THE AMAZING CAREER OF A MAN OF KENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 72

THE AMAZING CAREER OF A MAN OF KENT.

It is not a matter of common knowledge that the first European to find his way to the heart of Japan was one William Adams, a seventeenth-century man of Kent, whose story is briefly told in Blackwood : — "Between the journey of Marco Polo and Lord Elgin's mission Japan was sealed against all the world. The one link which connected her with Europe was the Dutch factory, which was permitted to conduct a lucrative trade upon arduous and insulting conditions. But in Marco Polo's day the Japanese were already civilised and courageous. As he tells us, they successfully withstood the invasion of so stout a foe as Kublai Khan's own Tartars. Their wealth, moreover, was enormous, aud they took care that their hoard of gold should not decrease, by forbidding its exportation, a policy which they pursued for- many centuries. Unhappily Marco Polo'tells us little of Japan, and after him .there is silence, until William Adams, the first Englishman who entered Japan, sent his letters home. And in the history of adventure a more amazing career cannot be found than that of this old Kentish pilot. He set sail from the Te-xel in 1579 on tha ship Erasmus, and after hunger, sickness, and mutiny bravely endured, he and 1113 friends resolved to go for Japan ; "for, by the report of Derrick G-erritson, who had been there with the Portugals, woollen cloth was in great estimation in that island."' So they went for Japan, and on April 12 "we came hard to Bungo" — to quote the pilot's own words — "where many country barks came aboard us, the people whereof we willingly let come, having no force to resist them, and a? this place wei camo to an anchor." So "Will Adams was brought before the Tai-coon, ar.d his mother-wife not only saved him from the crucifix, but marvellously advanced him. He told the Emperor the name of his country, and declared that his land had! long sought out the East Indies. And! when the Tai-coon asked him whether his country had wars, he replied : , "Yea ; Avith, the Spaniards 3nd Portgals, being afc peace with all other nations." Now the Japanese hated the Portugals with s fierce hatred — they were presently to send back a British Embassy on the ground that* Charles II had married a Portuguese wife — and Adams's answer instantly procured him the Emperor's favour. He was commanded! henceforth to remain in Japan, was advanced to a high place in the court, and lived the easy, affluent life of a grandee. He built the Emperor ships, and taught: him such "points of geometry and. mathematics" as he had mastered himself. And in return he was given an estate "like unto a lordship in England, with 80 or 90 husbandmen, who are as my servants andl slaves."'

"But Adams desired nothing more than, that his countrymen should share his prosperity, and,^ as we have said, he senti home flourishing accounts of Japan and its trade. In answer, the East India Company appointed Captain Saris to the command of the Clove, who, under Adams's! auspices, prospered for a while, sold his 'Bantam-pepper ungarbled,' and did his best to establish an English factory aft Hirado. But it was not long before ai coldness showed itself between Saris and Adams. The pilot, or Anjin. 'considerer of the needle ' as the Emperor called him, presently refused to see his countrymen, and when at last he consented to dine witli them, he rose directly after dinner, and! declined their company when he took his leave, as thcrogli he 'thoughl them not soodfi

enough to walk with him.' Doubtless a, pride in -his lordship and his 80 slaves perBuaded him to look down upon the simple captain, and it is certain that a lack of amiability on one side or the other hindered the establishment of a trade between England and Japan. And though a treaty ■was made between James I and the Taiccon, Saris returned to England, having accomplished nothing, while Adams contirned so prosperous hi the Emperor's favour that to-day a street in Y-eddo bears his name, and every year iis memory is honoured. "But Japan once more closed her ports, and- pursued the policy of seclusion with yet- greater energy. In 1657 — some 17 years after Adanjs's death — the famous interdict was published, of which the following is one clause — No Japanese ship or boat whatever, nor any native of Japan, should presume to go out of the country ; and who acts contrary to this shall be put to death, and the ship and goods shall be forfeited ; and all Japanese who return from abroad shall be put to death.' Nor was this all: to make assurance doubly cure, the merchant fleet of Japan consisted entirely of junks which could not cross tlie sea — which,- in fact, were only fit to hug tie coast ; and if. by accident a junk were driven off the shore no happier tfate could overtake it than to sink. Thus for centuries a high wall was built Japan — a wall which not merely excluded the stranger, but prevented the islands' in gold and men -from- being dissipated rbroad. It was not a question of freetiade or protection ; it was a case of no tra-de at all, if we except that carried on by the Dutch under, the watchful eye of the Tai-coon. So as the years went on Japan, resolute in, her conservatism, learned nothing of the world which lay across the sea, and when" in 1858 Lord Elgin went on his famous mission he found Japanese civilisation precisely what it was in the time of Marco Polo. But that mission marks the end of" Japan's seclusion. She had already made a treaty with the United States, and, under pressure, to be sure, she granted similar privileges to Russia and Great Britain.".