 1612, to replace Cristobal de Ascueta Menchaca.
INTRODUCTION. xli
not haviiifT sufficient confidence in the men under his own command, he did not venture to attack Maleyo and Tacomi, and contented himself with reducing two unimportant settlements on Halmahera. With this insignificant result lie returned to Manila to recruit more men. His hope that the influence of King Said would change the point of view of the Ternatans was destined to be disappointed. Nego- tiations for a peace were indeed initiated between the Ternatans and the Tidorians, on the basis of a proposal to place Kaitjil Sidang/ a son of Said's, on the throne, but they came to nothing.
In August, 1612, Both proceeded to Bachian to hasten the construction of the fort there, and passed thence to Makyan, where in January, 161 3, he concluded with the chiefs a treaty by which they bound themselves to sell all their cloves to the Dutch at a very low price.^ Early in February he captured Marieko, on the north-west coast of Tidore, besides destroying another Spanish fort on the same island. Saris speaks of the " new fortres called Maraeco " belonging to the Dutch.
The state of things then at the time of Saris's voyage to the Moluccas was, that the Portuguese had lost everything they once possessed ; the Spaniards held a couple of establishments on Tidore and Ternate ; while the Dutch dominated over almost all of the rest of the Moluccas.
* This is the person called Key ChilHsadang by Saris, and described by him on p. 35 as "the King of Ternates sonne," but on p. 36 as brother of the king ; />., son of Said and brother of Modafar. Kaitjil is the Ternatan equivalent of the Mindanao-Spanish Cachil, a prince of the blood royal. From the spelling adopted by Saris, he seems to have confused this title with the Malay kyahi chiltk, or "little chief," as distinguished from kyahi ti^us, or 'great chief (the "keygus" or "keygoose" of p. 5).
It may here be noted that the Key Malladaia whom Saris met at Bachian (p. 26), who had been sent from Makyan by "a man of great account there," is properly called the Kimelaha Daja or Hidajat, described by Tiele (Pt. vii, p. 131) as "an ambitious Ternatan." Kimelaha is a native title (head of a /'rtw/*?//^ or village), Daja his name.
^ See note to p. 41 of Saris's Journal.
xHi INTRODUCTION.
The following table shows the actual position : —
Dutch. Spanish.
On Bachian, Fort Barneveldt. „ Makyan, Tafasoho and two other
places. „ Tidore, Marieko. Tidore, a fort on east side.
„ Ternate, Maleyo, Tacomi, Toluco. Ternate, a fort (Gamulamu).
Besides these the Dutch had establishments on Amboina, and a treaty with the Banda group that gave them the monopoly of spices.
VI. — The Voyage from Bantam to Japan.
The Clove sailed from Bantam for Japan on January 15, and after calling at Jacatra (afterwards Batavia), where she took in water and other supplies such as the place afforded, passed through the straits of Saleijer, south of Celebes, on the last day of the month. Her course then lay outside Buton to the south, between it and Hegadis Island, and then through the Buton passage ; from near the mouth of Buton straits she steered across towards Buru, and from there northwards to Sula Besi, where Saris communicated with the shore through his Spaniard, who spoke the Ternatan language. On February 24 she anchored at Bachian. At this place Saris found the Dutch established in a fort (Barneveldt) garrisoned by thirty soldiers, married some to native, others to Dutch women. The English commander remained till March 7, negotiating with the native chief for cloves, of which he was not able, however, to procure any. He was promised a supply at Makyan, at a higher rate, however, than was paid by the Dutch ; and he took on board two native pilots for that island.
Weighing from Bachian on March 7, Saris passed out between the main island and Obu, and seems then to have
INTRODUCTION. xllil
worked his way through Herberg Strait, anchoring every night. On the 17th he arrived off Poliweri in Makyan, where he managed to procure a small quantity of cloves. The Dutch interfered, however, claiming a monopoly of the export under a treaty recently made with the chiefs ot the island ; and, being in superior force, were able to prevent the natives from trading to the extent they would have wished.
More than once the English and Dutch were on the point of coming to blows. On April 5 Saris weighed, and proceeded to Tidore, which, as we have seen, was still partly held by the Spaniards, the Dutch having estab- lished themselves at Marieko, a fort recently captured by them. The Spaniards treated Saris with greater civility than he had received at the hands of the, Dutch, but no business in cloves was permitted, and on the 13th the English vessel pursued her voyage. After communicating at Ternate, without gaining anything but compliments, Saris finally resolved to make for Japan. He had managed to secure in all 3,690 lbs. of cloves.
After lying at an island, which he calls Doy, from April 22 till May 12, to take in wood and water, he sailed once more, bound for Japan. Since leaving Bantam ten out of a crew of eighty-one persons had died, two having been drowned in landing at Doy, and one killed by the fall of a tree.
On June 2 Saris sighted land, which he took to be the Res Magos of Linschoten's map (the Miyakojima group of modern geography). What he really saw was probably the Great Loochoo. From this point he seems to have steered northwards along the west of the chain of islands extend- ing up to the south of Japan ; then altering his coursb a little, he ran past the Koshiki group and the great island of Amakusa, and looked into the Straits of Arima. Off Nagasaki he fell in with some Japanese fishermen, two
xHv INTRODUCTION.
of whom he engaged for thirty dollars and their food to pilot the Clove into Hirado, where they finally arrived on June 12.
VII. — Hirado ; its previous History as a Commercial Port.
It was no mere accident that led the first Europeans who visited Japan to fix upon Hirado as their head- quarters. From a very early period, which perhaps may be placed at the end of the sixth century, when intercourse between Japan and China began to assume something of a regular complexion, the ordinary route of envoys and traders from the Japanese capital was by way of Hakata in Chikuzen, Hirado, and the Goto group to Ningpo and Wenchow. And after diplomatic relations between the two countries ceased, at the end of the ninth century, commerce still followed that line, Hakata continuing to be the main entrepot for Chinese goods. In the thirteenth century, when the Mongols twice endeavoured to invade Japan, Hirado was the first point of attack. After the victorious expulsion of the invaders, the Japanese in their turn sallied forth and harried the coasts of Corea and China, and, as was the fashion of the time, combined plunder with peaceful commerce. In the early part of the sixteenth century, Chinese smugglers and traders to Lugon, Annam and the Malay Peninsula resorted to Hirado, where their leader, one Wang Chih, established a factory, and joining to himself a band of enterprising Japanese, pursued his operations on a large scale.
Besides the northern route to China, there was a second from B5 no Tsu, a port at the extreme south-west corner of the province of Satsuma, by way of the Loochoos to the provinces of Fuh-kien and Kwang-tung. This latter.
INTRODUCTION. xlv
however, was suited for the local supply of southern Kiushiu alone.
Without going into the question whether Japan was first discovered by Fernan Mendez Pinto and his companions, or by the other three Portuguese whom Maffei mentions on the authority of Antonio Galvao, this much seems certain, namely, that the first European navigators approached it from the south. The Japanese belief is that Bo no Tsu was the first port visited in 1541, and that two years later Anjiro, the Japanese refugee afterwards known as Paulo de Santa Fe, shipped from here with Jorge Alvarez, a Portuguese navigator, to Malacca, where he eventually met St. Francis Xavier. In the opinion of the Japanese writer^ mentioned in the footnote, it was by the advice of the Chinese smuggler, Wang Chih, that the Portuguese removed their commercial establishment to Hirado. Mer- chants were found residing there by Xavier, when he passed through on his way from Kagoshima to Kioto. In the missionary letters mention is made of Portuguese vessels at Hirado in 1555. Four years later one anchored there, while another visited Agune (or Akune) on the north-west coast of Satsuma. Later on in the same year, a ship is spoken of as being at Tomari, a port near Bo no Tsu. Difficulties arose between the Daimio of Hirado and the missionaries, who gladly accepted an offer from Omura Sumitada, the Daimio of Omura, to grant them the revenues of the port of Yokose, and a territory extending two leagues into the surrounding country ; and some of the Portuguese captains were persuaded to anchor there. Still they sometimes resorted to Hirado; and in 1565 we read of an attack made on a Portuguese vessel that had anchored at Kawachi (or Kochi), a few miles south of the town. In the same year we find Don Joao Pereira at \
* Suganuma, Dai Nihon Shd-gia-sht{CommGYc\?i.\ History of Japan), p. 286.
xlvi INTRODUCTION.
Fukuda, a small port outside the entrance to the bay of Nagasaki. He had refused, at the request of the mission- aries, to go to Hirado, and avoided Yokose because civil war was raging in the neighbourhood. Fukuda continued to be the port until about 1 571, when the missionaries having settled at Nagasaki under specially favourable con- ditions granted to them by the owner, a vassal of Omura Sumitada, shipping began to resort thither also. This was a much larger and more convenient anchorage than any of those hitherto visited. It may be noted that the original name of the spot was Oura, and that it was called Naga- saki after the surname of the owner. At the time the missionaries settled there, it was only a tiny hamlet inhabited by a few fishermen. Other places visited by Portuguese ships from time to time were Shiki, in the western island of Amakusa, and Kuchinotsu, on the south of the Shimabara promontory ; but Nagasaki remained the headquarters of commerce. In 1 587, however, a vessel was forced to winter at Hirado, owing to the disturbances in the neighbourhood of Nagasaki, and the latter place was taken away from the missionaries that same year by Hideyoshi, who made it an imperial port and appointed a Governor. The Spaniards came to Hirado for the first time in 1580, so that the trade was divided between two centres ; but some twenty years later, the trade having declined, they finally abandoned the place.^
The Chinese had traded at Nagasaki from the .same period as the Portuguese, and it is evident from both Saris's Journal and Cocks's Diary that they were still there during the whole of the continuance of the English factory at Hirado, having also establishments at the latter place. Suganuma is of opinion- that they were restricted to
Suganuma, Hirado Boeki-Shi (History of the Trade at Hirado),
p. 40. ^ Ibid.^ p. 108.
INTRODUCTION. xlvii
Nagasaki from the same time as the Dutch (^i6^}^hut, up to 1688,^ they were allowed to lodge freely in the town wherever they chose. After that date they were confined to an enclosure close to the Dutch settlement of Deshima.
The following notes have been taken from Dr. Nachod's work, quoted below.
The Dutch East India Company had acquired early information about Japan from Linschoten, whose great work, entitled Voyage ofte Schipvaert van Jan Huygen van Linschoten 7iaer Oost ofte Portugacls Indien, was published at Amsterdam in 1596. Linschoten returned to Holland in 1592, but he had been preceded in 1590 by Dirk Gerritszoon, a Dutch navigator in the Portuguese service, who probably was the first to furnish details respecting the Portuguese commerce in Japan, and the sailing routes thither. Be this as it may, the first attempt of the Dutch to get to Japan was made by a fleet of five ships under the command of Jacques Mahu, which sailed on June 27; 1598, with instructions to take their way through the Straits of Magellan and across the Pacific. William Adams, an Englishman, was sailing-master on board the Hoop; but he must have changed over to the Liefde, since that seems to have been the only one of the five that reached her destination. What the difficulties of navigation were in those days may be appreciated from the fact that the fleet arrived at the Straits in April, 1599, but did not accomplish the passage till August 24."^ The ships were shortly afterwards separated by a storm, and the Blyde Boodschap,^Jdx\ board of which was Dirk Gerritszoon^ was captured by the Spaniards at Valparaiso. The Troww reached the Moluccas, where she fell into the hands of the Portuguese. The Geloof returned through the Straits,
^ Nachod, Die Beziehungen der Niederldndischen Ostindischen Kompagnie zu Japan im ij-ienja/tr/iundert^ p. 399.
' Adams, writing in October, 161 1, gives the dates as April 6 and September 24. -■•
xlviii INTRODUCTION.
falling in with another fleet under Olivier van Noort, and returned to Holland in July, 1600. The Hoop and Liefde quitted the coast of Chile on November 27, and the former was never heard of again, after she was separated from her remaining consort by a storm in North latitude 28°, on February 23, 1600 ; while the Liefde, with only twenty-four survivors out of a crew of iio, proceeding on her voyage alone, came in sight of the coast of Japan on April 19. She anchored about a league off the capital of Bungo, now called Oita, in Beppu Bay, North latitude 33° 15'. Out of the twenty-four, six died in a short time. Adams and one of the sailors were sent for by lyeyasu, who was then at Osaka,^ while the ship was brought up to Sakai, the nearest seaport. After a prolonged detention Adams was allowed to return to the ship, which, after a further delay, was ordered round to the Bay of Yedo, in all probability to the little port of Uraga at the entrance. The ship was made prize of, and the crew detained in the country.
The first news of the shipwreck was brought home by Olivier van Noort in August, 1601, who, on January 3 in that year, falling in with a Portuguese captain of a junk at Borneo, learnt from him that a large Dutch vessel of 250 tons had been cast away in Japan, which belonged to Steven Verhagen's company of adventurers. Two of the shipwrecked mariners, Jacob Janszoon Quaeckernaecq and Melchior van Santvoort, having gained the favour of Matsura Hoin, daimi5 of Hirado, in some way unknown to us, were furnished by him with a junk in which they arrived at Patani on December 2, 1605, whence the former joined the squadron of Cornelis Mateliefif engaged in blockading the
1 He had been there since early in the year, but started on July 26 for Yedo, arriving there August 10. He stayed till the 29th of that month, and then started on an expedition against Uyasugi, the daimio of Aidzu. These dates may be useful for comparison with Adams's account of lyeyasu's movements, as given in Letter I of Rundall's Memorials.
INTRODUCTION. xlix"
Portuguese possession of Malacca, in August, 1606. Ouaeckcrnaecq delivered the letter with which he had been provided by the " King of Japan " (lyeyasu), was appointed captain of the Erasmus, and lost his life in a sea fight with the Portuguese in October ; while Melchior van Santvoort returned from Patani to Japan, where he seems to have settled at Nagasaki. He is mentioned by both Saris and Cocks in their diaries. Matelieff, after beating the Portuguese, pursued his voyage to China, and in September, 1607, met at Shang-ch'uan some Japanese pirate junks, by the captain of one of which he sent a message to Hirado to the effect that in three years time he hoped to visit Japan. In February, 1608, Victor Sprinckel, the commercial agent at Patani, wrote to lyeyasu in reply to a letter brought by Quaeckernaecq, explaining that the Dutch losses in the above-mentioned sea-fight rendered it impossible for the present to send any ships to Japan. At the same time he wrote to Adams, enclosing a copy of his letter to lyeyasu, begging him to lay it with some trifling presents before lyeyasu, and sent the whole by the hand of V^an Santvoort, who in the mean- time had again arrived at Patani. Nothing further hap- pened till two of the ships that had sailed from Holland in December, 1607, under Pieter Willemszoon Verhoeven were detached at J chore for the voyage to Japan. These were the Roode Leetnv met Pijlen and the Grtfficvn. Calling at Patani, whence they sailed again on June i, 1609, with the south monsoon, they arrived before Nagasaki on July i,and the same evening reached Hirado, or rather Kochi (in the map entitled "Geological Survey of Japan, 1894" spelt Kawachi), whence they were towed into the harbour of Hirado a few days later. The supercargoes left on July 27, bearing a letter to lyeyasu from the Prince of Orange, and accompanied by Van Santvoort as interpreter. They made a speedy journey to Court, where they had no difficulty in
1 INTRODUCTION.
obtaining permission to trade, and to build a residence and warehouses. lyeyasu furnished them with a reply^ to the Prince of Orange's letter, in which he promised these privileges, together with a license- or pass in duplicate
^ Suganuma, Hirado Boeki-S/ii, p. 46. The following is a transla- tion : —
" The lord of Japan, Minamoto lyeyasu, in reply to His Highness the lord of Holland. On opening and reading the letter which has been sent from afar, it was as if I were close before your high counten- ance, and I am moreover exceedingly pleased with the four sorts of productions which you have presented to me.
" Of the commanders, under-officers and numerous soldiers of the fighting ships that have been sent by your honoured country to foreign regions, some have arrived at the port of Matsura in my country. That there may be peace and a firm compact with my poor country is my earnest desire also. If the countries are alike animated, what objection is there to annual visits, although they are separated by a thousand, nay ten thousand, leagues of sea and land ? In my poor country we correct the wicked and make thern good. Therefore, the merchant-visitors who cross the seas all dwell here in peace. You may send your honoured country's sailors* to my country, and ground to build houses on and the port to which the vessels shall come shall be as your honoured country chooses. Henceforth we will keep up the relations of neighbours. The rest I commit to the captain to report verbally. The time is when the remaining heat of the autumn sky is severe. Take care of your health. In haste. 25 day of the 8th moon of the 14th year of Keicho, 46th year of the sexagenary cycle."
* It is not easy to give a close rendering of the license, of which a facsimile is given at the end of the English translation of Kaempfer's History of Japan ^ vol. i. He assigns the date 161 1, but the Japanese date in the document corresponds to 1609. Perhaps the following is as near to the original as it is possible to go : —
" When a Dutch ship traverses the sea to Japan, whatever port it may arrive at, there shall be no difference. Henceforth, observing this, they may go and come, and there shall be no feeling of estrange- ment. Wherefore, as above. 25th day of 7th moon of 14th year of Keicho.
" To Chakusa Kurunheike."
In spite of Dr. Nachod's objection that Jacques (iroenwegen was killed by the people of Banda on May 22, and that consequently the document could not be addressed to him, I think it clear that his is the name here attempted to be written in hiragana characters. The sloop that brought the instructions to the two vessels to proceed to Japan met them at Johore on May 4, and that was the last news they
* Suganuma reads the Chinese characters thus rendered as if they were to be pronounced shin?iiot-o, but it is more likely that they repre- sent the Dutch word inafroos. — Hirado Boeki-Shi, p. 46.
INTRODUCTIOX. li
under his broad seal, conveying^ the necessary permission to enter all Japanese ports without let or hindrance. Armed with these documents the}' returned to Ilirado, and leaving there Jacques Specx as Cape merchant, with three assistants and a boy, and a small stock of merchandise, they set sail for Patau i, which they reached on October 30. The subsequent history of the Dutch factory at Ilirado may be read in Dr. Nachod's above-mentioned work.
VIII.— Saris's Stay in Japan.
Saris was heartily welcomed by Matsura Hoin, the ex- daimi5 ("King") of Hirado, who, as the Japanese custom was, continued to direct the government of his fief, although his grandson (" the young King") was nominally in power. They both came on board the Clove as soon as she anchored at Kochi, below the town, and were on board again the following day. Saris at once wrote to William Adams, who was then at Yedo, and Hoin undertook to have the letter forwarded without delay. No difficulty was made about the English obtaining a house on shore, and they eventually rented one from the head of the Chinese factory for 95 dollars for the six months. This man, whose name was Andrea Dittis, was no doubt a Christian. Presents were given to Hoin and his grandson worth 340 dollars, besides others to the value of 160 dollars, which were divided between the brother and great-uncle of the latter. To five of the leading officials gifts worth about 190 dollars in all were distributed.
had from the rest of the fleet. The envoys were therefore ignorant of his death, and there is consequently no reason why they should not have given his name as thai of the proper person to whom the license should be addressed.
The inscription on the seal reads, " Minamoto no lyeyasu practices sincerity in reciprocity.'
e 3
Hi INTRODUCTION.
At last, on July 29, Adams arrived, having been seventeen days on his way from Sumpu, where the ex- Shogun lyeyasu was then residing. Saris offered him the hospitality of the English house, but he preferred to lodge by himself in a Japanese house, whither he would not suffer anyone to accompany him. It appeared to Saris
>• that Adams was more or less Japanese in his sentiments, and that he preferred the company of Dutchmen or Spaniards to that of his own countrymen. After consider- able delay, arrangements were made for Saris's visit to
\^ Court, and presents were chosen for lyeyasu, the Shogun Hidetada, and the more important state officers, amounting in all to about 720 dollars. The King lent a galley rowed by forty men, and the mission got away from Hirado on August 7. Saris took with him ten Englishmen and his Japanese linguist, besides Adams and his two Japanese followers, and the King provided an escort of an officer and three men. Besides these there was a pike-bearer, " according to the custome of the countrye." The voyage along the coast of Kiushiu and through the Inland Sea to Osaka occupied twenty days. From here the English pro- ceeded up the river by boat to Fushimi, where a palanquin carried by six men, and a led horse, were provided for Saris. Travelling at the rate of about twenty-eight miles a day (Saris says fifteen or sixteen leagues of three to a mile, "as we ghessed it"), they reached Sumpu on September 6. On the 8th he had his audience of lyeyasu, to whom he delivered King James's letter and the presents, and on the following day he visited Honda K5dzuke no suke, who refused to receive any gift beyond a few pounds of aloes. To Honda he presented a memorandum of the privileges which he desired to obtain for the East India Company, but was told to " abbreviate" it. This shortened memorandum was sent in through Adams on the loth (a translation of the Japanese version reproduced in Purchas will be found in a
INTRODUCTION. liii
later section of this Introduction), and was approved by lyeyasu. It appears that the grant was intended to contain an article permitting the English to bring their Chinese prizes into Japanese ports and there dispose of the cargoes, and Saris says that this article was disallowed ; but there is no trace of it in the Japanese document. Neither is there of the request for a pass to proceed to the discovery of Yezo, mentioned in the copy of the petition in the Cotton Charters^ which has been published by Professor Ricss (see p. Ixxx). It can only be concluded that the Ja[;anese linguist employed to write out the translation omitted the latter and that the former was never put in writing at all, even in the English document.
The business of the mission having been thus placed on a satisfactor}' footing, Saris left for Yedo at noon on the 1 2th, arriving there two days later. On the 17th he had an audience of the Shogun Hidetada, and delivered his pre.sents. On the 21st he accompanied Adams to Uraga, a small harbour at the entrance to the Bay of Yedo, near where Adams possessed an estate that had been granted to him by lyej-asu. It appears that the latter had expressed a desire to see the English settle in Yedo, and in that case Uraga would have been the first port at which the English ships would touch. A similar suggestion had before been made to the Dutch, but they had preferred to establish themselves at Hirado. Saris, in the version of his journal printed by Purchas, expresses himself as in favour of this arrangement : the only drawback to Uraga in his opinion being that Uraga was "not so well replenished with victuall and flesh-meat" as Hirado (p. 136). But, on his return to Hirado, it was decided to remain there, as the factory had already been established in that centre. Probably it would have been wiser to fall in with the proposal of lyeyasu ; and doubtless Adams would have served the East India Company more zealously, if he had been able to live close
liv INTRODUCTION.
to his Japanese wife and children, instead of having to reside at the other end of Japan.
On the 25th they left Uraga, and arrived back at Sumpu on the 29th. On October 8 Saris received lyeyasu's answer to King James, and also the privileges (translations of both are given in the concluding section). He left Sumpu on the following day, and was a week travelling to Miako (Ki5to), where he waited three days for lyeyasu's present to King James, which consisted of five pairs of folding screens (biobu). After spending two days and a half at Osaka, he embarked there, and reached Hirado on November 6.
A long account by Cocks of what had passed at Hirado during the absence of Saris, taken from Purchas, is inserted in the journal at this place.
lyeyasu had been prevailed upon to give Adams leave to return to England ; and, in accordance with his instruc- tion^ Saris offered him a passage home on board the Clove. This, however, he declined, the ostensible reason given being that he wished to remain " for a certein tyme to get somthing, hauing hetherto spent his tyme soe many yeares in vayne, and wold not now goe home with an emptie purse."^ In a letter from Adams to the East India Com- pany, written about this time, he says, however : "The reason I would not go with him wass for dyuers injerues doun against me ; the which were thinges to me veri Strang and vnloked for, which thinges [to] write I ceass, leuing it to others to mak rellaccion thereof."- In another letter, dated December i of the same year, Adams writes : " Your woourship shall vnderstand I had thought to a coum hom in the Clone, but by som discovrtissis offred me by the
^ Letters Received by the East India Company, vol. i, p. 311 ; Rundall's Memorials, p. 68.
- Letters Received by the East India Company, vol. i, p. 324 ; Rundall's Memorials, p. 68.
INTRODUCTION. Iv
General 1, chanj:^ed my mind ; which injuries to vvryt of them I leaue ; leaning to others, God scndint; the ship hom, to mak rellacion."^
What these injuries were is partly to be gathered from Saris's Journal. A few days after his return, " it was cer- tanely proued that Mr. Addams his man, which was our Jurebassa and Cater for the howse, did most vnresonabl}' cozen vs, and in one parcell of wync bought for the howse gott 21 masse;" and on the following day "in frindly mannor I [Saris] acquanted Mr. Addams in the presents of Mr. Cocks of his mans dishonnest and villanus dealing, being put in trust and to cheate vs so vnresonable. He tooke it verye evell that his seruant should be so thought of, and so hiely took his part as by the perswatyon of Mr. Cocks I did not saie further, but gaue order to Mr. Cocks to lett him goe no more to markett for vs, this not being the first by man}' tymes, as Mr. Cocks tells me, he hath found him fautye therein (p. i8o)."
In addition to this Saris tells us that in settling with Adams for money advanced during the journey to and from Court, and for goods bought at Uraga, Cocks insisted on reckoning in Japanese money, instead of paying Adams in dollars, with an allowance of five per cent, for exchange. Whether there were any other unpleasantnesses between Adams and Saris there is nothing to show. Saris did not like Adams, as is evident from various passages in the Journal ; while in the memorandum of instructions left with Cocks he says Adams was more " affected " to the Flemings and Spaniards than to his own countrymen, and pretty plainly implies that he could not be trusted to have the dis- bursing of the Company's money.- Still, it would seem that the "injuries" alluded to by Adams must have been com- mitted after the departure of the mission from Sumpu.
1 Rundall's Memorials, p. 76 ; Letters Received, etc., vol. i, p. 331.
'■^ Letters lieceix'ed^ vol. ii, \>. 6.
Ivi INTRODUCTION.
• Seeing that Adams had a wife and children in Japan, and that he had ah-eady Hved in the country for some thirteen years, it may not unreasonably be supposed that he did not greatly care to return to England. It is true he had by dint of earnest solicitation obtained leave from lyeyasu to quit Japan ; but in the letter to the Company in which he describes this scene, he wrote that as he was taking leave, lyeyasu said that if he did not think of going that year, he should wait until another ship came, and go when he liked.^ If he had any intention at that time of going to England with Saris, he would not have accom- panied him to Hirado, but would have returned back to his home near by Uraga to put his affairs in order. There is no trace of his having tried to get a passage home in any of the English ships between this date and his death in May, 1620, so that he was probably not greatly desirous of leaving Japan.
There is nothing to surprise us in this. He was not the only one of. the mariners of the Licfde that settled in Japan. What he gained from lyeyasu was his liberty to go or stay as he liked, and to devote himself to the pursuit of his own personal interests, instead of working as the employe of the Shogun.
Negotiations between Saris and Adams for the entry of the latter into the service of the East India Company took only a i^w days, and were terminated by the signature of an agreement^ on November 24, by which he bound him- self to serve until the return of the next ship or ships after news should come of the arrival of the Clove in England, at the rate of iJ"iOO per annum. .
On November 26, Saris assembled a council at which it was resolved to establish a factory at Hirado (instead of in the east of Japan), and that the staff should consist of
; ^ Letters Received, vol. i, p. 323. 2 Rundall's Memorials, p. T'i) '■> Letters Received, vol. i, p. 310.
UNIVERSITY \
O '^^ v^
^LirC^^''^ INTRODUCTION.
Ivn
eight Englishmen, three Japanese interpreters, and two servants. Richard Cocks (whose Dm/y, edited by Sir E. Maunde Thompson, has been ah'cady published by the Haklux't Society) was appointed Captain and Cape Mer- chant, the others being William Adams, Tempest Peacock, Richard Wickham, William Eaton, Walter Carwarden, Edward (or Edmund) Saris, and William Nelson.
IX. — Saris's Voyage Home, and his Reception cy THE Company.
The C/ove started from Hirado on her homeward voyage on December 5. Before leaving, Saris signed a memoran- dum of instructions for Cocks, ^ in which, as already men- tioned, he speaks unfavourably of Adams. Cocks came on board, with the members of the factory, to say good-bye ; and after they had taken their leave the ship's company was mustered. It consisted of 46 English, 5 blacks, and 1 5 Japanese ; besides these there were three passengers. The C/ove steered for the coast of China, intending to make it near Ningpo, but no land was seen till she sighted the Pescadores in the Formosan Channel. She then picked up the island of Shang-ch'uan, near Macao, known as the spot where the Apostle of the Indies breathed his last, and thence steered south-west across the Gulf of Tonquin to Cape Varella. From there she coasted along Cochin China, as far as Pulo Condor, crossed the Gulfof Siam, and hit off the Malay Peninsula not far from the River Pahang, passed the strait between Banka and Billiton, and arrived at Bantam on January 3, 16 14. Here Saris remained nearly six weeks, loading his ship with pepper, and setting
' Printed in Letters lieceh'ed, vol. ii, p. 5.
Ivm INTRODUCTION.
the affairs of the factory in order. On February 13 he notes in his journal that the Clove " got out of the straights of Sunda," and on May 16 she anchored in Table Bay, finally reaching Plymouth on September 27. While at anchor here he wrote a report on the commodities which could be disposed of in Japan. A copy of this is printed at the end of the journal, along with another written from Table Bay, " to the Captain Generall of the English appoynted for Japann," and delivered to the captain of the Concord there.
The following transcripts^ from the Court Minutes of the East India Company complete the history of the " voyage : " —
August 19, 1 6 14. — " Mr. Gouernor entendinge to take the ayre for a seuenight in the Countrie acquainted them with his intents to send a letter to bee lefte at Sandwich for Captain Sayris to bee delyuered vnto him soe scone as hee shall arriue in the Downes, To adraonishe him to preuent the makinge away of any goods from aboard either by his maryners or any others vntill God shall send them vp to London, The Coppie of which letter beeinge red was approued and ordered to bee deliuered to some one of the Farmours- men, whoe shall be appointed to goe aboard and haue an Eye to the buysines in person."
Septetnher 30, 1614. — " Twoe letters were red sent from Ply- mouth by Captaine Sayris dated the 27'^ of this instaunte, signi- fieinge his arryuall in the Sound, enforced thereunto through Contrarie wyndes, his desires and intents beeinge to haue made his passage directlie for the Downes : Butt beeinge nowe there he purposed to leaue such of his weake people on shore as would desire the same and furnishe himselfe with fresh Marryners there, which hee hoped to effect very speedilie by the assistaunce of one Mr. Coliuer, a marchant there, whoe had promised to fur- nishe him with all things necessarye. And then he certified his resolution to take the first oportunitie to hasten from thence and nott to putt foote ashore vntill hee had brought the shipp aboute."
A letter was also read from " Mr. Abraham Colyuer,'' promising to furnish the ships with necessaries and charge the same to the Company by bills of exchange.
" Mr. Gouernor acquainted them likewise with twoe other
^ Furnished by Mr. Foster. ^ Farmers of the Customs.
INTRODUCTION. lix
letters written by Captaine Saris to his brother George Saris and his Coscn [ ] Sayris of the Custome house, wherein he
wisht his brother to hasten vnto him to (irauesend and send a close loyter [lighter] doune and to bringe twoe trustie watermen downc with him, mentionynge some other letters sent by him by Richard Dale, one of his Masters mates, whoe departed from Plymouth the daie before the poste that brought these letters ; which gaue the Companie greate cause to suspect that Cap""' Sairis had vsed very greate priuate trade for himselfe and pur- posed to conveye away his goods out of the shipp, howsoeuer hee pretended a showe of readines and willingnes to putt them all into Mr. Gouernours hands."
It was resolved, therefore, to send two of the "Committees" [Directors] to the Downs to board the vessel and remain on her ; to solicit the help of the Customs officials, to prevent private trade being brought ashore ; and, in order to intercept the private letters, to send one otificial to "attend at the Starre in Bredstreete, the place where Westerne men doe resorte," and another " to goe and staie at the postmasters house by Charinge Crosse, whither yt is supposed hee maye come by post horse."
" Mr. Gouernor acquainted them that in this letter sent vnto him. Cap*'"' Saris challengeth a promise formerlie made by Mr. Gouernor of giueinge him leaue to haue a lodginge in his house. And therefore desired to knowe their opinions what they thought best to bee done therein, whether to entertaine him into his house or noe, hee supposinge that beeinge with him in priuate in his house hee shall haue the better oportunitie to drawe from him more then otherwise he is like. Butt some aduised Mr. Gouernor to forbeare to Countenance him in that manner for his owne creditts sake, because of the ymputation that will bee cast vpon him, in reguard of the extraordinary fauor which the generalitie doe suppose hee beareth vnto him and will beare him out, howso- euer hee hath demeasned himselfe ; as alsoe to avoied the Clamor out of his hearinge that will bee made by the woenien of Radcliffe against the Captaine at his retourne, whoe will exclaime against him for his rigor vsed against there husbaunds. Mr. Gouernor assured them of his innocencye, that he is farr from vphouldinge him against the Companie in any Acte whatsoeuer and desyreth them to conceyue that opinion of him ; yet in reguard of their myndes and the Clamour which (he is of oi)inion likewise) wilbee made against him, hee is well satisfied to forbeare to shewe any kindnes att all vnto him or to goe downe any parte of the waye to meete with him.
" But some againe on the Contrary alledged that, as yt is not fittinge to grace him too much at first vntill they may be better satisfied hereafter of his carryage, Soe they conceyued yt as vnfittinge and dishonorable to the Company to disgrace him that hath made soe hard a voiage and notwrongd them that they
Ix INTRODUCTION.
can iustlie accuse him of ; And therefore wisht that his fower yeares seruice should nott be soe slenderlie respected, which may proue as beneficiall a discouery to this Company and land as euer any was made, for ought that can bee yet obiected. And there- fore desyred I\Ir. Gouernor to goe downe to Grauesend or Erith to nieete him, seeinge the greatest matter of substaunce that he can be yet taxt for directlie by the Company is that hee hath not certyfied any thinge of his voyage, wherein, although hee hath beene much ouerseene, which they cannot butt hould to bee a greate wronge done, yet not such as doth deserue to disgrace him wholie."
.... "The Companie, findinge by Cap*"* Saris letters that he receyued good releife from the Concord" determined to instruct their vessels to afford like relief when necessary ; a pro- posal to send a ship yearly to the Cape with provisions for homeward bound vessels (filling in their time with whale and seal fishing) " was held to bee very good."
October i, 1614. — -" Certaine letters were red from Cap'"" Sayris written at Sea the 24th of September last and brought by Richard Dale to the same effect which his former were." As, however, in one of them he mentioned the Governor's " aduentures" with Sir Henry Middleton and himself. Sir Thomas Smythe explained that this was not a case of private trade, but had already been sanctioned; for " my Lord Threasurer Salisbury desyringe that the Companie should take a shoppe of his in his Newe Exchange^ to be furnisht by them with East India Comodities, Mr. Gouernor did effect yt of himselfe and is at present 300/. out of purse for the same ; The Companie thereupon gaue way, at Sir Henrie Middletonsgoeinge, that a matter of 25/. in peeces [rials] should bee sent to be disposed in paper, fannes, ynkes [inksj boxes, China dishes and the like comodities for the furnishinge of the said shopp. And by Cap*""* Saris there was sent a Crease worth 6 or 7/., which Captaine Keelinge gaue vnto him, beeinge a thinge of noe vse in these parts." This explanation was accepted as quite satisfactory.
The " Committees " going to the Downs were instructed " to aduise and perswade Cap*"'' Saris to bee contented to submitt himselfe vnto the Companie and to permitt his goods (whatsoeuer he hath) to bee brought vp to Mr. Gouernors house and putt into his possession to bee seene by him and some of the Companie, and they doe promise to deale freindlie and kindlie with him and to vse him so respectiuelie as hee shall haue noe cause to complaine of any hard measure towards him, butt as to one that hath done them good seruice abroad, As they doe vnderstand he did in ladinge pepper vpon the Orelopps after the hold was filde and
^ "Britains Bourse," opened in 1609 ; pulled down in 1737. It was on the south side of the Strand, opposite to the site of the present Adelphi Theatre, and ran down to the waterside (W. F.).
INTRODUCTION. 1x1
puttinge ytt into the bread roomes and some other places as they were emptyed, which is more than ever was done by any others, And good seruice not to bee forgotten.''
Ten pounds was paid to tlie post that brouglit the first letter from Sans at Plymouth.
300/. was sent by the "committies" going to the Downs, to pro- vide necessaries for the ship and to buy the goods brought home by mariners " to preuent their sale to any others for marringe of the marketts here."
October 7, 1614. — "Captaine Sarys beinge much condempned in the carryage of his buysines for that he had not acquainted the Companie with the estate of those partes where he hath bene to discouer, as alsoe in reguard of his supposed priuate trade, Whereupon some propounded to haue him taken out of the shipp and brought vp to London. Butt that was generally distasted, not to disgrace him in that manner, which would soe mayme his reputation as that yt could nott be well salued againe. ..."
October 10, 1614. — Letters were read, one from the "committees" sent to the Downs, explaining that the rumour of a disaster to the Clove had arisen " by reason of a greate Flemynge that suffered shipwrack in those parts ; " another from Capt. Saris from IMymouth, of the 3rd Oct., " acquainteing them with the danger he had passed rydinge at Ancour in the greate storme, within the harbour, where yt pleased God their ancours held, whilest a Flemynge was cast awaye ; and giuinge them further to vnder- stand of the vnrulynes of his men, whoe doe runne ashore and sell their goods notwithstandynge any Comandment or speeches that he can vse. And therefore desyreth to haue one of discretion sent downe that may assist him, by supplyinge the place of a purser for the present to keepe Accompt of what is done."
It was resolved to act accordingly.
October 12, 1614. — A letter was read sent by ^Vm. Adams from Hirado to Capt. Best at Bantam, bearing date ist December, describing Saris's entertainment and privileges procured by him.^
October 14, 1614. — Resolved, when sending next to Saris, to ask him to forward copy of " such instructions as he framed and sent by the Concord for Lipan, as alsoe the coppie of such as he lefte at lapan and Bantam."
October 18, 1614. — Debate on sending for Saris to come at once overland. This proposal was negatived.
" Mr. Gouernor moued a newe question howe matters should bee carryed att his [Saris's] retourne, and sundrye opinions de- liuered, it was thought fittinge to haue him kindlie vsed vnlyll some yll carryage of his be certainelie kiiowne, worthie to bee con- dempned. And resould [resolved] to entertaine him well vntill
' This must be the letter referred to above, p. liv.
1X11 INTRODUCTION.
hee hath bene with the Kinge and dispatcht all those buysines for the present and complement from the Emperour of lapan, and although cause bee administred by others to bringe him to his answeare, yett to vse him kindlie, even in his accusation, which will bee a meanes to drawe from him the more.
" And therefore it was aduised to haue such letters pervsde as haue beene already sent, that the same course may bee prosecuted that hath hetherto bene followed, that a trewe decorum maye bee held in their proceedings. And those letters beinge red which had bene sent to Plymouth, they were approued, and held fitt to to proceede peaceablie and fairelie with him, entreatinge Mr. Gouernor to write a letter of salutations and another to perswade his speedie comynge ouerland, as well to satisfie the Companie with some enstructions to bee sent with these pynnaces^ concern- inge their affaires at lapan, Bantam, and elsewhere, as alsoe in reguard his Ma"*" expecteth performaunce of a present from the Emperour of lapan, the time beinge well neare expired which Mr. Gouernor did signifie vnto his Ma"*-
" Butt yf he shall refuse vpon sight thereof to come, then that Mr. Gouernor would write another letter more sharplie comandinge him to come vpp, all excuses sett aparte, which the Comittees may keepe and not showe except they see iuste cause, And soe to conceale all other letters that haue formerlie beene sent vnto the Downes."
The Governor enjoined strict secrecy on all present.
October 25, 1614. — "A letter was red wrytten by Cap'°* Sayris the 17'*^ of October, 1614,-from Plymouth wherein hee made par- ticuler relation of his buysines at Japan, whatt Comodities are fittinge for that place and what to be expected from thence, with the valution of them, and proffitt thatt maye be made, which gaue some good satisfaction for the present." Another debate took place as to sending orders to Saris at Plymouth to come up to London by land. This proposal was opposed on the ground that his presence on board was necessary to keep the crew in order, and that it would be a pity to give him so tedious a journey at the end of a long voyage. It was accordingly dropped.
Doubts were expressed as to the benefit of " sending como- dities directlie from hence [to Japan], supposinge that the benefitt will not awnswere the chardge : But ytt was awnswered that Comodities from Bantam, Siam and other places in the Indies will make good proffitable retournes, and a maine reason for setlinge a trade is for vent of our Cloath, and therefore, seeinge the pynnaces are ready to goe, yt was resolued to lett them goe on and not staie to carry any comodities for those parts, Butt
^ Now going out to Bantam.
- This letter is given in full at p. 203 of this present volume
INTRODUCTION'. Ixiii
rather to haue an other shipp followe after to goe to the Cape with the next fleete '" and then direct to Bantam with goods for Japan. Further deliberation was deferred until Sari.s should arrive in town.
October 26, 1614. — " Captaine Sayris haueinge retourned cer- taine letters and wryteinges from Plymouth, some of them were nowc red, A coppie of the remembrances left by him at Bantam with the factours at his goinge to lapan, A coppie of such as were lefte att lapan with Richard Cocks, Tempest Peacocke, and the rest there, and likewise of some others lefte at Bantam at his comeinge away from thence, And a copi^ie alsoe of such priuiledges as are graunted by the Emperour of Japon vnto the English for free trade there, beeinge as ample as can be required in that kinde."
November 11, 1614. — Hearing that Saris's brother had started for the Downs, the Company urged their two " committees " to set out also, who promised " to vndertake the jornye againe this Eveninge." Saris was to be directed to come up from the Downs overland as speedily as possible, with his books.
November 12, 16 14. — " Cap'"^ Sayris presented himselfe in Courte, haueinge made his Jornye overland from Plymouth, where hee lefte the Clone in the Sound vpon 1'wesdaie, finding the wyndes soe contrary as that they had bene putt backe 5 seuerall tymes vpon their settinge forth. And beeinge questiond of the hopes for trade at lapan, hee acquainted them with sundrie particulers aswell to bee had there as such as are vendible, Mentioninge a blewe stuffe like Indico to bee had in greate quantitie, butt a patterne thereof forgotten to be brought, beeinge hard as a stone. Much Cambogium.^ Cloath sould of 14//. per Cloth for 4//. the twoe flemish Elles, But yett not fullie knowne what worth it is of, for wante of tyme at his comeinge awaye. They affectinge that which is lowe shorne and best sett forth to the Eye, which may best bee preserued in thinne sheete leade, to put some of yt betwixt the foulds the better to presse the same. Yellowe Wood that is brought from Siam is in greate request there and sould in greate abounddaunce for readye money. And alsoe skynnes- that are much [requested ?] in those parts. And to approue the worth of the said wood, he instaunct that Lucas Anthewmes did delyuer some to a Flemynge'' to bee carryed to lapan, whoe had promisde twoe for one proffitt at his retourne. Pepper carryed from Bantam will yeald 2 for one there at least. And whatsoeuer is sould there is for curraunts {sic) payment in siluer, which beeinge
^ Gamboge.
* Deer-skins long formed an important article of trade from Siam.
^ See Journal, July 5.
Ixiv INTRODUCTION.
refinde at 4 per Cent may be putt into quoine or barrs, for which any Comodities may bee had at Siam, whereby the scandall for transportinge siluer from hence will bee taken awaye. Giueinge the greater encouragement to that trade, because the voyage is made in 20 dales thether and soe backe againe, takeing the opportunitie of the Mounsonne.
" Yett he found the Dutch very opposite to hinder the English in their proceedings all that ever they might, as well by vnder- sellinge, contrarye to their promyse, at by all other meanes of discouradgment, makeinge shewe of waunte without any occasion.
" Captaine Sayris delyuered his opinion likewise that at Tahanye^ in the MoUuccaes a trade may bee beaten out for Clones with two shipps which will bee able to oppose the Flemynges, haueinge the consent and affection of the people of the Countrye, whoe proferd him all kind welcome vntyll they were discouered by the Flemyngs and dryuen awaye.
" And gaue satisfaction for sundrie other particulers demanded, as well for his remainders att lapan as Bantam, a particuler whereof hee brought with him. But because the factours att Bantam had made sundrie debts, contrarye to his directions, some desperate and some good, he therefore wisht that they should bee warned not to trust debts vpon their owne heads.
" Assuringe them that there is noe doubt to bee made of any force that the Spanyards can offer att Bantam or elswhere, yf men keepe from vnder their forts ; Neither are they able to offer any violence against our shippinge in any place, if men be prouident."
November 14, 1614. — The question whether the "Committees" in the Downs should return at once was left for them to decide (the ship was in the charge of the master).
A letter was received from Plymouth from Walter Peyton, dated November 8, complaining that William Russell, Anthony Feirs, Henry Hemmings and Mortimer Preddye had quitted the ship.
A debate took place whether the Japan trade was likely to be worth following up. " Whereupon Cap'"*^ Sayris made ])articuler relation of sundrye Comodities that place doth affoard and the proffitt that is like to bee raisde by some others carryed thether, As well pepper from Bantam, which will yeild twoe for one. As rawe silke, whereof there cannot bee too much carryed, Brasill wood and skynns from Siam, all which will yeild present siluer, which may be refinde att 4 per Cent, loss, and with that any Comodities may be bought at Siam and Patania and of the China Iuncke[s] ; which by a second retourne to Japan will yeild 3 for one, with which syluer pepper or any other comodyties may be bought att Bantam for good proffitt to be retourned for England.
^ Tihane, on the island of Makyan,
INTRODUCTION. IxV
"An other Argument was vsed to perswade, That the Flemyngs haue bestowed 1500//. ster[ling] at least vppon a house there, which should not haue bene done without expectation of good prothtt, and haue reaped greate gaine to themselues. And there- fore, seeinge a factory is already lefte there and the Countrye very rich and populous, there needeth noe doubt to bee had butt good trade may bee made. Whereuppon they haueinge weighed all rcasouns, as well to perswade as disswade, were absolutelie of opinion that the place is very hopeful! and necessary to bee nowe seconded with one of these pynnaces,' which, cominge to Bantam in June, may bee ready to take the Monsonne from thence to Ia[)an ; and therefore resolued to haue one of them to bee appointed thether with some Comodities fittinge that place.
" And being satisfyed from Captaine Sayris what Cloath and Colours are best requested there, they resolued of sendinge some fewe accordinge to the tyme and meanes of stowinge them, resoluing to haue 20 prouided, Stametts, Browne, Blewes, and Blacks, made vp in halfe Cloathes and packt vp in fyue packs with thinne sheete leade. . . .
"And hearinge by Cap""" Sairys that stone potts are nnich requested there. It was held fitt to send some for a tryall, And therefore entreated Mr. Middleton to take Captaine Sayris with him to the house in Southwarke where they bee made or any other place where they can find them, to make choise of the fashions, And lett a chestfull be packt vpp safelie to be sent.
" As alsoe one Barrell of Steele, which Captaine Sairys saith is much requested alsoe. . . .
" And conceyued yt fittinge to haue one of these pynnaces sent away to lapan, although Cap"'*^ Downton- should bee gone thether before they come to Bantam. . . ."
November 23, 1614. — Three sailors were called to account for leaving the Clove at Plymouth. One pleaded that he went to visit his parents, who were living near that place. The other two, who had got married, and thus "doubled their follie and offence," produced a letter from the master forbidding their return on board, which they maintained was a discharge. They were remanded till the master should arrive.
December 2, 1614. — The arrival of the Clove ^1 Erith was an- nounced. It was resolved to send down hoys to bring up her cargo. " Cap'"'= Sayris desireth to goe aboard with the Coniittees (which they held to be a very reasonable motion, not to be denyed),
' These vessels were the Advice and Aite7ida}it. The former went to Japan {Letters Received bv the East India Company, \ ol. iii, pp. 1 1 1 and 148).
'^ "General" of the 1614 Joint-stock \'oyage, commanding the Gift, Hope, Hcctot and Solomon.
f
Ixvi INTRODUCTION.
And presumeth that he hath done the Company as good seruice as any one, and therefore hopeth that hee shall finde as greate kindnes from them as others haue done, Yet is very well satisfied that whatsoeuer hee hath aboard should bee brought vp to Mr. Gouernours house to bee veivvde, referringe himselfe to their Courtesies."
December d^ 1614. — Hearing that the Clove is likely to be at " the Wall " [Blackwall] this night, the Court begged Mr. Governor and some of the Committees to go down " to see bulke broken and appointe some to take care of the buysines aboard."
A General Court {i.e., of the members of the Company) was held the same day. The Governor informed the assembly of the safe return of the Clove, " her cheefe ladinge beinge Pepper, with some silks and some other Comodities. The shippe ytselfe beinge retourned well qualyfied, sweete and cleane and a very good shipj), haueinge brought home good store of victualls without any wante vnto the men in the voyage, Although some Aspersions were cast vpon the Cap'"'^ for scantinge of his people, yett yf noe more bee approued then what hath hitherto beene iustifyed, hee did noe more then beseemed a wise and prouident Commander, whoe, knowinge his voyage must necessarylie bee protracted, wisht rather to drawe his men to a reasonable allowaunce at the begin- ninge by proportioninge them then by contynueinge a full hand to hazard wante and scarcitie at the latter end of his said voyage. 1 And to giue him his due hath performed his voyage to a place vpon discouery not formerlye knowne, where he settled a trade, Capitulated vpon good tearmes with the Emperour of Japan, and lefte a factory there, not with- out good hopes of proffitt and honour to his Majestic and the English Nation. And retourninge came not on shore at Plymouth duringe the tearme of 6 or 7 weeks, whilest the shipp rode there ; which things are the rather enlargd that yf vpon proofe some ymputations that haue been cast vpon him can bee iustified, hee should beare the burthen. Butt yf they shall appeare to haue bene undeseruedlie \sic\ and to haue proceeded from malicious and scandalous tongues, then that those for whome he hath Aduentured should iustifie him, yf they heare him maligned, and carry a, good opinion of him.
" And for the supposition that hath bene had of his priuate trade, he oftereth for the Companyes satisfaction to bringe all his goods into there warehouses, and will leaue himselfe to their considerations, to deale with him as they shall thinke fitt.
"And some others delyueringe their opinions wisht, seeinge this Company hath many Enymies, whoe willbee readye to seeke aduantages against them, That therefore they should not be
See p. XXV.
INTRODUCTION. Ixvii
enymies to themselues by condempninge this there Comander in that particuler of Fuller,' wiio, forgettinge himselfe, tooke him by the throate, kickt him and strooke his Comission out of his hand against the Missenmaste, yett he neuer putt him into the Bilbowes, as hath beene falslie suggested. And that he could doe noe lesse then carry a strict haunde over such an vnrulye Company, whoe were growne to a head and were in hazard to haue ouerthrowne the voyage yff they had bene suffered to proceede in their mutinous courses. And yet he was not discouraged, butt per- formed the voyage, with greate danger, and by those places where neuer any English went before, with honour to his Kinge and Countrye, and hopefull protfit to this Companie hereafter. And therefore held him worthie of his due Comendations.
" Mr. Goucrnor made knowne that the Auditours, haueinge Considered of the retourne of this shippe, doe delyuer that the voyage will affoard three for one ; soe that whosoeuer haue yett taken out nothinge may haue 3 Capitalls ;- yf they haue receyued one, then twoe more ; and soe proportionablie "
December \T^, 1614. — It was announced that Saris's goods had all been brought into the Company's warehouses, and that he had delivered a list of them and had offered to sell them to the Company. A debate arose as to his private trade, some alleging that "other private Men haue formerlie done the lyke." Against this it was asserted that he had "brought butt a small matter of spice for the Company and as greate, yf nott a greater, for him- selfe in some kinde," and that all this private trading must be put down, "seeinge ytt will bee a meanes to ouerthrowe their voyages hereafter." .... " Mr. Gouernor delyuered his opinion that he doubteth priuate trade Cannott bee avoyded by this Companie and is partlie out of hope ; " and he pointed out that if dealt with severely in London, future captains would find means to put their goods ashore at Plymouth. In the end a committee of seven was appointed to look into Saris's commission, to see how far he was debarred from private trade : "that yf hee haue deserued well hee maye haue a faire loose ; if yll, to vndergoe their censure."
December 16, 1614. — "Some imputacions and aspertions beeinge cast vpon Cap'"*" Saris for certeine lasciuious bookes and pictures brought home by him and diuulged (as was delyuered), which is held to be a greate scandall vnto this Companye and vnbeseeminge their grauitie to permitte, Mr. Gouernour assured them of his dislike thereof, the rather for that yt was in his howse ; and therefore purposed to gett them out of his [Saris's] haunds yf possiblie he could, to bee burnt or otherwise disposed of as the
^ Master of the Hector. See above, p. x\ii.
^ That is, two hundred per cent, profit ; but this of course must be spread over four ) ears at least [W. F.].
f2
Ixviii INTRODUCTION.
Company should thinke fitt, or else to free his house of them and him both."
Decetnber 20, 1614. — "A note was red which Cap'"*^ Sarys hath procured of some proceedings of the Dutch at the Mollaccaes and which hee desireth may not be much questiond howe he came by them,^ In the passage whereof there appeareth in them greate hopes of haueinge trade with China, And therefore a good encourragement for this nation to expect and attempt the hke courses, by surpriz- inge their shippinge, which, although the Emperour reguardeth not (as is allegd) yet there may bee hopes of a meanes thereby thatt his people will mutinye against him, for losse of their goods and Men. And supposinge that there may bee many other good obseruacions gathered out of the same they entreated him to procure the rest of the wrightinge to bee translated."
Captain Keeling- was ordered to have "some priuate and spetiall direccions" to bring away any of the Dutch merchants " whome hee shall finde willinge and desirous of such a fauour."
The appointed " committees" were requested to meet and settle Saris's business.
" Some of Cap'"^ Saris Company runninge away from him at Japan, their wyues and freinds demandinge such wages as were due vnto them for their service till the tyme of their departure, The Companie held noe wages to bee due vnto them, haueinge forsaken the shipp. And therefore would not giue way to haue any parte thereof paid vnto any man or woman.
" Mr. Gouernor acquainted this Courte that the skrenes which are sent vnto his Maiestie from lapan (beinge halfe a score in number) are not so good as some of those which the Company haue, And did therefore wishe that nott aboue 2 or 3 should bee presented to his Maiestie and exchange some of the best of the Companies in stead of them ; wherein they desyred Mr. Gouer- nour to vse his discrecion and to doe therein as he should thinke fitt."
January 10, 1615. — "Mr. Gouernor acquainted them that greate speeches haueinge bene made of certaine bookes brought home by Cap'"^ Saris, which causde the Companie and Mr. Gouernours house to bee censurde, he hath procured them from Cap'"^ Saris, and shut them vp ever since, and nowe hath brought them forth that such as haue heard derogatorye speeches vsed vpon the Exchange and elswhere should nowe likewise be eye witnesses of the consuminge them in the fire, which he hoped would giue satisfaccion to any honestlie affected, that such wicked spectacles are not fostered and mayntayned by any of this Com- panie. And thereupon in open presence putt them into the fire, where they contynued till they were burnt and turnd into smoke. '
^ Probably these are the notes referred to on p. 25 fW. F.).
- He was about to start for the East in command of the 1615 fleet.
INTRODUCTION. Ixix
January 14, 1615. — Godfrey Keagle, brewer, having lent 30/. to one " Kaffar Molikantin," a sailor of the Clove, requested payment from his wages. As the sailor had deserted in Japan, the Court declared his wages forfeited; hut for pity of "the pt)ore man," the case was referred to two of the Committees to consider of it.
" Captaine Keeling desired to haue such enstruccions from Cap'"*" Saris as he hath obserued concerninge lapan, as well of the manners and disposicions of those people as the Marchandiz- inge or any other obseruacions that hee hath made concerninge those parts. Whereupon they entreated Mr. Hanford to vnder- take the care thereof to see them effected, and to procure them from Captaine Sarys, with his Jornall."
January 30, 16 15. — "An ould man, one Richard Edens, father of Christopher Edens,^ preferd his peticion, craued to be releeued with his sonnes wages ;" but as the son had deserted in Japan, they held no wages to be due (" as had bene concluded by the Trynitie house in the lyke cases "). " But to releeue the ould man, whoe seemed to bee in necessitie," 40^". was given to him out of the poor-box.
January 31, 1615. — Orders were given that Saris should be consulted as to commodities suitable for Japan.
Same day. — Meeting of the special committee, consisting of Sir Thomas Smythe, Wm. Halliday, Robt. Johnson, and H. Hanford. The last reported that he had examined Saris's accounts and found them satisfactory.
" Then proccedinge to the Consideracion of the present buysines, which is the examinacion of his Commission, they finde that nothinge cann be allegd against him, but onelie for his priuate trade, wherein his owne lettres gaue the iuste cause of Jelousie, and the Companie tooke a strict course in sendinge downe, as they did, twoe of the Committees, whoe tooke notyce of whatsoeuer he had. And Mr. Hanford deliuered a note thereof vnto the Companie, And is of opinion that for performance of his voyage and makinge a proffitable retourne, none haue formerlie done better.
" Butt some obieccions were made by reason of his yll carryage towards his people, after such a Tyrannicall manner, as some haue accused him, Whereunto awnswere was made that seeinge others doe not accuse him, there is noe reason for this Companie to prosecute any such matter, seeinge what he did was to doe them service and to punishe some whoe comtempned the Commission and the authoritie giuen him by his maiestie. Butt they ought rather to maintaine him, although he should haue exceeded his authoritie a little, for otherwise yf they themselues shall call their
1 Apparently an error for '' Evans."
Ixx INTRODUCTION.
Commanders in question for tyrannye, when none others doe stand vp to accuse them, they will terrific them from executinge due punishment hereafter for any acts that shall bee Committed. And for him, hee hath bene accused of soe many things, but nothinge approued. Soe thatt in conclusion they grewe to this head, to examine his Comission, howe he hath carryed himselfe towards the Companie, and to satisfie themselues concerninge his priuate trade, that haueinge giuen that occasion of suspicion by his lettres (which were intercepted) and many haue taken notice of, That therefore the particulers should be examined, to satisfie both themselues and others, least an ymputacion be cast vpon the Comittees and him, if yt should be lett passe. And therefore resolued and ordered that Mr. Hamersley, whoe hath already taken some paines therin, should examine his priuate trade out of the bookes at the Custome house and make reporte att another meetinge howe hee doth finde such things, that an end may be made one way or other, hee himselfe supposinge that he hath had much wronge to be vsed thus hardlie by the Companie, more then ever any others haue bene heretofore, and that they doe beginne with him to make him the first president [precedent] of their seueritie, And haue lett others passe that haue nott deserued soe well nor performed such service as he hath done, yf they were ballauncte together."
February 9, 1615. — Special Committee of four (as before).
" This meetinge beeinge appointed to consider further and de- term yne of Cap'"'= Sarys buysines. They made question howe those greate number of presennts should be bestowed which were men- tioned in his accompt, amountinge to 3000 and od Rialls, which Mr. Hanford (whoe had lookt into the estate of his Accompts) awnswered were partlie bestowed in the Red Sea, vpon the Bashawe at Moha, and partlie att lapan, which prinnces will expect greate presents whoe are sought vnto, yet whatsoeuer had bene presented was with the factours approbacion.
"They then paste to his priuate trade, taxinge him greatlie for the same, and houldinge him worthie to bee made an example for the same, haueinge straied soe farre beyond his Comission, Rut his greifes were laid open, whereby he conceyued himselfe much wrongd in that pointe. That whereas many others haue heretofore vsed priuate trade, and in one particuler (late) instance, Mr. Bests was double as much as his, whose voyage brought forth but twoe for one, yet his service was recompenct with a gratifica- cion, whereas hee himselfe sent home twoe shipps at first, went forth with the third, accordinge to his Comission, past further then ever any Englishman did, with much honour to his Nation, and as greate proffitt to the Aduenturers (if not more) then others formerlie haue done, and yet they cleared and their Actions past ouer, and he onelie censurde more then they all. And whereas many things are supposed and suspected by waye of Circumstaunce,
INTRODUCTION. Ixxi
haueinge noe appaianntc proolc but imaginacion, II was ihciclurc wisht to insiste vpon those things oncHc which are apparantlie to bee condempned, nanieHe his priuate trade in himselfe and per- mittinge yt in others. And hee presentinge himselfe in Courte, was certytied of liis errours by Mr. Gouernour, espetialHe in his l^riuate trade, which was in the same Comodities the shippe was laden with, which Cannott bee excused, and permittinge yt in others, As some particulers were named, of one John Thompson, whoe sould 2600 waight of pepper at Plymouth (as is said) besides Cloues and Nutmegs, together with some others, Soe that yt is allegd that there was sould 9000 waight of pepper and as much of Cloues. But he vtterlie denyed to haue sould any parte of that greate quantitie at Plymouth, or that any of yt was for his vse : I'hat Thompsons name was but vsed by some whoe coulerd their goods vnder his name : And for his owne particuler, held yt his owne errour that he is otherwise vsed then other men haue here- tofore bene, in that he sould them nott away at Plymouth, but put them into their hannds ; and confessinge th e tolleratinge yt in his people, to giue them meanes of encouradgment to stand for there owne goods vpon any occasion of necessitie, as well as for the Companie. But beinge taxt for interceptinge and openinge the Companies lettres, he awnswered that yt was after the shipps were departed from the Roade, which he did to bee satisfied of their contents, to frame his voyage and proceedings accordinglie.
" And beeinge questioned in some particulers concerninge Sir Henry Middleton, he certified them thatt Sir Henrie acquainted him, in the Red Sea, that his estate was worth 2000/., but what became thereof, or befell afterwards, he knoweth not. Yet he aduised him there to haue loded the Trades Encrease z.x\(l sent her for England from the Red Sea, where was ladinge enoughe to haue bene had for her, assuringe them that yf yt had nott bene for him and his dissuasions, there had bene pillage made there, which might haue bene an occasion to haue had all seazd vpon here. And after longe debatinge of the buysines, and much time spent, many obiections made and his awnswere retournd, he in conclusion confest his errour in his priuate trade, but expected the like kinde dealinge which others had found, haueinge alwayes preferd the good of the voyage, as he protested. Whereupon they at last grewe to this consideracion, thatt they intended not to make him an absolute example, in reguard of the smalnes of his wages, but were contented to lett him haue his wages and goods. And onlie reserued his Bond, to be determynd by the Companie, whether they will lett him passe without fraight."
February 14, 161 5. — As the result of a conference with Saris, the following goods were ordered to be provided for Japan :
" Broad cloaths, Bayes, Leade, Gallyopotts, wrightinge tables, refind camphire, Elephannts teeth, Holland cloath, Cambricke and Lawnes, Slescer cloath. Pictures of warres, Steele in gadds,
Ixxii INTRODUCTION.
Skynnes, Sanders wood, Rawe silke of Canton and Lancton, with sundrye other particulers."
March 7, 1615. — The Committees reported their dehberations concerning Saris and a letter was read from him " to excuse matters paste, and comparinge his service and deserts with other
mens Charging both Mr. Gouernour and Comittees with
a promise made by them at Grauesend that if his voyage suc- ceeded well he should finde them thankfull for a gratificacion over and aboue his wages." As to his opening the letters sent to the Company by their factors, " he excusd, supposinge he might lawfully haue opened them, beinge one of the Company."^ This right was of course denied. As to his private trade, he reiterated that it " was nothinge comparable to that which some others had," who had escaped censure.
Some insinuated that the Committees had not been sufficiently severe, and that all that had been done was " but onlie meere showes without any substaunce." This was indignantly repudiated by Smythe, who declared that he had acted solely in the Company's interest and had in no way sheltered the offender.
It was also suggested that Saris had made a profit out of the presents alleged by him to have been given ; but this was refuted by pointing out that the factors, who consented to the giving of the presents, were also eye-witnesses of their delivery, and would have detected any attempt at fraud.
Being interrupted by some new arrivals, " the Courte sodainelie brake vpp and nothinge was absolutelie determynd."
March 10, 161 5. — Messrs. Hamersley and Hanford reported that, as regards presents, all were given with the written consent of the factors, and that half of them " were to the Emperour, besides greate presennts out of his [Saris's] own particuler purse to dyuers personns and extraordinary charges he was att in puttinge him- selfe into braue apparrell to confront the Portugalls and Flemyngs, whoe sought all the meanes that possiblie they could to disgrace him, whereby he \¥as at the extraordinary expences of 400//. in his owne particuler, as he is ready to bee deposd, and chargeth not one penny thereof vnto the Companies Accompt, haueinge done yt for the honnour of his Countrye and the grace of this Com- panie, whereby there shalbe noe neede hereafter of giueinge vnto the Emperour, and hath procured large priuiledges vnder the Em- perours firme, and, amongst other things, that noe Custome shall bee paid inwards or outwards for any goods."
" Some obserued that haueinge bene the chargablest voyage, because of the length and contynuance, yet yt is found to be as proffitable as any other, and therefore held yt reasonable to giue him his due for his good deserts, And yf they doe finde iustlie by his
^ This shows that he was a freeman, if not an adventurer.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii
yll carriage that he hath offended, then to taxc him for the same. And thereuppon some again (as formerhe) discouered the discon- tent of the Companie, i in opening the lettres sent to Mr. Gouernour, 2 for his priuate trade, and 3 by his sleight reguard of the Co- mittees in generall. But his awnswere to the first was that knowinge a Coppie had bene sent of the said letter, and he desiringe to be satisfied what things had bene done in his absence, did yt by the consent of Ball himselfe. His priuate trade is lesse then some other mens, which they haue past over, and Mr. Hamersley haueinge taken notice of his goods here and in the outports, doth finde noe more entred in his name. And for his carryage towards the Comittees, he knoweth not that he hath offended in that mattere. These things haueinge bene thus prest against him and matters heard without partialitie and prosecuted without affeccion, some mociond to haue an end putt to the said buysines, which they supposed is to bee effected by twoe questions : i, whether to giue his bond and pardon his freight ; 2, And whether to giue him a gratificacion. But before they preceded vnto them, some wisht that they would bee pleased to take vnto their Considera- cions the small wages that he had at his goinge forth, which if they had be[nej awnswearable to Mr. Bests would haue aduanct [him ?J 500//. more, or yf such as Sir Henry Middletons, would haue aduanct him iioo//. more. And he himselfe presseth much the promise made him at Grauesend, to be considered accordinge to his deserts. The question at last beeinge propounded, they were contented by ereccion of hannds to giue him his bond and pardon his freight. But the second beinge putt, for a gratifica- cion, some aduised not to doe yt presentlie, for distastinge the generalitie, but rather to respite yt awhile, although others thought yt fitt to determyne the same without any further protraction, yt beeinge in their owne power to effect, and knowinge the reasons whie they did it, there are none will be soe vncyuill to censure them but they shalbe able to giue them sufficient awnswere. And the question beinge putt, they did by erection of hannds deferre the bestowinge of any gratificacion as yett, but to respite yt a while, that all may not be done too sodenlie together."
March 17, 161 5. — (General Court for sale of goods.) A " Biobee or Skreene guilded and painted with .some resemblances of warfare" was knocked down to the Governor for 6/.
"Annother Biobee, .... portrayde full of horses," was sold to him for 4/. 135-. od., with a duplicate for 4/. i \s. os.
Three other " Biobees of warfare " sold for 5/. 1 2s. od.^ 5/. ly. 4d. and 6/. 15^'. od.
Two " portrayde with fowles " fetched 3/. ;^s. od. and 4/. 7^^. od. ; and three " of huntinge," 10/., 8/. i^. od. and 8/. 5^'. od.
June 20, 1 615. — Saris's business was again considered. The charges against him and his answers, " acknowledginge that he
Ixxiv INTRODUCTION.
erd like a man, but is nowe otherwise altered from that hee was at his retourne, beeinge changed and much reformed, which reasons beinge dulie weighed and considered, they thought it fitt to giue him some good gratificacion for his and all others better encouragements. And twoe somes beeinge propounded of 300 //. and 500 markes, they bestowed vpon him freelie by ereccion of hannds the some of 500 markes, which some promised he should thankfullie accept and acknowlegd their kindnes vnto him."
July 4, 1 61 5. — A letter of thanks from Saris was read, requesting also to be permitted to increase his adventure from 400/. to 2000/. He was permitted to make it 1000/.
August 19, 1 61 5. — John Saris passed over to Ralph Gore his adventures of 25/. in the Seventh Voyage, 45/. in the Ninth Voyage, and 400/. in part of his adventure in the Joint Stock, with all profits.
June 7, 1622. — John Saris transferred 300/. adventure in the First Joint Stock to William Stone, the Company's treasurer.
X. — The Subsequent Career of Captain Saris.^
Saris did not again tempt fortune in the East.- He had secured at all events a competence, and he resolved to settle down and enjoy it.
About 161 5 he married Anne, daughter of William Meggs, of Whitechapel, and granddaughter (on her mother's side) of Sir Thomas Cambell, Lord Mayor in 1609-10. In the twenty-ninth year of her age, and the eighth year of her married life, she died without issue, on February 21, 1623,^ and was buried in the parish church of St. Botolph, Thames Street. This building, described by
1 This Section has been contributed by Mr. F6ster.
2 On June 22, 1616, William Eaton wrote from Hirado to Richard Wickham at Miako : "Hee [Saris] is in good extemation with the Companie in England and .... it is thought hee shall Come out Generall this yeare of the best fleate of shipes that ever Come to the Easte Indies " (O. C, No. 371) ; but this was mere rumour.
3 This date is taken from the inscription on her monument, as given by Strype in his SiO'vey of London (1720), Book II, p. 167 ; and is confirmed by two of the pedigrees referred to on p. vii {Harleian MSS. 1 55 1 and 4964).
INTRODUCTION. Ixxv
Stow as " a proper church," stood on the south side of Thames Street, opposite the bottom of Botolph Lane. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and was not rebuilt ; and the " ver\' fair monument in the wall of the south aisle," which Str)'pe sa\-s was raised to her memor}' b\- her sorrowing husband, has of course disappeared.
From her burial in tliis spot it ma}- be inferred that her husband was then residinj^ in the neighbourhood ; but some five or six years after her death he moved to Fulham. His name first appears in the poor-rate assesments for that parish in 1629, and continues from that date until his death. ^ The house he occupied was in Church Row. It was pulled down in 1750, and Sir William Fowell's Alms- houses now stand upon its site.- Here he lived quietly until the winter of 1643, when he died on December 11, and was buried on the 19th, a fee of 2s. 6c/. being paid to the churchwardens " for the buriall." His monument, a large black stone in the floor to the right of the altar, may still be seen in F'ulham Church, though it is partially hidden by the choir-stalls. It bears the arms of himself and his wife, with the following inscription : —
" Here lyeth interred the Body of | Captayn lohn Saris, of Fulham, in | the County of Middlesex, Esq., who ] departed this Life the n day of December, Ao. Dni. 1643, Age 63 years. | He had to wife Anne, the | davghter of William Migges | of London, Esq. She de])arted this life the second (sic) day of | February, Ao. Dni. I 1622 [i.e., 1623] | and lieth bu | ried in the Parishe Chvrch of St. j Botolph in Thame-Street, | being aged 21 (sic) yeares."-'
B\' his will (cop)' in Somerset House : Twisse, 146), dated April 18, 1643, and proved October 2, 1646, he left the bulk of his property to the children of his half-brother George, who had died in 1631. To the poor of Fulham parish, however, he left thirty pounds, to be expended in two-
1 Fulham Old and Ncil'^ by Mr. C. J. Fcret, vol. i, p. 230.
- Ibid.^ p. 138. " Ibid., p. 230. and Faulkner's Fulham, p. 72.
Ixxvi INTRODUCTION.
penny loaves, which were to be distributed to thirty poor people every Sunday, after sermon, until the amount was exhausted.
XI. — Correspondence between King James I and Japanese Potentates. Saris's Petition. The Privileges. The Japanese Document in Purchas.
In his journal Saris says that while in the Thames he received four royal letters, " wheareof one a blanke,"^ directed to the Great Mogoll of Surat and Cambaya, the Emperor of Japan, the King of Ferando, and the King of Bantam. The second of these'- is here reproduced : —
"James, by the grace of Alniightie God, kinge of greate Brittaine, Fraunce and Ireland, defender of the Christian faithe, etc., to the highe and mightie Prince the Emperour of Japan, etc : greetinge.
" Most highe and mightie Prince,
" As there is nothinge which increaseth more the glorie and dignitie of Souereigne Princes vpon earth then to extend their renowne vnto farr discident Nations : Soe, haueing vnderstoode of late yeares from some of our loueinge Subjects that haue traded into diuers Countries neere adioyneinge vnto yours, of the reputacion and greatnes of your power and dominion : Wee haue incourradged our said subiects to vndertake a Voyadge into your Countrey, aswell to solicitt your freindshipp and Amity with vs as to enterchange such Comodities of each others Countreys as may be most of vse the one to the other, beinge nothinge doubtful! but such will be your princelie magnanimitie and dis- position as to be readie to ymbrace this our desier, and not onlie to receiue our people with your accustomed benignitie and favor butt, for their better encouradgment, to affourd them your Royall proteccion for the setlinge of a Factorie there with such securitie and libertie of Comerce as shall be most con-
1 I.e.^ a royal letter signed and dated, but widi a space left for the insertion of the name of any potentate to whom the factors might think fit to deliver it. Among the Cotton Charters at the British Museum will be found actual specimens of a " blank" and of a letter to the ''Emperour of Japan," both dated April ii, 1614 (W. F.;.
2 First printed in The Fhst Letter- Book of the East India Company, p. 422, from a contemporary copy at the India Office.
INTROni'CTtOK. Ix.wil
venient for the aduancement of the mutuall proiifitt and Conio- ditie of each others Subiects ; Wherein, for our parte, wee doe willinglie offer ourselues and the libertie of our kingdomes and Countres whensoeuer any of your Subiects shall vndertake to haue comunicacion with vs. And soe wee pray Almightie God to blesse and prosper you and to make you victorious against your Enemies.
" From our Pallace at Westminster this [/'/a/iA'] of January in the Eight yeare of our Reigne^ of Greate Brittaine, Fraunce and Ireland."
The Japanese version of this letter is extant in MS. in various Japanese collections, and has been printed by Siiganuma at p. 514 of his Dai-Nilion Shogio-Shi [History of Japa)icsc Commerce). It is described in the Ikoku Nikki as written on wax-paper (? vellum) 2 ft. wide and i ft. 6 ins. deep, with an illuminated margin on three sides, and sealed with a waxen seal. " Being written in foreign characters which could not be read, Anji (Wm. Adams) was invited to write a translation in kana (the syllabic writing of Japan)." This was afterwards written out again in the usual mixture of Chinese and Japanese character.
Re-translated from the Japanese, the letter reads thus : —
" By the grace of God King of Great Britain, France and Ireland these eleven years past. How great is the glory of the Shogun Sama of Japan has been heard with certainty in Our country, wherefore We have sent Captain general John Saris and others as Our representatives to pay Our compliments to the Shogun Sama of Japan. If it is as we say,- Our country is pro- foundly satisfied that the conditions of our respective countries are greatly communicated."^ Henceforth every year you should allow numbers of merchant ships to be sent, to cement friendship between the merchants of both parties, and to traffic in the articles that may be desired on either side. Moreover, if it be the friendly wish of the Shugun Sama of Japan, merchants shall be left here* to promote mutual friendship. Then Japanese merchants shall be invited freely to Our country, and allowed
^ I.e.^ January, 161 1.
- This phrase mij^ht well be omitted in translating. It amounts to no more than beginning a new paragraph.
^ Or put in circulation. It is awkwardly expressed by the translator, and it is not quite easy to guess what he meant.
■* I.e., in Japan, where ihe lianslalcr is v>uiiiig.
Ixxviii INTRODUCTION.
to supply and traffic in the precious articles of Japan. Thus for ever and ever, We will, as We say, communicate with Japan without any feeling of aloofness.
" King James Rex, "At his castle of Westminster, King of Great Britain. "To the Shogun Sama of Japan."
It will be observed that the translator inserts the name of Saris, which is not in the original letter from England, and that he translates " Emperor" by Shogun, Saina being a title that may be rendered by " Monsieur." Also that he alters the date, so as to make it appear that the letter was written in the i ith year of King James. The style of the Japanese version is not good, while certain expressions are employed in an unfamiliar manner, and the copies vary slightly. The preceding re-translation is as close as the Editor has been able to render it under these circumstances.
The answer of lyeyasu to King James has likewise been preserved in Japan, and is here given in translation. It maybe compared with Saris's version in the journal (p. 137), which is much freer and has a more complimentary ring about it.
" Minamoto no lyeyasu of Japan replies to His Honour the Lord of Igarateira. By the naval envoy who has borne the fatigue of a long journey we have for the first time received a letter, from which we have seen that the government of your honoured country as described on paper preserves the right way. In particular 1 have received numerous presents of your productions, in which I esteem myself very fortunate. I will follow your pro- posals in respect of cultivating neighbourly feeling with my country, and maintaining mutual intercourse by merchant vessels. Though separated by ten thousand leagues of clouds and waves, our territories are as it Avere close to each other. I send some poor specimens of what this country affords, as enumerated in the accompanying list, as a slight token of regard. Spare yourself as the weather changes.
" Keicho, iSthyear,^ corresponding to niidzunoto ushi,"^ ninth month, first decade."^
1 1613. ■' The fifty-serond year of the cycle of sixty years.
^ Corresponding to 4 October, O.S.
INTRODUCTION. IxxiX
The letter of Kiiii^ James to the " Kini;" of Fcrancio" was doubtless worded in precisely the same manner as that to the " Emperor." No Japanese copy has been preserved, but the text of Matsura Hoin's reply is extant, and a translation here follows. In comparison with the version given by Saris in his journal (p. 195), as prepared for him by two Chinese residents at Bantam, its style seems some- what bald, but there can be no doubt that both represent the same original text.
" I cannot sufficiently express my great gladness and thanks for the courteous letter and the gifts of various of your productions sent by the hands of your envoy John Saris, wherein I have been the fortunate recipient of your great kindness. By way of a requital of but trifling value, I pray for the continuance of our correspondence. I rejoice at the safe arrival of your envoy at •this little island after so long a journey. I am not able imme- diately to find any of our productions which may be suitable for exchange, but before long we shall be able to commence trade with some of the articles of which we mutually stand in need. The trade at this place shall be committed to the hands of the officials of your honoured country, and I will show my gratitude by sending a few articles in exchange by the hands of one of my officers.^
" I pray moreover that you will take care of your health, and enjoy peace and prosperity.
" Hoin of Hirado Island in Japan. " 6'" day of the 10''' moon of this country, 18''' year of Keicho (9 November 16 13, O. S.) "To the English King Paramount."'^
The Japanese document printed by Purchas as the " laponian Charter," and now reproduced, is not a cop}' of the Privileges, but of the abbreviated articles presented by Saris, as it would seem, through Adams on September 10 (sec p. 131). Of this Japanese document Saris must have brought back a copy to England, under the impression
1 The character here conjecturally rendered "officers" cannot be deciphered with certainty.
- The expression used in tlie original is so-o, Hterallv " King of All."
IxXX INTRODUCTION.
that it was a copy of the Privileges, and have given it to Purchas for pubHcation.
Of the Privileges, according to Japanese sources of information, there were two copies, both authenticated by the seal of lyeyasu, of which one was for the use of the factory at Hirado, and the other intended to serve as a sort of passport for the next English vessel that should visit Japan. The one Saris accordingly left at Hirado in the care of Cocks, ^ and it was no doubt surrendered in i6i6.^ The other copy was probably furnished to the Osiander, which arrived at Hirado from Bantam, August 31, 161 5.
A MS. copy of a petition in several articles has been unearthed by Professor Riess from the Cotton Charters in the British INTuseum,'^ and reads as follows : —
Sorongo in Japon. October the 7th [2nd?].
The Coppie of such priviledges are [as ?] were demaunded of the Emperor of Japon by Gennerall Sayres In the name of the Kings Maiesties of England, for Trade in Japon, which were accordinglie graunted, As per his Charter written in the Japon Language and sealed with his Braude Scale appereth, viz.
Inprimis, That his Maiestie would be pleased to graunte free lycence to all the Subiects of the King of England that they may for ever safely come into any his Ports and Kingdoms of Japon with their Ships and marchantdize, without any hinderance to them or their goods, and to abide, buy, sell and exchange according to their owne manner with all nations whatsoever, and to tarrey soe long as they will and depart at their pleasures, And that all such marchantdize as they have or hereafter shall bring into his Kingdomes, or sliall transport to any forraigne part, to be free of ail Costomes whatsoever. And that the hereafter Ships may make present sale of their Comodeties without further order or sending vp to his ISIaiestie.
^ Letters Received by the East India Company, vol. ii, p. 7. " I leave with you the Emperor^s privileges for trade."
2 Cocks's /Jzaryy letter of January i, 1617, vol. ii, pp.279, 280. and 281.
^ No. xxvi, 28. Dr. Riess has, by an oversight, given as the reference No. iii, 13, which is in the same volume. The copy appears to be in the handwriting of John Osterwick, who arri\ed in Japan in 161 5 (W. F.).
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^
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INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi
2. Item, If their Ships shalbe in daunger to be lost and perish and shall stand in neede of his suhiects helpe, that Coniaunde may he given to assist them, And wliat shalbe saved to retorne to the niarchants. And that he would give a suftitient platt of grounde to build vppon ; and the same howse to be at the dis- posing of the Cape marchant, to make sale of at their departure out of the Countrie.
3. Item, Yf any of them depart this life, he to whome the Cape marchant shall saye his goods belonge shall possesse the same. And for any offence Comitted by them, that the Justice of this land take no hould either of their persons nor goods, but to be referred to the sayde Cape marchants discre- tion.
4. Item, That all bargaynes made by them shalbe firme, and that no mann retorne their wares, but pave for them according to agreement.
5. Item, to graunte for himselfe and for his heires That all such marchantdizes as are meete for his Service, that noe arrest may be made thereof, but to give present accompt at such prices as they (sic) marchant could sell them for reddy monney.
6. Item, That for such marchantdize as the Realme of England affoardeth, whereof a particuler hath byn delyvered, it may be knowne what sorts and quantities he will have yerely brought, and that a certaine price may be agreed vppon, which shall accord- inglie be perforemed.
7. Item, That [if?] in discouery of any other places of Trade or retorne of owre owne Ships, they shall have neede of either menn or victualls for accomplishing thereof : That Comaunde may be given that they may be furnished thereof as their needes shall require vppon resonable sattisfaccion without any other further treble. And that his Maiestie will graunte his free passe for Eadso, an Hand neere adioyning his Domynions yett unknowne.
Jo. Sayres.
In his journal under date of September 9 (see p. 131), Saris writes : " I dcliuered him [the Secretary of lyeyasu] the Articles or demaundes to be granted by the Emperor, which he desired might be abreuiated.
" The loth the Articles abreuiated, I sent them by Mr. Addams to the secrytarye, which wcare deliuered the Emperor, whoe liked well thereof."
The following is a free translation of this second petition : —
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi
2. Item, If their Ships shalbe in daunger to be lost and perish and shall stand in neede of his suhiects heipe, that Coniaunde may be L;iven to assist them, And what shalbe saved to retorne to the marchants. And that he would give a suf'titient platt of grounde to build vppon ; and the same howse to be at the dis- posing of the Cape marchant, to make sale of at their departure out of the Countrie.
3. Item, Yf any of them depart this life, he to whome the Cape marchant shall saye his goods belonge shall possesse the same. And for any offence Comitted by them, that the Justice of this land take no hould either of their persons nor goods, but to be referred to the sayde Cape marchants discre- tion.
4. Item, That all bargaynes made by them shalbe firmc, and that no mann retorne their wares, but paye for them according to agreement.
5. Item, to graunte for himselfe and for his heires That all such marchantdizes as are meete for his Service, that noe arrest may be made thereof, but to give present accompt at such prices as they (sic) marchant could sell them for reddy monney.
6. Item, That for such marchantdize as the Realme of England affoardeth, whereof a particuler hath byn delyvered, it may be knowne what sorts and quantities he will have yerely brought, and that a certaine price may be agreed vppon, which shall accord- inglie be perforemed.
7. Item, That [if?] in discouery of any other places of Trade or retorne of owre owne Ships, they shall have neede of either mcnn or victualls for accomplishing thereof : That Comaunde may be given that they may be furnished thereof as their needes shall require vppon resonable sattisfaccion without any other further troble. And that his Maiestie will graunte his free passe for Eadso, an Hand neere adioyning his Domynions yett unknowne.
Jo. Savres.
In his journal under date of September 9 (see p. 131), Saris writes : " I dcliuered him [the Secretary of lyeyasu] the Articles or demaundes to be granted by the Emperor, which he desired might be abreuiated.
" The loth the Articles abreuiated, I sent them by Mr. Addams to the secrytarye, which wcare deliuered the Emperor, whoe liked well thereof."
The following is a free translation of this second petition : —
Ixxxii INTRODUCTION.
" Memorandum.
" I have come to lapan for the first time. His Highness shall permit trade to be freely carried on.
"As to goods for the use of Their Two Highnesses, that they shall be pleased to furnish a list of what is required.
" That they shall prevent any attempt to force a sale or other- wise commit violence in respect of the cargo of the English ships.
" That they shall permit English ships to freely enter any port of Japan when compelled by stress of weather. That the English may build houses and carry on trade at whatever port they wish, and to that end that a piece of ground be given to them.
" That they shall be permitted to buy directly from the merchants any articles they may wish to purchase in Japan.
" When Japanese and Englishmen quarrel that the merits shall be inquired into, and decision given exactly in accordance there- with.
" That if the English desire to return home, they shall be allowed to do so at any time ; and that in connexion with their return home they shall be allowed, before leaving, to sell the houses they have built.
" From Captain John Saris
" General."
The document is undated. It will be noticed that two matters are omitted which are in the Cotton MS., namely, the grant of a free pass " for Eadso, an Hand neere adioyn- ing his Domynions," and the power to be granted to the Cape merchant to administer to the goods of a deceased Englishman. The latter, however, makes its appearance in the Japanese copy of the privileges. In Adams's undated letter to the East India Company giving his account of Saris's mission, he says that lyeyasu had talked to him about the island of Yezo, and " told me yf I did go, he would geue me his letter of frindship to the land of Yedzoo, whear his subiects haue frinship."^ This conver- sation seems to have taken place on September ii, and on the following day Saris and Adams left for Yedo. They returned to Sumpu on September 29, and on October 8 Saris received lyeyasu's answer to King James, dated
^ Rundall, Memorials^ p. 66 ; reprinted in Letters Received by the East India Company^ vol. i, p. 323.
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii
October 4, together with the Privileges, which were dated October 2. These documents were probably pre- pared during their absence. The following translation of the Privileges is from a paper published by Professor Riess : — ^
" I. The ship that has now for the first time come from England over the sea to Japan may carry on trade of all kinds without hindrance. With regard to future visits (of English ships) per- mission will be given in regard to all matters. -
" 2. With regard to the cargoes of ships, requisitions will be made by list according to the requirements of the Shogunate.
" 3. (English ships) are free to visit any port in Japan. If disabled by storms they may put into any harbour.
" 4. Ground in the place in Yedo which they may desire shall be given to the English, and they may erect houses and reside and trade there. They shall be at liberty to return to their country whenever they wish to do so, and to dispose as they like of the houses they have erected.
" 5. If any Englishman dies in Japan of disease or any other cause, his effects shall be handed over without fail.
" 6. Forced sales of cargoes and violence^ shall not take place.
" 7. If one of the English should commit an offence, he shall be sentenced by the English General (Talshu) according to the gravity of the offence.
"The above is as stated, 18, Keicho 8 month 28 day (Oct. 13th, 1 61 3).*
" Red seal.
" Ingirateira (England)."
The translation of these privileges furnished to Purchas will be found in the journal under the date of October 8, 1613.^ It was probably the joint production of Adams and the native linguist whom Saris had taken from Hirado.
1 Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xxvi, Decem- ber, 1898.
2 This follows the text given in Suganuma's book already quoted. But the character translated " matters" is piobably erroneous, and the true reading would give the translation, "shall be exempted from all taxes," i.e., import duties.
3 " Violence " and " forced sale " go together. Compare the trans- lation of Saris's " abbreviated articles," supra.
* This date should be October 12 = October 2 (O.S.).
'' See p. 138. Printed and facsimiled by Randall, at pp. 67 and 155.
jcxxiv Introduction,
It will be observed that this charter promises to give a piece of ground for building purposes at Yedo, not at any port they may choose. In the letter published by Rundall as " No 3 "1 Adams writes : —
" Now, once, yf a ship do coum, lett her coum for the esterly part of Japan, lying in 35 d. 10 m. whear the Kinge and the Emperour court is : for coum our ships to Ferando whear the Hollanders bee, it is far to ye court, about 230 L., a werysoum way and foul. The citti of Edo lyeth in 36, and about this esterly part of the land thear be the best harbors and a cost so cleer as theayr is no sholdes nor rokes h a myll from the mayn land. It is good also for the sale of merchandis and security for ships."
This letter being dated January 12, 1613,^ must have reached Adams's correspondent at Bantam (Augustin Spalding) after Saris had started thence for Japan, so that the idea of establishing a factory at Yedo would not be brought before him until he met Adams at Hirado. Whether they talked of it then does not appear. In the " vearey Long letter wrot from lapan by William Adams, and sent home in the Clone, 1614,"^ he tells the Company that lyeyasu having asked him in what place Saris wished to establish a factory, he replied : " I did think not far from his court, or the Kinges court, at which he seemed verry glad." This would explain the insertion of Yedo in the grant, though Saris had in his petition asked for a piece of ground at whatever port he might choose. Saris was cer- tainly not aware of this limitation, for otherwise he would have noted the fact, and not have furnished to his employers the Privileges embodied in the journal, in which his original request seems to be accorded; Adams, who
^ Memorials of Japan, p. 43 ; Letters Received by the East India Com- pany, vol. i, p. 208.
- Adams dated it "the 12 of Jeneuari, 1613 ;" but in the second paragraph he says : "Your ffrindly and christian letter I hau receued by the Hollanders which be heer arriued this year, 1612." See Rundall, p. 40. ^ Rundall, p. 57.
INTRODUCTION. IxXKV
uas unable to read Japanese, was also no doubt ignorant of the tenor of this clause.
What appears a more remarkable divergence between the petition and the grant is, that whereas the former pro- poses that when quarrels occur between Japanese and Englishmen, the merits shall be inquired into, and judg- ment given in accordance with the facts — by the Japanese authorities — the grant is to the effect that if one of the English should commit an offence, the English " general " is to try and sentence the offender.
Another point to which attention may be directed is that the style and wording of the Japanese version of the petition closely correspond with those of the grant as given by Suganuma, as may easily be seen by a comparison between the two Japanese texts. Nos. i and 2 are pretty much the same in both. Art. 3 of the petition becomes No. 6 in the grant, while Art. 4 of the petition is divided between 3 and 4 of the Privileges. Art. 5 of the petition, asking that the trade may be carried on directly between the merchants of the two nations, z>., without official interference, is passed over. The 6th Art. of the petition becomes 7 in the grant, but its effect is changed, jurisdic- tion in offences being given to the Cape merchant ; while lastly. Art. 7 of the petition is added to Art. 4 of the Privileges. Art. 5 of the grant is taken from the original unabbreviated petition.
Appendix II to vol. ii of the 1727 English edition of Kaempfer contains a diary of occurrences at Nagasaki between June 29 and August 28, 1673, on board the English ship Return, which had been sent to Japan to renew commercial intercourse. It states that the captain " tendered them [the governor and his secretary] a copy of the articles or privileges granted to us, at our first entrance here, by the Emperor, in the Japan character, which they perused and read, and could understand, asking very much
Ixxxvi INTRODUCTION.
for the original, or grant itself, with the Emperor's chop or seal, which I said we had not, by reason it was delivered to the Emperor's council at our departure from Firando ; they kept it, saying, they would deliver it to me very suddenly."
This was, in all probability, a transcript of the Japanese document in Purchas. The latter, as can be recognised by anyone familiar with the Japanese method of writing with a brush, was reproduced from a copy made with a soft, finely-pointed quill pen.
The Japanese scholar, Kondo Morishige, who compiled a work on foreign relations, entitled Gwai-ban Tsil-sho, or " Foreign Barbarian Correspondence," gives in his twenty- seventh Book, or Chapter, a copy of a document, which turns out to be the same as the paper published by Purchas.
Kondo's observations on it are :
" The original document is still preserved in the archives of Tateyama^ at Nagasaki. It was written with a ' pen' {the quill of a goose, cut and used instead of a writing-brush) on pappiru (barbarian paper), six and a half siai- high, nine sun wide, and folded just like the ordinary Dutch sealed documents. I saw it myself, and took a copy. In the Nagasaki Zakki [Miscellaneous Records] it is stated that on the 25th day of the 5th moon of the 3rd^ year oS. Ktvavibu7i (the istof Yempo) [which is June 29, 1673, O. S.] an English vessel arrived .at Nagasaki. They formerly came in their ships year by year to Hirado continuously to trade. An intermission of over forty years having taken place, they now came again and petitioned for trade. A representation was sent to Yedo, but permission was not granted ; and on the 26th, the day of the 7th moon of the same year [August 27, O. S.] the English ship was sent away."
The work he quotes from goes on to remark that the English produced this paper as a charter allowing them to trade, but on opening the paper, it was found not to have
^ One of the two Governor's offices at Nagasaki was situated in a part of the town which still goes by this name. It has since been destroyed by fire.
2 1. 19 inches = I sun. ■' This is a mistake for 13th.
INTRODUCTION.
Ixx
that character, being merel}- a paper in Japanese taken home by them from Hirado. Kondo goes on to remark that it was a petition presented by the English when they first visited Japan in 1613, "as can easily be seen by com- paring it with the articles of the grant conferred on that occasion."
In the collection of the Ilistoriographical Bureau of the the Imperial University at Tokio there exists an imperfect facsimile made apparently by Kondo, ending abruptly in the middle of the last paragraph, at the words " at any time." A reproduction has recently been published by Professor Riess in the paper already referred to. The whole text, however, is given by Kondo, and has been printed by Suganuma in his Conniieixial History of Great Japan, mentioned above, but in one or two places the present editor has seen reason to differ from his reading of the document.
It only remains to add that the history of the English factory at Hirado after Saris's departure may be studied in Cocks's Diary, and that an excellent sketch of its vicis- situdes is contained in Professor Riess's paper so often cited in this Introduction.
Signature of Captain Saris.
" Here first we present vnto you, the East-Indies made Westerly by the Illustrious Voyage of Captaine Iohn Saris ; who hauing spent some yeares before in the Indies, by Obseruations to rectifie Experience, and by Experience to prepare for higher Attempts, hath heere left the knowne Coasts of Europe, compassed those more vnknowne of Afrike from the Atlantike to the ErythrcButi Sea, and after Commerce there {tavi Marte, quam Mercurio) compasseth the Shoares, and pierceth the Seas, to and beyond all iustnames of Indian and Asia, penetrating by a long iourney the Hands, Cities, Court of the laponian Empire ; there setleth an English Factorie, and after safe returne, is readie to render thee the pleasure of his paine, and (why stay I thee any longer ?) by a more pleasant Discoursiue way, to discover to ihee the Rarities of that Discouerie ; and by hand, by the Eyes to lead thee alongst with him all the way."
Purchas His Pilgrimes, vol. i, p. 333.
[^ OF THE ^. .
UNIVERSi
O, ^^ THE VOYAGE
CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS TO JAPAN,
i6i 2-13.
ANUARY 14, 161 2.1— The 141
in
the morning we wayed out of the roade of Bantam for Japan, hauing taken in heare for that place 700 sacks pepper for a Tryall theare. My Companye 81 persons, viz., 74 Engh'sh, I spanniar, i Japan, and 5 swarts.- God Allmightie send them health and be our protector. I sent Mr. Cocks^ to buy a Treble voyalF and a Tabor and pipe on board the Trade,^ cost 7 rials 8.^ I gave the
^ I.e.^ 161 2- 1 3, as the year then began on March 25th. The Gre- gorian calendar was adopted in England in 1752, September 3 being called September 14. 2 Blacks.
^ Afterwards Cape-merchant of the English factory established by Saris at Hirado. His Diary, edited by Sir E. Maimde Thompson, has been published by the Hakluyt Society.
* Viol, fiddle.
'" The Trade's Increase^ flagship of Sir Henry Middlcton, "General" of the .Sixth Voyage.
® To be read, 7 rials of 8 ; that is, 7 pieces of 8 rials = 7 dollars. The Spanish dollar was valued at three shillings and sixpence or four shillings sterling, according to circumstances.
2 THE VOYAGE OF
Hector and Thomas 15 pieces at parting, and was answered with 13 out of the Hector, 11 out of the Thomas. Allowance Sack and biskett, 2 meales beefe.
The 15^'^ [January] in the morning before daye we wayed, little wynd at W., and haling^ into 14 Fathams, we steered E. by S. and E.S.E., leuing poolooe lacke'- one our starboard side, and a 11 or 12 one our larboard side, our deapth from 14 to 10 Fathames, going within 2 Hands which lyeth to the E.wardes of pooloo lacke afforesaid. And in the faire waye theare lyeth a shoale which hath not above 6 foote one the top of it, and is not aboue halfe a cables lenght long everye waye, and hard aboard it is 10 Fathames and the next cast aground, As by experyence, for here we laye 3 howeres beating with a reasonable stiff gaile, but by gods providence and the willing indeauors of my Companye in this great ex- tremitye we gott hir of; But sprung a leake, that for all night and tell 10 of the clock the next daye at noon we contynued pumping, everye man but my selfe taking his torne, and all no more then to keepe it from in- creasing. To my greate Sorrowe, douting that perforce I must haue put back to Bantam, to the ouerthrowe of my men and voyage for Japan. But through the mercyes of god and the Carpenters dilligence it was found out and made thite.^ God make me for ever thankful! and deliuer us from the like. And To goe cleere of this shoale keepe cloase to the Hands, for the maine is shoale. And to goe with it is to keepe pooloe lacke, which you leave, on your starboard side, and the high E. land of the outer point of Jaua, called Pallimban,* Right
1 /.(?., hauling.
-' Pulo Laki, or Menscheneters Eiland (Valentijn, Oud en Nieuw Oost Indten, IV Deel, p. 6, and map).
3 Tight.
•* Probably Mount Panimbang, also known as Sanga Buana {Eastern Archipelago^ Part II, p. 108).
CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS TO JAI'AN. 3
over the boddye of Poolo Lacke, or to kecpe the N.er- most part of pallingban and the N.ermost point of pooloo lake a h'ttell opening and shutting, which will bring you iipone the verye top of it, and your thwart marke^ is a high peeked hill up in the Countery, which hill is to the westwards of the hill that is ouer Jakatra,- the next to it. And when you haue it S. by E. J point Easterly that is your thwart marke, and the pointe of the watring place S.E. \ point Easterly, and the poynt opening and shutting with the S.ermost Hands of the 4 that lyeth in a ranke. But there is 2 or 3 Hands without them 4. All these markes are to meete with it. But ether opening the 4 Hands a good waye without the point, or the point of Java a good waye without pooloo lacke, or to keepe close to the Hands the which you leaue one your larboard side, will carrye you cleare of it. And the nearer the Hand which lyeth of the point, being the westermost Hand of 2, you shall have the deepest water. But if you doe borowe one the mayne^ to goe within the said shoale, you shall haue water enoffe tell you com somme league unto the poynt, for of the wester part of the poynt there lyeth a shoale N.NAV. somme league of, and you shall see the sea flur* one it yf there be any wynd, and haue 8 Eathams, the next cast aground. Edward Footeman dyed. Allow- ance Sack and biskett, 2 meals wheate and honye ; more to everye man i pynt of wyne for laboring in getting of the ship of the rocks.
The i6'h [January] we anchored at the watring place called Tinga Jaua,"" being 14 leagues from Bantam and
' Clearing mark. ^ The old name of Balavia.
^ I.e., go as near to the mainland as you safely can.
* Modern spelling "flower" = froth (see Roe's Embassy^ under "flurry," vol. i, p. 25 n.).
'" This seems to be off the point marked Untung Java in the Admiralty Chart.
B 2
4 THE VOYAGE OF
somme 3^ leagues to the westwards of Jackatra, riding between 2 Ilands^ which lyeth of the point distant 5 miles. Depth 10 and 9 Fathams cloase to the Hand, but the mayne is shoale. And of the watring place S. by W. is a bushey point, and the pointe to the westward, from whence the shoale commeth, S.W. by W., and the opening bctwene boath the Hands N. by W., and the outward part of the shoale W. by N., and the Hand pooloo lacke W. by N. I point N.ly. I sent Mr. Wickham- and hernando the Spannyard ashoare to buy provityone, and with presents to the king, Sabandare^ and the Admyrall, viz. to the king I doble lockt peece, i pees white Bafta,^ i peece cassa ■? To the Sabandare and Admerall each of them a doble lockt peece and a peece white Bafta : desiring them to excuse me for not coming ashoare, and to giue me leaue to buy such necessaryes as I haue sent for, willing Mr. Wickham not to suffer the Flemminges to search his boate for what he had leaue of the king to bring aboard (as they did to Capt. Sharpigh^ bound for Sacadanna)."" Allowance Sack and biskett 2 meales ; this daye they had dubble allowance of all things for that they pumpt hard. The 17'h [January] In the morning it pleased God
^ The two islands are Middelburg and Amsterdam.
- Richard Wickham, who accompanied .Saris on his journey to Court and back, was left behind in Japan with Cocks, as a member of the factory, to reside at Soronga (Sumpu) or Yedo. He came down to Hirado in December 1614, and thence returned to the east. In 1618 he went to Bantam, and thence to Jacatra (Batavia), where he died not long after. There are many references to him in Cocks's Diary, and in the Letters Received by the East India Company.
^ Shabiinder or S/iahbandar, Harbour-master (Yule and Burnell, Glossary).
* A kind of calico (Yule and Burnell).
^ Probably Cossa, a sort of Bengal piece goods (Milburn, vol. i, p. 46).
® Captain .Mexander Sharpeigh, "General" of the 4th voyage. See Letters Received by the East Iitdia Company^ vol. ii.
"^ Sukadana, a port on the W. coast of Borneo, south of the line, 1 10^ E. long, i" 15' S. lat.
CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS TO JAPAN. 5
we stopt our leake. The wynd at N.W. with Raine. Allowance sack and biskett, dubble allowance to brcckfast, 2 meales beefe.
The i8''i [Januai}'] the King sent his cheifc man vnto me to thanke me for his present, and to make profer of what his counterye affoarded ; directed vs to a verye good watring place, and profered many other curtesies, earnestly desiring me to leaue a factorye there ashoare, which should be well vsed, for he was wearye of the Flemings. Giuen to his seruants 2 blewe byrammes,^ cost 15 rials per corge.- The wynd this daye at N.W. with Raine. Allowance sack and biskett, 2 meales wheate with honye.
The 19''^ [January] Giuen to Keygus varro one peece Blewe biramme, one peece white baffta. The wynd at N.W. with Raine. Allowance sack and biskett, 2 meales Beefe.
The 20^11 [January] The ould Sabandare sent a present by his Sonne Keygoose Gooloo viz. 200 Cokers^ and 2 Goates, in requitall wheareof giuen him i pees chanter,^ I shash,^ I pes fine duttye,^ to 2 of the Kings men which helped Mr. Wickham to bring the provityon he had bought aboard. I intertaned the Captain and marchants of the Flemishe howse to d}'nner, and at parting gaue them 5 peeces, and at parting of Keygoose 3 peeces. Whiting Chinesa brought me from his wyfe i praman"" matt and pillowe and too hangings from himselfe, which in requitall I gaue him a faire damasked peece and i peece Chanter,
1 Same as byrampaut, a Surat cotton manufacture, very full colour and thick (Milburn, vol. i, p. 44 ; and Yule and Burnell, s. v.).
- A score (Yule and Burnell). ^ <