_Origin and Commencement of English Intercourse with Japan—Captain
Saris’ Voyage thither, and Travels and Observations there—New Spanish
Embassy from the Philippines—Commercial Rivalry of the Dutch and
English—Richard Cocks, Head of the English Factory—A. D. 1611-1613._
The pilot, Adams, having heard from Spex that certain English merchants
had established themselves in the island of Java, he wrote to them,
under date of October 22, 1611, giving an account of himself, and
enclosing a letter to his wife, which he besought these unknown
countrymen of his to convey to his friends at Limehouse or in Kent,
so that his wife, “in a manner a widow,” and his fatherless children,
might hear of him, and he of them, before his death. “You shall
understand,” wrote Adams, “that the Hollanders have here an Indies of
money, so that they need not to bring silver out of Holland to the
East Indies, for in Japan there is much gold and silver to serve their
turn in other places where need requireth.” He enumerated as vendible
in Japan for ready money, raw silk, damask, black taffetas, black and
red cloth of the best kinds, lead, etc. To a somewhat exaggerated, and
otherwise not very correct account of the extent and the geography
of the Japanese dominions, he added the following description of
the inhabitants: “The people of this island of Japan are good of
nature, courteous above measure, and valiant in war. Their justice is
severely executed, and without partiality, upon transgressors. They
are governed in great civility. I think no land in the world better
governed by civil policy. The people are very superstitious in their
religion, and are of diverse opinions. There are many Jesuit and
Franciscan friars in this land, and they have converted many to be
Christians, and have many churches in the island.”
This letter, which was given in charge to the master’s mate of the
Dutch vessel, must have reached the English East India Company’s
factory at Bantam, in Java, previous to the first of June, 1612, for on
that day an answer to it was despatched by the “Globe,” which had just
arrived from England, and which, sailing from Bantam to Patania, met
there the same master’s mate who had brought Adams’ letter, and who,
being just about to return to Japan in a Dutch pinnace, promised to
deliver the answer.
Already, however, independently of Adams’ letter, a project had been
started in England for opening a trade with Japan, founded upon a
knowledge of Adams’ being there, derived from the crew of the Dutch
ship, the “Red Lion.” The “Globe,” which left England January 5,
1611, carried letters to Adams to that effect, and she was followed
in April by the “Clove,” the “Thomas,” and the “Hector,” under the
command of Captain John Saris, an old adventurer in the East, and a
former resident of Bantam, with letters from the king of England to the
emperor of Japan[85].
After touching, trading, negotiating and fighting, at Socotra, Mocha,
and other ports of the Red Sea, Saris arrived at Bantam in October,
1612. Soon after his arrival the letter of Adams was re-read in
presence of the assembled merchants; and doubtless it encouraged Saris
in his project of visiting Japan. Having taken in seven hundred sacks
of pepper, in addition to the broadcloths, gunpowder, and other goods
brought from England, Saris sailed on the 14th of January, 1618, in the
“Clove,” his crew consisting of seventy-four English, one Spaniard,
one Japanese, to serve as an interpreter, he speaking also the Malay
language, which Captain Saris understood, and five Swarts, probably
Malays.
Passing in sight of the south coast of Celebes, Saris touched at
several of the ports in the group of the Moluccas, occupied at that
time, some of them by Dutch and others by Spanish factories,—the
Spaniards from Manila having come to the rescue of the Portuguese, whom
the Dutch had driven out. Regarding all new comers (if of any other
nation than their own) with scarcely less suspicion and hostility than
they did each other, and both of them joining to oppress and plunder
the unhappy natives, “who were wrought upon,” so Saris says, “to spoil
one another in civil war,” the Dutch and Spaniards, secure in strong
forts, sat by and looked on, “prepared to take the bone from him that
would wrest it from his fellow.” The Dutch fort at Buchian had a
garrison of thirty Dutch soldiers, and eleven Dutch women, “able to
withstand the fury of the Spaniard, or other nation whatsoever, being
of a very lusty, large breed.”
The Dutch commander would not allow the natives to trade with the
English, even to the extent of a single _katty_ of cloves, threatening
with death those who did so, and claiming all the Spice Islands held by
them as “their country, conquered by the sword they having, with much
loss of blood and money, delivered the inhabitants from the tyranny of
the Portuguese, and having made a perpetual contract with them for the
purchase of all their spices at a fixed rate,” in the case of cloves
at about eight cents the pound. This claim of exclusive right of trade
Captain Saris declined to acknowledge; at the same time he professed
his readiness to give the Dutch, “as neighbors and brethren in Christ,”
a preference in purchasing any part of his cargo of which they might
happen to stand in need.
The English and Dutch had been ready enough to join together in
breaking up the Portuguese and Spanish monopoly, and in forcing a trade
in the Indian seas; but it was already apparent that the Dutch East
India Company, which in the amount of capital at its command very far
surpassed the English Company, was bent on establishing a monopoly
of its own, not less close than that formerly maintained by the
Portuguese. The Spaniards, on the other hand, professed friendship, and
made some offers of trade; but Captain Saris, suspecting treachery, did
not choose to trust them.
On the 14th of April, he left the Moluccas, and stood on his course
for Japan. On the 10th of June, having been in sight of land for a day
or two, his ships were boarded by four great fishing-boats, fitted
with both sails and oars, from whose crews they learned that they were
off the harbor of Nagasaki. In fact, one of these boats belonged to
the Portuguese, and was manned by “new Christians,” who had mistaken
the ships of Captain Saris for the annual Portuguese carac. Finding
their mistake, no entreaty could prevail upon them to stay; but two of
the other boats, for thirty dollars each in money, and rice for food,
agreed to pilot the ship to Hirado, by the pilot’s reckoning some
thirty leagues to the north, and the boatmen coming on board began to
assist in working the vessel, showing themselves not less handy than
the English sailors.
No sooner had the ship anchored off Hirado, than she was visited by the
king or hereditary governor of that island, by name Hōin Sama,—the same
who had shown so much favor to the Dutch,—upward of seventy years old,
attended by his nephew or grandchild, a young man of two-and-twenty,
who governed under him. They came with forty boats or galleys, with
from ten to fifteen oars a side; but on approaching the vessel, all
fell back, except the two which carried the princes, who came on board
unattended, except by a single person each. They were bareheaded and
barelegged, wearing shoes, but no stockings; the fore-part of their
heads shaven to the crown, and their hair behind, which was very long,
gathered up into a knot. They were clad in shirts and breeches, over
which was a silk gown girt to them, with two swords of the country at
their side, one half a yard in length, the other half as long. Their
manner of salutation was to put off their shoes, and then stooping,
with their right hand in their left, and both against their knees, to
approach with small sidling steps, slightly moving their hands at the
same time, and crying _Augh! Augh!_
Captain Saris conducted them to his cabin, where he had a banquet
spread, and a concert of music, with which they seemed much delighted.
The old king received with much joy a letter from the king of England,
but put off reading it till “_Ange_” (or, according to Adams’ way
of writing it, Angin [Anjin[86]]) should come —that word being the
Japanese for pilot, and the name by which Adams was known, to whom,
then at Yedo, letters were sent the same night, as also to the emperor.
As soon as the king had gone on shore, all his principal people,
attended by a multitude of soldiers, entered the ship, each man of
consequence bringing a present of venison, wild boar, large and fat
wild fowl, fruits, fish, etc.; but as the crowd proved troublesome,
King Hōin sent an officer on board to keep order and prevent mischief.
The next day came some threescore great boats or galleys, very well
manned, which towed the vessel into the harbor, of which the entrance
was narrow and dangerous. Here they anchored in five fathoms, so close
to the shore that they could talk with the people in the houses,
saluting the town with nine pieces of ordnance—a compliment which
the inhabitants were unable to return, having no cannon, only pieces
for small shot. The ship was speedily surrounded with boats full of
people, who seemed much to admire her head and stern, and the decks
were so crowded with men, women, and children, that it was impossible
to move about. The captain took several of the better sort of women
into his cabin, where a picture of Venus and Cupid “did hang somewhat
wantonly, set out in a large frame, which, mistaking it for the Virgin
and her Son, some of those women kneeled to and worshipped with great
devotion,” at the same time whispering in a low tone, that they might
not be overheard by their companions, that they were _Christianos_;
by which it was understood that they were converts of the Portuguese
Jesuits.
Soon after, King Hōin came again on board, and brought with him four
women of his family. They were barelegged, except that a pair of
half-buskins were bound by a silk ribbon about their insteps, and were
clad in a number of silk gowns, one skirt over another, bound about
their waists by a girdle, their hair very black and long, and tied in
a comely knot on the crown of the head, no part of which was shaven,
like the men’s. They had good faces, hands, and feet, clear-skinned and
white, but wanting color; which, however, they supplied by art. They
were low in stature and very fat, courteous in behavior, of which they
well understood the ceremonials according to the Japanese fashion. At
first they seemed a little bashful; but the king “willing them to be
frolic,” and all other company being excluded except Captain Saris and
the interpreter, they sang several songs, playing on an instrument much
like a guitar, but with four strings only, which they fingered very
nimbly with the left hand, holding in the other a piece of ivory, with
which they touched the strings, playing and singing by book, the tunes
being noted on lines and spaces, much the same as European music.
Not long after, desirous to be “frolic,” the king brought on board a
company of female actors—such as were common in Japan, little better,
it would seem, than slaves and courtesans, being under the control of a
master, who carried them from place to place, selling their favors, and
“exhibiting comedies of war, love, and such like, with several shifts
of apparel for the better grace of the matter acted.”
[Illustration: PERFORMERS ON THE KOTO AND THE SAMISEN]
It appeared, however, on a subsequent occasion, on which several of
the English were present, that, besides these professional actors, the
king and his principal courtiers were accustomed, on certain great
festivals, at which the whole country was present, to present a
play, of which the matter was the valiant deeds of their ancestors,
from the beginning of their kingdom or commonwealth, intermixed,
however, with much mirth, “to give the common people content.” On that
occasion they had as musical instruments, to assist their voices,
little tabors or stringed instruments, small in the middle and large at
both ends, like an hour-glass; also fifes; but though they kept exact
time, the whole performance was very harsh to English ears.
While waiting for Adams, who presently arrived, after being seventeen
days on his way, a house on shore for a factory was hired, furnished
with mats, according to the custom of the country, for a rent of about
ninety-five dollars for six months. Not long after, leaving Mr. Richard
Cocks in charge of the factory and the trade, Captain Saris set out on
a visit to the emperor, attended by Adams and seventeen persons of his
own company, including several mercantile gentlemen, a tailor, a cook,
the surgeon’s mate, the Japanese interpreter, the coxswain, and one
sailor. He was liberally furnished by old King Hōin with a conductor
for the journey, a large galley, of twenty-five oars a side, manned
with sixty men, and also with a hundred taels in Japanese money (equal
to one hundred and twenty-five dollars), to pay his expenses, which,
however, Captain Saris directed Cocks to place to King Hōin’s credit as
so much money lent.
The galley being handsomely fitted up with waist-cloths and ensigns,
they coasted along the western and northern shores of the great island
of Shimo (or Kiūshiū), off the northwest coast of which the small
island of Hirado lay. As they coasted along, they passed a number of
handsome towns. Hakata, distant two days’ rowing from Hirado, had
a very strong castle of freestone, with a wide and deep ditch and
drawbridge, kept in good repair, but without cannon or garrison.
Here, finding the current too strong, they stopped to dine. The town
seemed as large as London within the walls, very well built, with
straight streets. As they landed, they had experience, repeated almost
wherever they went, of that antipathy to foreigners, so characteristic
a trait of the country; for the boys, children, and worser sort of
idle people, would gather about them, crying out _Coré, Coré, Cocoré,
Waré_[87], taunting them by these words as Coreans with false hearts,
whooping, hallowing, and making such a noise, that the English could
hardly hear each other speak, and even in some places throwing stones
at them—all which went on without any interference on the part of the
public officers. In general, however, the police was very strict, and
punishments very prompt and bloody. Saris saw several executions in
the streets, after which, every passer-by was allowed to try his sword
on the dead bodies, which thus are chopped into small pieces, and left
for the birds of prey to devour. All along the coast they noticed many
families living in boats upon the water, as in Holland, the women being
very expert fishers, not only with lines and nets, but by diving, which
gave them, however, blood-shot eyes.
Coasting through the Strait of Shimonoseki, and the channel which
separates Nippon from the two more southern islands, on the twentieth
day after leaving Hirado they reached the entrance of a river, a
short distance up which lay the town of Ōsaka, which, however, they
could only reach in a small boat. This town, which seemed as large
as Hakata, had many handsome timber bridges across a river as wide as
the Thames at London. It had, also, a great and very strong castle of
freestone, in which, as they were told, the son of the late emperor,
left an infant at his father’s decease, was kept a close prisoner. Some
nine miles from Ōsaka, on the other side of the river, lay the town
of Sakai, not so large, but accessible to ships, and a place of great
trade.
Leaving their galley at Ōsaka, Captain Saris and his company passed in
boats up a river or canal, one day’s journey, to Fushimi, where they
found a garrison of three thousand soldiers, maintained by the emperor
to keep in subjection Ōsaka and the still larger neighboring city of
Miyako [Kyōto]. The garrison being changed at that time, the old troops
marching out, and new ones marching in, a good opportunity was afforded
to see their array. They were armed with a species of fire-arms, pikes,
swords, and targets, bows and arrows, and _wakizashi_, described as
like a Welsh hook. They marched five abreast, with an officer to every
ten files, without colors or musical instruments, in regiments of from
a hundred and fifty to five hundred men, of which one followed the
other at the distance of a league or two, and were met for two or three
days on the road. Captain Saris was very favorably impressed with the
discipline and martial bearing of these troops. The captain-general,
whom they met in the rear, marched in very great state, hunting and
hawking all the way, the hawks being managed exactly after the European
fashion. The horses were of middle size, small-headed, and very full of
mettle.
At Fushimi, Captain Saris and his company quitted their bark, and were
furnished each man with a horse to travel overland to Suruga, where
the emperor held his court. For Captain Saris a palanquin was also
provided, with bearers to carry it, two at a time, six in number where
the way was level, but increased to ten when it became hilly. A spare
horse was led beside the palanquin for him to ride when he pleased,
and, according to the custom of the country with persons of importance,
a slave was appointed to run before him, bearing a pike.
Thus they travelled, at the rate of some forty-five miles a day, over
a highway for the most part very level, but in some places cut through
mountains; the distances being marked, in divisions of about three
miles, by two little hillocks on each side of the way, planted at the
top with a fair pine-tree, “trimmed round in fashion of an arbor.”
This road, which was full of travellers, led by a succession of farms,
country-houses, villages, and great towns. It passed many fresh rivers
by ferries, and near many _hotoke_[88], or temples, situated in groves,
“the most pleasantest places for delight in the whole country.”
Every town and village was well furnished with taverns, where meals
could be had at a moment’s warning. Here, too, lodgings were obtained,
and horses and men for the palanquin were taken up by the director of
the journey, like post-horses in England. The general food was observed
to be rice. The people ate also fish, wild fowl of various kinds,
fresh and salted, and various picked herbs and roots. They ploughed
with horses and oxen, as in Europe, and raised good red wheat. Besides
_sake_, made from rice, they drank with their food warm water[89].
The entrance of the travellers into Suruga, where the emperor held
his court, and which they reached on the seventh day, was not very
savory, as they were obliged to pass several crosses, with the dead
and decaying bodies of the malefactors still nailed to them. This city
they judged to be as large as London with all the suburbs[90]. The
handicraftsmen dwelt in the outskirts of the town, so as not to disturb
with their pounding and hammering the richer and more leisurely sort.
After a day or two spent in preparations, Saris, accompanied by the
merchants and others, went in his palanquin to the palace, bearing
his presents, according to the custom of the country, on little
tables, or rather salvers, of a sweet-smelling wood. Having entered
the castle, he passed three drawbridges, each with its guard, and,
ascending a handsome stone staircase, he was met by two grave, comely
men, Kōzuke-no-Suke, the emperor’s secretary, and Hyōgo-no-Kami, the
admiral, who led him into a matted antechamber. Here they all sat down
on the mats, but the two officers soon rose again, and took him into
the presence-chamber, to bestow due reverence on the emperor’s empty
chair of state. It was about five feet high, the sides and back richly
ornamented with cloth of gold, but without any canopy. The presents
given in the name of the king, and others by Captain Saris in his own
name (as the custom of the country required), were arranged about this
room.
After waiting a little while longer in the antechamber, it was
announced that the emperor had come, when the officers motioned Saris
into the room, but without entering themselves. Approaching the
emperor, he presented, with English compliments (on his knee, it may be
presumed), the king’s letter, which the emperor took and raised toward
his forehead, telling the interpreter to bid them welcome after their
wearisome journey, and that in a day or two his answer would be ready.
He invited them in the mean time to visit his son, who resided at Yedo.
The country between Suruga and Yedo, which were two days’ journey
apart, was found to be well inhabited. They saw many temples on the
way, one of which contained a gigantic image of Buddha[91], made of
copper, hollow within, but of very substantial thickness. It was, as
they guessed, twenty-two feet high, in likeness of a man kneeling on
the ground, and seated on his heels, clothed in a gown, his arms of
wonderful size, and the whole body in proportion. The echo of the
shouts of some of the company, who went into the body of it, was very
loud. Some of the English left their names written upon it, as they saw
was customary.
Yedo was found to be a city much larger than Suruga, and with much
handsomer buildings, making a very glorious appearance as they
approached, the ridge tiles and corner tiles, and the posts of the
doors, being richly gilded and varnished. There were, however, no glass
windows, but window-shutters instead, opening in leaves, and handsomely
painted.
From Yedo, where our travellers were received much as they had been
at Suruga, they proceeded some forty miles, by boats, to Uraga,
an excellent harbor on the sea-side, whence, in eight days, they
coasted round a projecting point of land back to Suruga, where they
received the emperor’s answer to the king’s letter, also an engrossed
and official copy of certain privileges of trade, a draught of which
they had furnished to the emperor’s secretary, and which, having been
condensed as much as possible, to suit the Japanese taste for brevity,
and thus reduced from fourteen articles to eight, were expressed in the
following terms[92]:
“1. _Imprimis._ We give free license to the subjects of the king of
Great Britain, namely, Sir Thomas Smith, governor, and the company
of the East India merchants and adventurers, forever, safely to come
into any of the ports of our empire of Japan, with their ships and
merchandises, without any hindrance to them or their goods, and to
abide, buy, sell and barter, according to their own manner, with all
nations: to tarry here as long as they think good, and to depart at
their pleasures.
“2. _Item._ We grant unto them freedom of custom for all such
merchandises as either now they have brought or hereafter they shall
bring into our kingdoms, or shall from hence transport to any foreign
part; and do authorize those ships that hereafter shall arrive and
come from England, to proceed to present sale of their commodities,
without further coming or sending up to our court.
“3. _Item._ If any of their ships shall happen to be in danger of
shipwreck, we will our subjects not only to assist them, but that such
part of ship and goods as shall be saved be returned to their captain
or cape-merchant[93], or their assigns: and that they shall or may
build one house or more for themselves, in any part of our empire
where they shall think fittest, and at their departure to make sale
thereof at their pleasure.
“4. _Item._ If any of the English, merchants or other, shall depart
this life within our dominions, the goods of the deceased shall remain
at the dispose of the cape-merchant: and all offenses committed by
them shall be punished by the said cape-merchant, according to his
discretion; our laws to take no hold of their persons or goods.
“5. _Item._ We will that ye our subjects, trading with them for any
of their commodities, pay them for the same according to agreement,
without delay, or return of their wares again unto them.
“6. _Item._ For such commodities as they have now brought, or shall
hereafter bring fitting for our service and proper use, we will
that no arrest be made thereof, but that the price be made with the
cape-merchant, according as they may sell to others, and present
payment upon the delivery of the goods.
“7. _Item._ If, in discovery of other countries for trade, and return
of their ships, they should need men or victuals, we will that ye our
subjects furnish them for their money as their need shall require.
“8. And that, without further passport, they shall and may set out
upon the discovery of Yezo[94], or any other part in and about our
empire[95].”
The letter from the emperor to the king of England did not differ very
materially from that to the prince of Orange, already given. [See
Appendix, Note 1.]
In the original draught of the Privileges, there had been an additional
article, to the effect that, as the Chinese had refused to trade with
the English, in case the English should capture any Chinese ships, they
might be allowed the privilege of selling such prizes in the Japanese
ports; but this article, upon consideration, the emperor refused to
grant.
While these documents were under consideration, a Spanish ambassador
from the Philippines had arrived at Suruga with the request that
such Portuguese and Spaniards as were in the emperor’s territories
without authority from the king of Spain might be delivered up to be
transported to the Philippines—a request occasioned by the great want
of men to defend the Spanish posts in the Moluccas against the Dutch,
who were then preparing to make an absolute conquest of the whole of
those islands. But to this demand the emperor replied that his country
was a free country, and nobody should be forced out of it; but if the
ambassador could persuade any of his countrymen to go, they should
not be prevented; whereupon the ambassador departed, not a little
discontented.
The day after receiving the emperor’s letter and the Privileges, being
the 9th of October, Captain Saris and his company set out by land for
Miyako, where the presents were to be delivered to him, over the same
road by which they had travelled from Ōsaka to Suruga; but, owing to
the heavy rains and the rising of the river, their progress was much
delayed.
Miyako they found to be the greatest and most commercial city of Japan.
Here, too, was the largest hotoke, or temple, in the whole country,
built of freestone, begun by the late emperor, and just finished by
the present one, as long, they estimated, as the part of St. Paul’s,
in London, westerly from the choir, being as high-arched, and borne
upon pillars like that[96]. This temple was attended upon by a great
many bonzes or priests, who thus obtained their living, being supported
by the produce of an altar, on which the worshippers offered rice and
small pieces of money, and near which was a colossal copper image, like
that already described, but much larger, reaching to the very arch of
the temple, which itself stood on the top of a hill, having an avenue
of approach on either side of fifty stone pillars, ten paces apart, on
each of which was suspended a lantern, lighted every night[97].
Here, also, the Jesuits had a very stately college, in which many of
them reside, both Portuguese and natives, and in which many children
were trained up in the Christian religion according to the Romish
church. In this city alone there were not less than five or six
thousand professing Christians[98].
But already that persecution was commenced which ended in the
banishment of the Jesuits from Japan, and, indeed, in the exclusion of
all Europeans, with a slight exception in favor of the Dutch. Following
up an edict of the previous year, against the Franciscans, the emperor
had issued a proclamation, about a month before Captain Saris’ arrival
at Suruga, that no church should stand, nor mass be sung, within ten
leagues of his court, upon pain of death.
Having at length received the emperor’s presents for the king of
England, being ten byōbu [screen] or “large pictures to hang a chamber
with,” they proceeded the same day to Fushimi and the next to Ōsaka,
where they reëmbarked in the galley which had been waiting for them,
and returned to Hirado, having spent just three months on the tour.
Captain Saris found that, during his absence, seven of his crew had
run away to Nagasaki, where they had complained to the Portuguese of
having been used more like dogs than men. Others, seduced by drink
and women, and sailor boarding-house keepers,—just the same in Japan
as elsewhere,—had committed great irregularities, quarrelling with
the natives and among themselves, even to wounding, and maiming, and
death. What with these troubles, added to a “_tuffon_,” [typhoon]—a
violent storm,—which did a good deal of damage (though the ship rode it
out with five anchors down), and alarms of conflagration, founded on
oracles of the bonzes, and numerous festivals and entertainments, at
which Cocks had been called upon to assist,—one of which was a great
feast, lasting three days and three nights, to which the Japanese
invited their dead kindred, banqueting and making merry all night at
their graves[99],—but little progress had been made in trade. The cargo
consisted largely of broadcloths, which the Dutch had been selling,
before the English came, at seventeen dollars the yard. Captain Saris
wished to arrange with them to keep up the price, but the head of
their factory immediately sent off to the principal places of sale
large quantities, which he disposed of at very low prices, in order to
spoil the market. The natives, also, were the more backward to buy,
because they saw that the English, though very forward to recommend
their cloth, did not much wear it themselves, the officers being
clothed in silks, and the men in fustians. So the goods were left in
charge of the factory, which was appointed to consist of eight English,
including Cocks and Adams (who was taken into the service of the East
India Company on a salary of one hundred pounds a year), three Japanese
interpreters, and two servants, with charge, against the coming of the
next ships, to search all the neighboring coasts to see what trade
might be had with any of them.
The matter arranged, and having supplied the place of those of his crew
who had died or deserted, by fifteen Japanese, and paid up a good many
boarding-house and liquor-shop claims against his men, to be deducted
out of their wages, Captain Saris sailed on the 5th of December for
Bantam, where he arrived the 3d of January, 1614. Having taken in a
cargo of pepper, he sailed for home on the 13th of February, anchored
off the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of May, and, on the 27th of
September, arrived at Plymouth, having in the preceding six weeks
experienced worse weather and encountered more danger than in the whole
voyage beside[100].