winter. Hence they made for Peru; and after sundry adventures, in which the fleet was dispersed and the Charity, the ship wherein Adams sailed, lost the greater part of her crew, the latter vessel in company with a single consort struck across for Japan. But bad fortune still waited on the unlucky voyagers. The consort foundered in a storm; and Adams’s ship with difficulty reached the shores of the province of Bungo, in the island of Kiushiu, in Japan, where she let fall her anchor on the 19th of April, 1600. Her crew was reduced to four-and-twenty, all told; and of these only some half-dozen were able to stand on their feet. Of the latter Adams was one, and was selected to be sent up to the court of Iyéyasu, the famous soldier who then ruled Japan.

The moment at which Adams set foot in this unknown land was a critical one in the history of the country. The dual form of government, by mikado and shogun, had been in existence some four hundred years. In the twelfth century, at a time when Japan was torn by internal wars and dissensions, the military chief Yoritomo had risen to power and, overthrowing his enemies, had set up the military despotism which, acting in the name of the powerless mikado, ruled the whole country. In 1192 Yoritomo received from the mikado the title of Sei-i Tai Shogun (Barbarian-subjugating Great General); and henceforth that title was transmitted to the de facto rulers, and lasted down to the revolution of 1868. The mikado, the rightful emperor of Japan, became a mere cipher, living in the seclusion of his palace, neglected and often in poverty.

This peculiar system has naturally perplexed foreigners; and thus it is that the mikado, or dairi, as he is more usually called by the early European writers, is represented as the spiritual head,[4] while the shogun, or military ruler for the time being, is always styled the emperor.

Two families, the Hojo and the Ashikaga, successively held the shogunate down to the year 1573. The last shogun of the second house was deposed by Nobunaga, the son of a soldier of fortune, whose name, like those of his two generals and successors, Hidéyoshi and Iyéyasu, is great in Japanese history. Nobunaga fell the victim of treachery; but his place was promptly filled by Hidéyoshi, who at once crushed the rising which had overthrown his master and assumed the reins of government. The son of a peasant, he had entered Nobunaga’s service as a groom, but, attracting notice, he was promoted to military service and quickly rose by his own prowess to high command. Often changing his name, according to Japanese custom, he appears in history under many designations. By the Portuguese Jesuits he is referred to as Faxiba (i.e. Hashiba); but he is more generally known by his later name of Taiko Sama; and by this name he is called in these volumes. Neither he nor Nobunaga received the title of shogun. The highest rank to which he attained was that of kuwambaku, or premier.[5]

Hidéyoshi died in 1598[6] leaving an infant son, Hidéyori (the Fidaia Sama of Cocks’s diary), whom he had married to the grand-daughter of his old fellow-soldier Iyéyasu, in the hope of thus disarming a dangerous rival, who was also appointed one of the guardians of the boy. But these precautions went for nothing. Even in Nobunaga’s days Iyéyasu was a powerful leader, and he had only submitted to Taiko Sama after some hesitation. It is true that he swore to protect the interests of the young Hidéyori; but many circumstances combined to stifle any scruples that he might have felt in supplanting his ward. It was whispered that the child was no son of Taiko Sama, and, even if he were, the nobles who had resented the rule of the low-born chief, whom they were forced to obey, were not disposed to continue their submission to his child. What has always happened in such conjunctures was sure to happen now. The other guardians of the young prince, suspicious of Iyéyasu, began to draw together their troops; Iyéyasu summoned his men; and soon after, in October, 1600, the rival armies confronted each other on the field of Sékigahara, near Lake Biwa, in the centre of the kingdom. Iyéyasu gained a decisive victory; his enemies were scattered with fearful slaughter; and the young Hidéyori was at the mercy of the conqueror. To the credit of the latter, his captive received no harm, but continued to lead a life of almost perfect freedom in his strong castle of Ozaka.

It was, then, only a few months before this decisive battle that Adams had his first interview with Iyéyasu, the emperor as he styles him, at Ozaka. How he found favour in his eyes, was taken into his confidence, “learned him some points of geometry and understanding of the arts of mathematics”, built him ships and, in fine, gained such influence that “what I said he would not contrary,” Adams himself has told us in that letter which, a captive in a far-off land, he addressed so pathetically to his “unknown friends and countrymen.” But when, in his yearning to see wife and children again, “according to conscience and nature”, he prayed for liberty to return to his country, Iyéyasu hardened his heart and would not let him go. The most that was granted was leave for the Dutch captain of the ship[7] and one of the crew to depart. This they did; and it should be noted that it was by the help of the daimio of Firando, who now first appears upon the scene, that they found a junk wherein to sail. The captain was soon after killed fighting against the Portuguese. His companion returned and settled at Nagasaki, being the Melchor van Sanfort (or Sanvoort) whom we meet in the diary. Others of the crew no doubt settled in the country. One of them is incidentally mentioned by Cocks (i. 171).

Adams’s letter above referred to was written in October, 1611. It reached the English factory at Bantam probably early in 1612; but the idea of opening trade with Japan had already been entertained in England. Adams’s story was known there by reports from the Dutch; and letters announcing the intentions of the East India Company were sent out to him by the ship Globe, which sailed in January, 1611. In April following, the Clove, the Thomas, and the Hector were despatched under command of Captain John Saris, with letters from King James I. to the Emperor of Japan. Arriving at Bantam in October, 1612, Saris remained there till the beginning of the new year, and then, on the 14th of January, sailed for Japan in the ship Clove, with a crew of some seventy men. On the 10th of June, off Nagasaki, he first sighted the western coast of Kiushiu, and two days after came to an anchor in the haven of Firando.

The first to greet the English commander were the old daimio or tono, Foyne Sama, then in his seventy-second year, and his grandson, a young man of two-and-twenty, who shared the government. Both are styled kings; and the latter is Figen a (or Figeno) Sama, who appears throughout Cocks’s diary as the king of Firando. Foyne Sama seems to have