THE STORY OF WILLIAM ADAMS.

Waka Maori, Volume 11, Issue 12, 22 June 1875, Page 139

THE STORY OF WILLIAM ADAMS.

The First Anglo-Saxon in Japan. Twelve miles from Yokohama down Mississippi Bay is the town of Yokosko. It is at the head of a little land-locked harbour, and has the most beautiful surroundings imaginable. The scenery of the whole bay on either side of this little inlet reminds one of the "Thousand Islands?" in the St. Lawrence River, only the shore line and the groups of islands rise more abruptly and much higher out of the water, and are covered with a richly varied tropical vegetation. The islands and the mainland all are crowned and covered with groves of evergreen trees. In the distance of the west the Wakoni rauge of mountains is plainly seen, and towering above all other points is Fusi-yama, the highest mountain in Japan. Yokosko is a town of the old order of things. Here the Japanese have their naval station, with capacious machine shops, foundries, and docks. Across a lesser inlet is the old village of Hemimura, a fishing town, and as old, for aught that is known, as the fisheries of Japan. On a hill-side above the village is the temple of To-ko-san. It is a Buddhist temple, and has the carved stone lions and dragons 'and shaven-bearded priests, gilt images of Buddha, and lesser deities. It is, like all temples in Japan, embowered in a beautiful grove, and there is enough of the beautiful in its surroundings to incline any heart to worship the giver of such beauty. From this temple a winding path leads up to the crest of a high rounded hill, from which is spread before you a picture of intense and varied beauty —the wide sea, studded with green islands, the long, high shore-line with deep indentions of inlet and harbour, lofty mountain ranges and deep valleys. Here, in the grove crowning the hill, midst fir, cypress, palm, and bamboo trees, is the grave of William Adams, the first Anglo-Saxon ever in Japan. He must have been a remarkable man. In the whole history of the Orient no other stranger has arrived at such position and power, or exerted such an influence over a strange people. Adams was a native of the county of Kent, England. His occupation was sea-going. He served in the English navy in the olden days of the "Virgin Queen," and held the position of master of ti vessel in the wars with Spain. He must have been with the bold buccaneers who hunted Spanish treasure and merchant ships on every sea. While on shore in a little village surrounded by the green hills of Kent he had met a blue-eyed, fair-haired Saxon girl. They loved, plighted their troth, and after he had taken a voyage or two they were wedded. Between the sea and shore several years passed happily and prosperously. Two children, a boy and a girl, were theirs, both the image of the mother, with the same glimmering of gold in their hair and the same blue of the Kentish skies in their eyes. But times grew bad. The wars had ruined trade. English ships lay idle in their harbours. Holland, Spain, and Portugal had then the trade and commerce of the world. Adams received an offer from the Dutch East India Company to pilot a squadron of five merchant vessels to Asia. He bade farewell to England and his fair-haired wife

and children, and repaired to Holland, whence he set sail in 1598. After two years of untold hardships, with only one ship left of the -five, and only five able-bodied seamen, in the greatest distress for want of food and water, they sighted the coast of Japan. On the 16th of April, 1600, they made a harbour in the province of Bungo, in the southern part of Niphon. The people flocked around the ship. By signs Adams made their wants known. The sick were taken on shore and tenderly cared for. Soldiers were stationed on the ship to protect the cargo. Tour or five days elapsed, when some Portuguese arrived from Nagasaki, where they had a training station. They alone had, of all European people, since the wonderful accounts of Marco Polo, found the islands of Japan. The Portuguese had come to the Orient as traders and missionaries. Between them and the Dutch there was every reason for rivalry. They were warring with each other for the trade and wealth of the Indies. One was Jesuit and the other Protestant in religion. The Portuguese having been sent for by the prince of the province of Bungo, they represented that the Dutch were pirates in commerce, and heretics in religion, and should be beheaded for either, and crucified for both. This being more responsibility than the prince wished to assume, he referred the whole matter to the Tycoon, whose capital was then at Osaca, eighty miles north. The Tycoon sent at once for Adams. On the way Adams ascertained the feeling of the Portuguese and what they were anxious to accomplish ; and he also saw by the headless trunks and suspended bodies how frequent capital punishments were in Japan, and for what slight offences they were in use. Iyeyas was Tycoon. He was the first of the Tocagawa family, which ruled after him for 250 years. Through 2,500 years of written history he is considered their "Alfred the Great" by Japanese historians. When in the presence of the Tycoon Adams found a mild-mannered, unpretending man, who questioned him thoroughly of England and Holland, of their commerce and trade, and their wars, and especially of their object in coming to Japan.

After the interview, which lasted several hours, Adams was placed in confinement. He was kept there for forty-three days and nights. With the visions of the ghastly, headless trunks and bodies suspended on crosses, having been pierced withspears, his sleep could have been neither sweet nor refreshing. But Iyeyas was too great and too shrewd a man to be used by the Portuguese Jesuits, and Adams had told so straightforward a story, and exhibited such an intimate knowlege of the history of Europe, the trade and commerce of its different nations, and of the various arts and sciences, that Iyeyas was strongly impressed with him. To the Portuguese- importunities he answered that he saw nothing in the conduct the strangers to condemn, but much to commend, and ordered the release of Adams. He sent their

ships to Teddo, and told the whole crew to content themselves in Japan, as they would never be allowed to leave it. Adams was taken into the employ of the Government, and he taught Iyeyas mathematics and navigation, and how to build, launch, and rig large ships. Adams wrote home, each year, to his family by the annual Portuguese ship, but failed to receive any answer. He repeatedly requested of the Tycoon permission to go to his family, and was as often told that he must be content here, as permission to depart could never be allowed. To induce him to stay, and interest him in the work of ship-building, teaching navigation and military tactics, he was given a large tract of country with a large number of departments, over which he had absolute authority. He was ranked among the nobility next to the princes of the empire. He was called Anjin, the Japanese name of pilot, and a part of Teddo was, and to this day is, called Anjin-Cho, or district of Anjin. In this way twelve years had elapsed since he had left England, and, although he had written as often as conveyance presented itself, no word came of his friends or family. And so hope died in him of ever seeing the shores of his native land again, or ever looking in the eyes of those he loved. He saw nothing before him but a life in Japan. He went again to his work of teaching and ship-building, for the purpose of drowning thoughts of home and loved ones. About this time an alliance with a noble family was offered him. With all other hopes dead, he accepted it. By this marriage he had two children, a boy and a girl. Not far from this time a Spanish ship, with an embassy from the King of Spain, arrived in Japan. Although they bore magnificent presents from Philip 11. to the Tycoon, they were refused audience, and permission to trade was denied them. Shortly afterwards a Dutch ship came to trade, and although | their cargo was small, and they had no presents, through Adams's influence they were conceded the most liberal privileges, and thus through this stranger was laid the foundation for the Dutch trade, which lasted through three centuries of Japanese exclusiveness and hate of foreigners. In 1613 or 1614, an English ship arrived, under command of Captain Saris. Adams obtained for them even more liberal terms of trade than he had for the Dutch. An English factory was built, the goods landed, and all the steps taken to build up English interests. After having been here a year or more the ship was about to sail for England, and now was presented to Adams a trial such as comes to few mortals. Iyeyas, after fifteen years of persistent refusals to him to go home, and as persistently held honour and promotions before him —after having induced him to marry and raised a family here—suddenly and voluntarily sent him permission to go home, for some great service rendered. How he must have been torn by conflicting desires and interests! On the one hand this land of the Orient, which has been his home for fifteen years, its picturesque beauty, with its soft air, and its tropical vegetation, must nave taken a deep hold of his heart.

The people of Japan had received him, a shipwrecked sailor, and made him a lord of the land. He had been treated and loved by them, with a depth and warmth of feeling unknown in the cold climate of his native England. One of their dark-eyed daughters had given him her heart, and all the best years of her young life. Two children, with hair as black as a raven's wing, called him father, and climbed over his knees. All the fortune accumulated in long years was here, to be left behind him ; and with the best years of his life and youthful vigour gone, he was to go out into the world emptyhanded. Moreover, no word of tidings had reached him of his family for seventeen years. The shadow of the dark-winged angel might have covered them all within that long, weary time, or, worse still, he might find that his wife, weary with waiting and watching for his return, at last, when no tidings came, hope being dead within her, had given his place in her heart to another. On the other hand, what if his English Mary still cherished the hope that he would come again; and what if she kept every word and look of his enshrined in her heart; and if she with his children still knelt, morning and evening, and lifted up their supplications to Him who holds the great waves and the fierce winds in the hollow of Bis hands, to protect their wanderer and bring him home to them again ? These conflicting emotions must have wrung a proud and sensitive spirit, such as that of Adams. He who had looked danger and death in the eye in many a wild storm and wilder battle strife without faltering might well have broken down and wept like a child under this trial. But his bitter conflicts of loves, of doubts, of desires, and hopes, lie buried with his ashes under this stone-column, now before us, and in the oblivion of three silent unspeaking centuries of Japanese night. He decided to stay with the certainties of the land of his adoption rather than to take the chances of his native land. The ship departed, and as her sails receded from Adams's sight he had put all that was dear to him in his youthful and better days behind him for ever. He went on with his work—perfected ship-build-ing, drilled the Tycoon's soldiers, taught the arts and sciences, educated his children, elevated and bettered the condition of his .retainers and followers. He embraced the Buddhist faith, built this embowered temple of To-ko-san, and twice a year he came here to worship. And here, after a third of a century of great usefulness and influence, he was buried with imperial pomp and ceremony,'loved, honoured, and mourned by the people of an empire. Teddo, Japan, November, 1873. News.