Volume 1
Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China Seas and Japan : performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by order of the Government of the United States / Compiled from the original notes and journals of Commodore Perry and his officers, at his request, and under his supervision, by Francis L. Hawks.
- Matthew C. Perry
- Date:
- 1856
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China Seas and Japan : performed in the years 1852, 1853, and 1854, under the command of Commodore M.C. Perry, United States Navy, by order of the Government of the United States / Compiled from the original notes and journals of Commodore Perry and his officers, at his request, and under his supervision, by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![has told his own story with captivating simplicity; and it has been preserved in the pages of that worthy compiler, honest old Purchas. He tells ns as follows: “Your worships will understand that I am a Kentish man, horn in a town called Gillingham, two English miles from Eochester, and one mile from Chatham, where the queen’s ships do lie.” After stating that he was regularly apprenticed and bred a seaman, he thus proceeds : 111 have served in the place of master and pilot in her Majesty’s ships, and about eleven or twelve years served the worshipful company of the Barbary merchants, until the Indian traffic from Holland began; in which Indian traffic I was desirous to make a little experience of the small knowledge which God has given me. So, in the year of our Lord God 1598,1 hired myself for chief pilot of a fleet of five sail of Hollanders,” &c. But the “ little experience” of our English pilot proved both long and sad. Sickness broke out in the ships, the admiral and a great many of the men died; after divers calamities they reached the Straits of Magellan in April, 1599 ; they were forced, not by any fault of Adams but by the folly of the commander, to winter in the Straits, remaining in them nearly six months, until provisions were exhausted and some of the men actually died of hunger. At length, after getting into the Pacific, storms dispersed the fleet; some were lost, some captured; the savages on the islands where they landed in search of food and water, in more than one instance, lay in ambush and murdered the men ; and finally, after great suffering, it was resolved, on Adams’ advice, to make for Japan. Of the five ships that had left Holland together there remained but the one of which Adams was pilot. But he kept a stout heart, and at last, on the 11th of April, 1600, he saw the high lands of Japan in the province of Bungo, and on the 12th came to anchor, when there were actually but five men of the whole ship’s company able to go about and do duty. They were hospitably received, soldiers were placed on board to prevent a robbery of their goods, a house was provided for the sick, and their bodily wants were all supplied by the prince of Bungo, who sent word to the Emperor of their arrival. The Portuguese, it will be remembered, were already established in Japan, and one of their commercial depots was at Nagasaki. Five or six days after the arrival of the Dutch, there came from that place a Portuguese Jesuit, with some of his countrymen and some Japanese Christians. The former of these immediately denounced the Hollanders as pirates, denying that they had come for any purposes of trade, as they alleged, though their ship had a full cargo of merchandize on board. This created a prejudice against them in the minds of the Japanese, and the poor Hollanders lived in daily ex])ectation of being put to death. This was precisely what the Portuguese would have been glad to see, influenced by the double motive of hatred of heretics and the wish to monopolize trade. But the case having been submitted to the Emperor, who was then at Osaca, he ordered that Adams and one of the Dutch sailors should be sent to him. He was sent accordingly, and furnishes a long and interesting account of his interview with the monarch, (conducted through the medium of a Portuguese interpreter,) in the course of which Adams had an opportunity of showing the Emperor samples of the merchandize he had brought with him, and of begging that he and his companions might have liberty to trade, as the Portuguese had. An answer was returned in Japanese, but Adams did not understand it, and he was carried to prison, but his comforts seem to have been duly regarded. He remained in prison forty-one days, during all which time, as he subsequently discovered, the Jesuits and Portuguese residents spared no efforts to induce the Emperor to put](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29353099_0001_0050.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
