they saw that the English themselves did not wear the material they recommended, “for, said they, you commend your cloth unto us, but you yourselves wear least thereof, the better sort of you wearing silken garments, the meaner fustians.”[24] Cocks, too, naively remarks that the people of Japan are “so addicted to silks that they do not enter into consideration of the benefit of wearing cloth”(ii. 259). On the other hand, if cloth happened to rise in price, it at once commanded a sale among the wealthy, Wickham, in one of his letters, noticing the disposition of the Japanese, especially of the better sort, to buy those commodities which are most rare and when they are dearest. Spanish cloth, he says, never sold better than when it was high in price; when it fell, no one would look at it; when it again reached a high price, it recovered its reputation. Again, when warlike rumours were afloat there was a demand for cloth, as it was used for cases for arms; and so, we are told, the Japanese preferred good measure to fine quality. Sober colours were generally preferred. Venice red and flame colour would not sell at all in 1614. In 1620, blacks and reds are in fashion (ii. 311). Indian cloths sold not “so much for necessity as for the new and strange fashions and paintings thereof”, the Japanese “being a people desiring change” (ii. 273).

After Saris’s departure, however, the English factory lost no time in attempting to establish trade in the country. At the beginning of the new year Wickham was sent as agent to Yedo; Eaton was stationed at Ozaka; and Sayers had a commission to the northern parts of Kiushiu and the neighbouring island of Tsushima, the first step to trade with Corea. In Cocks’s letters to Wickham we see the anxiety caused by the competition of the Dutch. Wickham was to “sell away, although something under cento per cento,” and not to be outstripped by his rivals.

A junk was also fitted out with a cargo worth £750 to trade to Cochinchina, Tempest Peacock going in her as merchant (18th March, 1614) with Walter Carwarden to assist him. This venture was unfortunate. Peacock was killed in Cochinchina, treacherously as it appeared, and Carwarden was cast away on the return voyage. Although two attempts were subsequently made by Adams to renew intercourse, neither succeeded. Trade with Siam was also opened, a junk being at once bought and commissioned for the purpose. Adams showed skill and energy in fitting her for her voyage, and took the command in her first trip, which however failed, owing principally to the mutinous conduct of the crew. This venture was estimated at £1,400.

But the country with which the English most coveted commercial relations was China; and through all the diary and correspondence of Cocks negotiations are always in progress. The two Chinese traders, Andrea Dittis, the landlord of the English house mentioned above, and his brother Whaw or Whow, who was stationed at Nagasaki, were the agents through whom Cocks hoped to obtain a footing in China, where also a third brother was supposed to be negotiating with the authorities to obtain the desired privileges; and not inconsiderable sums were advanced to smooth the way. But China was then in a state of war and confusion, and although in the end, after years of waiting, Cocks was told that permission for trade was granted, no charter or other documents arrived, and, in any case, it was then, at the moment when the English were preparing to withdraw from Japan, too late to do anything.

The English factory, then, had been established about two years in June, 1615, the date at which Cocks’s diary begins. The house which had been hired of the China captain had been purchased and improved at a cost of nearly £600. Foyne Sama had been dead some twelve months, and Figen a Sama reigned in his stead. Captain Brower had disappeared from the Dutch factory to make room for Jacob Speck. And we are at once carried into the midst of native affairs. On the 2nd of June reports reached Firando of the total defeat of the young prince Hidéyori (Fidaia Sama) by Iyéyasu. As we have already seen, Hidéyori had been left in comparative freedom after the battle of Sékigahara. He had now grown to man’s estate, and had the sympathy of a large part of the country; and Cocks especially notices that the people of the southern parts “affect the young man more than the old.” Round him gathered all who had reason to fear or dislike his rival; and, when the final rupture took place, he had a following of 120,000 men. There can be little doubt that the young prince perished in the burning castle of Ozaka after the total defeat of his troops; but the fact that his body could not be found was enough to give rise to the rumour that he had escaped. His followers were hunted down and destroyed; but that he still lived was widely believed, and that belief lasted for years and is frequently noticed in these pages. Apollinario Franco, a Franciscan, who was present at the terrible scene at Ozaka, escaped to Firando and is mentioned early in the diary. Notwithstanding his protestant dislike of priests and friars, Cocks could not refuse Christian charity to one in such sore distress. We meet with him once or twice again. He died at the stake in Omura in 1622. After the destruction of Ozaka the shoguns adopted the policy of detaining for stated periods, at court, the daimios of the several provinces or some members of their families. This arrangement is often noticed by Cocks.

At the end of August arrived the ship Oziander (or Hozeander) from England, and Captain Ralph Coppindall was sent up to court with the customary present. In a letter written after his return to Firando he records the unprofitable nature of the trade of Japan: “either we must procure a peaceable trade in China, or else, as the Hollanders do, to trade with them perforce. And if we set foot in the Moluccas, this place will be a fit storehouse from whence we may always have men, munition, and victuals good store, and at reasonable rates” (ii. 271). These, indeed, were also the sentiments of the factors, and were repeated more than once.

A quarrel with the Portuguese and Spaniards at Nagasaki, who had seized and imprisoned two of their own countrymen for serving the English, is among the events of this year. And, however much they might disagree among themselves, English and Dutch were at one when attacking or attacked by the other two rival nations; so that the capture of a Portuguese junk by the Dutch and her condemnation through Adams’s influence at court as good prize gave unmixed satisfaction at Firando. In connection with this capture, an interesting conversation between Iyéyasu and Adams is recorded (ii. 276).

Early in 1616 a report began to circulate that Iyéyasu was dead. Cocks, with the caution with which he had learned to regard all Japanese news, rather viewed it as “a fable given out of purpose to see how people would take the matter”; and he, no doubt, only expresses the general feeling when he adds “once the old man is subtil”. In June the king of Firando is reported to have visited him, “but was only permitted to enter into his chamber, where they say he lay sick in a little cabin covered with paper”; and soon after it was known that he had really expired,[25] not however before he had had the satisfaction of having his