WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society.
DIARY
OF
RICHARD COCKS.
FIRST SERIES. NO. LXVI-MDCCCLXXXIII
DIARY
OF
RICHARD COCKS
CAPE-MERCHANT IN THE ENGLISH FACTORY IN JAPAN
1615-1622
_WITH CORRESPONDENCE_
EDITED BY
EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON
VOL. I
BURT FRANKLIN, PUBLISHER
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Published by
BURT FRANKLIN
514 West 113th Street
New York 25, N. Y.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
REPRINTED BY PERMISSION
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
COUNCIL
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
COLONEL H. YULE, C.B., PRESIDENT.
ADMIRAL C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, C.B. } VICE-PRESIDENTS.
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR HENRY RAWLINSON, K.C.B. }
W. A. TYSSEN AMHERST, ESQ., M.P.
REV. DR. G. P. BADGER, D.C.L.
J. BARROW, ESQ., F.R.S.
WALTER DE GRAY BIRCH, ESQ., F.S.A.
CAPTAIN LINDESAY BRINE, R.N.
E. H. BUNBURY, ESQ.
THE EARL OF DUCIE, F.R.S.
CAPTAIN HANKEY, R.N.
LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR J. HENRY LEFROY, C.B., K.C.M.G.
R. H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.S.A.
REAR-ADMIRAL MAYNE, C.B.
E. DELMAR MORGAN, ESQ.
ADMIRAL SIR ERASMUS OMMANNEY, C.B., F.R.S.
LORD ARTHUR RUSSELL, M.P.
THE LORD STANLEY, OF ALDERLEY.
B. F. STEVENS, ESQ.
EDWARD THOMAS, ESQ., F.R.S.
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR HENRY THUILLIER, C.S.I., F.R.S.
T. WISE, ESQ., M.D.
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, ESQ., C.B., F.R.S., HONORARY SECRETARY.
PREFACE.
The history of the English trading settlement in Japan in the first
quarter of the seventeenth century is the history of a failure; and the
causes of the failure are not far to seek. Choosing for their depôt
an insignificant island in the extreme west of the kingdom, without
even good anchorage to recommend it, and at a far distance from the
capital cities of Miako and Yedo, with the Dutch for their neighbours
and, as it proved, their rivals, the English may be said to have
courted disaster. It is true that Firando was a ready port for shipping
coming from Europe; its ruler was friendly; and it lay in a convenient
position from whence to open the much-desired trade with China. And
the policy of making common cause with the Protestant Hollanders
against the Spaniards and Portuguese, who had first secured a footing
in Japan and were powerful in the neighbouring town of Nagasaki, would
have been a sound one, had the latter remained supreme. But, when the
English landed, the Dutch had already obtained privileges and had
established their trade in the country; and what ought to have been
foreseen inevitably came to pass. The Dutch were not allies; they were
rivals, who undersold the English in the market and in the end starved
them out of the country. Possibly, if our countrymen had been allowed
to maintain the branch factories which they started in some of the
principal towns, they might have held their own against their rivals,
in spite of the limited trade which Japan afforded; but when their
privileges were curtailed and they were restricted to Firando, their
case became desperate.
Purchas, in his _Pilgrimes_,[1] has told us the story of the first
landing of the English and its causes. The present volumes give us the
internal history of the factory. The original diary of Richard Cocks,
the chief factor, once formed part of those papers of the East India
Company, whose luckless fate it was to be destroyed or cast out of
their home in Leadenhall-street to wander through the world. Happily
the diary escaped many perils, and now rests in the British Museum,
where, bound in two volumes, it bears the numbers, Additional MSS.
31,300, 31,301. Unfortunately it is not complete. It runs from 1st
June, 1615, to 14th January, 1619, and from 5th December, 1620, to
24th March, 1622; but it has lost nothing since it left the Company's
archives.[2] I have not thought it necessary to print the whole of it;
but only those entries which have absolutely no interest, _e.g._ bare
memoranda of sales and purchases, have been omitted. As a supplement,
to illustrate the diary and to fill in the periods which are wanting
therein, I have added in an Appendix a selection from the letters of
Cocks and others, chiefly from the archives of the India Office.
* * * * *
Our early connection with Japan forms perhaps one of the most
interesting episodes in our mercantile history, and has a share of
romance imparted to it by the story of the English sailor whose name is
so intimately associated with it. William Adams, "a Kentish man, born
in a town called Gillingham, two English miles from Rochester, one mile
from Chatham where the king's ships do lie",[3] a seafaring man who had
served in the English navy, joined, as senior pilot, one of the Dutch
trading fleets which sailed for the East in 1598. Weighing anchor in
June, Adams and his companions encountered misfortune and delay on the
coast of Africa, so that it was not till April of the next year that
they reached the Straits of Magellan, where they were forced to pass
the 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 been a simple and unaffected old man, not averse to merry-making,
but firm, and, says Saris, "famed to be the worthiest soldier of all
Japan, for his valour and service in the Corēan wars."[8] Old as he was
and good-humoured as he appeared, we see something of the sterner side
of his character in certain remarks of our diarist. Almost immediately
after their arrival the English sailors began quarrelling and drew
from him a reproof which, though gentle, was a sufficient hint; and
we are told, at a later date, when his dog "Balle" was accidentally
killed by the English cook, that "if this had happened in the time of
Foyne Sama, who esteemed this dog much, it might have cost us all our
lives" (i. 248). The readiness with which he welcomed and encouraged
foreign trade is creditable, and proves that he understood, at all
events in some degree, the benefits which his small principality might
derive from it. He died in 1614, about a year after the establishment
of the English factory. The young king had not the force of character
of his grandfather. Though generally keeping on fair terms with the
English, his temper was capricious, and he was probably too indolent
not to be ruled by his own ministers, some of whom appear to have been
all-powerful. The principal nobles and ministers at Firando were: Bongo
Sama or Nobesane, Foyne's brother, and consequently great-uncle to
Figen a Sama; Tonomon Sama, and Genta or Gentero Sama, Figen a Sama's
brothers, of whom the first acted as viceroy in the absence of the
king, and the second resided as hostage at the shogun's court and was
in favour there; Sangero Sama, a natural son of Foyne; Oyen Dono[9] and
Semi Dono, the royal secretaries; and Taccamon Dono, the chief justice,
"our enemy", as Cocks calls him (ii. 3).
The Dutch had already been settled in Firando for some years. In July,
1609, their ship the _Red Lion_ arrived in that port and, favoured
by Foyne Sama, they succeeded in obtaining from the shogun leave to
establish a factory and to send one or more ships annually from Europe.
It was not, however, till two years after this that another small ship,
the _Brach_, arrived, and two commissioners were sent up to pay the
usual visit to the court. One of these was Jacob Speck,[10] afterwards
head of the Dutch factory and the contemporary and rival of Cocks. At
the court at Suruga they were met by William Adams, whose influence
with the shogun was used to such good purpose that they received most
favourable terms for trading in the country, while two embassies of
the Portuguese and Spaniards, which were present about the same time,
failed to obtain the full privileges they sought.[11] The head of the
Dutch factory, when Saris landed, was Hendrik Brower; and at the very
first mention of his name by Cocks, the jealousy which was smouldering
in the hearts of the two nations shows itself: "Captain Brower went
along by the door but would not look at us, and we made as little
account of him."[12]
The first business for Saris to transact was the hire of a house, to
serve for a factory, from Captain Andassee, "Captain of the China
quarter", the Chinaman who appears all through the diary by the name of
Andrea Dittis; his next was to prepare to visit the court of Iyéyasu,
only waiting to be joined by William Adams, for whom he had sent and
who arrived on the 29th of July. They started on their journey on
the 7th of August, leaving Cocks to manage affairs at Firando, and
travelled by the same regular route over which Cocks was afterwards
so often to pass: down the inland sea to Ozaka, and thence by land to
Suruga[13] where Iyéyasu resided, and afterwards proceeding to Yedo
to visit Hidétada, son of the latter and actual shogun, to whom his
father, according to a not infrequent custom, had transferred the
title in 1605. It is needless to repeat here the interesting details
of this journey, which are to be found in Saris's own narrative in the
pages of Purchas. For our present purpose it is enough to state that
the travellers returned to Firando on the 6th of November with ample
privileges for trade.[14] One request was however refused, viz. the
right to bring into Japan and sell the goods of Chinese prizes which
might be captured as a punishment for rejection of the English trade.
This is only one of several instances that are recorded of Iyéyasu's
fairness to all foreigners alike and of his refusal to mix in their
quarrels. It was also understood that, on the arrival of a ship from
Europe, a present was to be carried to the shogun; and for trade with
neighbouring countries a goshon or licence was requisite for each junk
that sailed.
"Now touching a factory to be left there," says Saris, "I had on the
twenty-sixth [of November] assembled my merchandizing council, where,
upon these considerations, viz. the encouragement we had received in
the Moluccas by private intelligence; the Dutch factory already planted
here in Firando; the large privileges now obtained of the Emperor of
Japan; the certain advice of the English factories settled in Siam
and Patane; the commodities resting unsold upon our hands appointed
for these parts; and the hoped-for profit which further experience
may produce, it was resolved that a factory should be left there,
viz. eight English, three Japan jurebasses or interpreters, and two
servants, who were appointed against the coming of the next ships to
search and discover the coast of Corea, Tushmay, and other parts of
Japan and countries thereunto adjoining, to see what good might be
done in any of them."[15] The eight Englishmen who were thus appointed
members of the English factory, were: Richard Cocks, captain and cape-
(or head-) merchant, William Adams, Tempest Peacock, Richard Wickham,
William Eaton, Walter Carwarden, Edmund Sayers, and William Nealson.
Richard Cocks[16] was probably a native of Coventry; at all events
he was familiar with that city (i. 172), and had friends there (i.
229). His name appears in the charter of incorporation of the East
India Company, 31 Dec. 1600; and in the earlier list of "names of
such persons as have written with their own hands to venture in the
pretended voyage to the East Indies," 22 Sept. 1599, he is described as
a grocer and subscribes £200.[17] He himself tells us (ii. 317) that,
besides being a member of "this Right Honourable and Right Worshipful
Society or Company which trade to the East Indies," he belonged to the
Merchants Adventurers and was "made free of the old Hanse", and he was
also a member of the Clothworkers' Company. A certain Richard Cocks who
sailed with Frobisher in his third voyage to Meta Incognita, in 1578,
and who was distinguished as "the first to sail in among the ice", was
probably a relative.[18] From 1603 to 1608 he lived at Bayonne, no
doubt as a merchant. Many news-letters written by him from thence are
preserved in the Public Record Office, addressed to Sir Thomas Wilson,
secretary to Lord Treasurer Salisbury. From this we may infer that Sir
Thomas was Cocks's patron. The correspondence was continued when Cocks
was in Japan; and some of his letters which dwelt on the wonders of the
country were sent to King James to read, who declared them to contain
"the loudest lies that he had ever heard." Wilson pronounces the writer
to be, though not lettered, a man of honesty, years, and judgment.[19]
As Cocks becomes well known to us as we read his diary, we will leave
him for the present.
Of the other members of the factory, two soon disappeared from the
scene. Tempest Peacock and Walter Carwarden went on a trading venture
to Cochinchina, and, as we shall see, never returned. Richard Wickham
appears to have been in more independent circumstances than the rest.
Even before Saris's departure he began to give trouble, as his time
of agreement with the Company had nearly expired and he bargained for
higher wages. He resigned his place and left Japan early in 1618, and
died soon after at Jacatra in Java, worth, it was said, £5,000 or
£6,000. William Eaton and Edmund Sayers[20] were with the factory from
first to last. The former is called by Cocks "my countryman", probably
meaning that they were natives of the same place or district. William
Nealson was turbulent and quarrelsome, particularly when drink put him
into his "fustian fumes". He died in March, 1620, "being wasted away
with a consumption." After reading of their constant bickerings, one
smiles to find that he made Cocks his heir; and, piously adds Cocks,
"if God had called me in his mercy before Mr. Nealson, then had he had
as much of mine" (ii. 321).
When Adams accompanied Saris to court, he had at length got leave from
Iyéyasu to visit his native land. Why he did not choose to sail in the
_Clove_, as he at first intended, was, he himself tells us, because of
"some discourtesies offered me by the general." In fact, Saris seems
to have disagreed with him on several points, and did not treat him
generously. But, perhaps, a better reason for his stay was that which
Cocks gives: "that he was loth to return to his country a beggar";
for, although Iyéyasu had given him an estate of some extent, he was
ill provided with money. And yet another and nobler reason may have
influenced him. "In my simple judgment," he says in one of his letters,
"if the north-west passage be ever discovered, it will be discovered by
this way of Japan";[21] and Cocks adds, "Mr. Adams is of the opinion
that, if ever the north-east or north-west passages be found out, it
must be from these parts, and offereth his best services therein,
the Emperor promising his best furtherance with men or letters of
recommendation to all princes, and hath entrance already into an island
called Yedzo, which is thought to be rather some part of the continent
of Tartaria" (ii. 258). So Adams took service with the Company, after
some haggling over the amount of his wages, for two years;[22] and
constantly appears in the course of the diary in various employments.
Cocks was evidently a little afraid of him, and, while praising him
to the Company as "tractable and willing to do your Worships the best
service he may," he cautions Wickham to "have a due care to give
Capt. Adams content, which you may easily do if you use him with
kind speeches and fall not into terms with him upon any argument. I
am persuaded," he adds, "I could live with him seven years before
any extraordinary speeches should happen betwixt us." Our Cocks doth
protest too much. Adams's friendliness to his old comrades the Dutch
is ever a thorn in the side of the cape-merchant: "I cannot choose but
note it down that both I myself and all the rest of our nation do see
that he is much more friend to the Dutch than to the Englishmen, which
are his own countrymen, God forgive him." But, in spite of occasional
outbursts of this nature, they lived generally on friendly terms, and
there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of Cocks's sorrow when his
comrade died.
Two others joined the factory at a later date. John Osterwick, of Dutch
descent and a kinsman of Wickham, came out in 1615 and remained to
the end. Richard Hudson, whom Cocks in 1617 calls a boy, and who had
lost father and brother in the search for the north-west passage, was
employed as an unattached servant at the factory.
Saris sailed from Japan on the 5th of December, 1613. The merchandise
which stocked the factory consisted chiefly of broad cloth and woollen
and cotton piece goods; also of Bantam pepper, gunpowder, lead, tin,
etc. Its total value was about £5,650. The Company was sanguine enough,
on Saris's representation, to hope for such success in the Japan trade,
as to be able to export silver in sufficient quantity to maintain their
Indian trade. But Saris's estimate of the mercantile prospects was
based on false premises. When he arrived, the prices of imports were
extraordinarily high; but then the Dutch had the market nearly all to
themselves, and the demand for European goods was almost too limited
to give room for competition. Steel and lead alone among metals, and
silk among materials, sold readily. Saris indeed had tried to arrange
with the Dutch factor on a profitable price, at which both nations
should sell their cloth; but the latter immediately "shipped away
great store of cloth to divers islands, rating them at base prices
that he might procure the more speedy despatch of his own, and glut
the place before the coming of ours."[23] But even apart from Dutch
competition, cloth was not a favourite article of trade in Japan. Saris
soon found that the natives were backward in buying, especially when
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 physician cut in pieces. Cocks, however, was hard of
belief, and was convinced that "he will soon rise again, if any wars
be moved against his son within these three years." This son was the
shogun Hidétada, a man very different from his father in his manner of
regarding foreigners.
It was now necessary for the English to send up a deputation to court
for a confirmation of privileges under the new reign; and the ships
_Thomas_ and _Advice_ arriving from England just at the time, Cocks
got ready his presents and started at the end of July, in company with
Adams who had just returned from Siam. The account of the journey to
Yedo and of the audience with the shogun is very interesting. But they
did not obtain what they sought. The privileges were curtailed and
the English were restricted to the single port of Firando. In vain
did Cocks petition to have this decision reversed; and, although the
shogun's secretaries, Codskin Dono and Oyen Dono, did not seem to be
unfavourable, they declared that it was impossible to alter matters.
Inga Dono, also, the chief justice, could only tell Cocks "that at
present all matters were in other manner in Japan than in time of the
old Emperor"; and common report declared that "no man dare speak to
the Emperor of any matter they think is to his discontent, he is so
furious, and no means but death and destruction" (i. 186, 187). In the
end the English had to withdraw all their factors from Yedo, Miako,
Sackay, and Ozaka.[26]
But it was not only in this particular that things were changed.
Hidétada had determined to suppress Christianity. Since the first
arrival of the Portuguese Jesuits, followed by the rapid conversion
of whole districts in the western and southern parts of Japan, there
had been no systematic attempt to stifle the new religion. The story
told of Nobunaga, that, when he was urged to expel the Roman Catholic
missionaries, he remarked that, as there were already thirty-five
religious sects in Japan, a thirty-sixth could not make much
difference,[27] reflects the ease with which Christianity made its
way in the country; and the same ruler's policy of tolerating the new
tenets, while persecuting the Buddhist faith, gave them time to take
root and flourish. A sudden edict of Taiko Sama, expelling the Jesuits
from the kingdom, was not enforced to the utmost; and Iyéyasu generally
left them in peace, although towards the end of his reign fresh edicts
of banishment were issued and the sentence to a considerable extent
carried into effect. But many priests still lurked in the country;
and Cocks notices that the hostility shown to some of his men by the
natives of Omura was "by means of the padres, or priests, who stirred
them up against us to make us odious to the Japons, for they are all,
or the most part, papistical Christians in Umbra, and attribute a great
or chief occasion of banishment of them out of Japon by means of the
English, many papists and Jesuits lying secretly lurking in most parts
of Japon till this hour" (i. 139).[28] While Cocks was waiting in
Yedo for the copy of the privileges he tells us that the Council sent
"above twenty times" to question him about the religion of the English,
and were hardly persuaded that Protestants were distinct from Roman
Catholics. Even Adams, at whose house some Spaniards were staying, was
suspected of harbouring priests and received warning. These things
indicated, as the secretary Oyen Dono admitted, that the new ruler
meant indeed to "utterly extinguish" the Jesuits and friars out of
Japan; and there was good reason to believe that Christians of all
sects would soon go the same way. The immediate result of this severity
is seen soon after in the announcement, on the 22nd of May of the next
year, of the execution of a Franciscan and a Jesuit;[29] and other
persecutions followed afterwards.
Before Cocks returned to Firando, he visited William Adams's estate at
Phebe (Hémi)[30] which had been bestowed on him by Iyéyasu. "There is",
he says, describing it, "above one hundred farms or households upon
it, besides others under them, all which are his vassals, and he hath
power of life and death over them, they being his slaves, and he has
absolute authority over them as any tono or king in Japon hath over his
vassals." (i. 181.)
On their way back to Firando, they passed the site of Yoritomo's city
of Kamakura, "but now at present it is no city, but scattered houses
seated here and there in pleasant valleys betwixt divers mountains,
wherein are divers pagods very sumptuous, and a nunnery of shaven
women. I did never see such pleasant walks among pine and spruce trees
as there are about these pagods." This is the one place in all Japan
whose natural beauty seems to have impressed even the matter-of-fact
Cocks, who could dismiss the Hakoné Pass with its fine lake and scenery
in the one sentence, "Haconey on the top of the mountain, where the
great pond with the devil is, as they report."
The altered state of feelings at Yedo began soon to be reflected
at Firando. At the beginning of the new year the king showed a
disposition to meddle in the affairs of the English trade and betrayed
ill-humour in several small matters; and soon there were rumours that
both English and Dutch would have to shift to other quarters. These
disagreements drew a formal remonstrance from Cocks, who, "entering
into consideration of the small respect this king of Firando hath of us
in comparison of that which he had at our first entrance into Japon",
expressed his discontent in a "large letter"; which, however, was
received "in good part", and a friendly message returned. But, after
this, things never went quite so smoothly as before.
Other troubles also began to close in on the English. Their relations
with the Dutch were gradually becoming more and more estranged, until
their differences culminated in open rupture. In 1617 rumours reached
Firando of Dutch outrages on the English in Puloway, which tended
to increase the coolness so rapidly growing between the members of
the English and Dutch factories, who, as the Japanese observed, were
friends, "but from tooth outwards." The frequent piracies of the Dutch
upon the Chinese are reflected on by Cocks, who also accuses them of
gross cruelty to their prisoners. An aggravation of these crimes was
the fact that they were committed, if not under the English flag, at
least under the English name, the Dutch giving out that they were
English. Their success in this form of deception is illustrated by an
entry in the diary: "These Chinas in the junk [just captured] will not
be persuaded but that they are Englishmen which took them."[31] It was,
then, with only an outward show of friendship that the two nations
carried on their trade in Firando.
In August of this year the _Advice_ arrived from Bantam, and about the
same time Adams returned from a voyage to Cochinchina. Another journey
to court immediately followed; and this time no farther than Fushimi,
near Miako, whither the shogun had come to visit the mikado. A renewed
attempt, however, on the part of Cocks, to obtain an extension of the
privileges, the principal object of the journey, failed altogether. At
first, indeed, the right to trade in Nagasaki was added; but, in an
evil hour, one of the councillors took exception, and this concession
was cancelled. An answer was refused to a letter of James I., which was
now presented, on the ground that it was addressed to the dead shogun
Iyéyasu and that it was held "ominous amongst the Japans to answer to
dead men's letters." In the end, poor Cocks was, as he said, put to
"Hodgson's choice", and had to take what privileges he could, or none
at all. "So we got out our goshons, but the privileges as they were the
last year. Worry! worry! worry!" In fact, the Japanese themselves saw
the advantages to be derived from trade, and the shogun very naturally
"would have his own vassals to get the benefit to bring up merchandise
rather than strangers." The result was that a company of native
merchants appeared in the market and formed, if we may judge by Cocks's
account of them, what would now be called a ring.
It was on the occasion of this visit to court that Cocks and his
fellow-travellers came in contact with a Corean embassy, to which
he refers several times. The object of their mission, we are told,
was to pay a visit of ceremony to the sepulchre of Iyéyasu, and to
congratulate the new shogun upon his peaceful succession.
Nothing eventful occurred at the factory in the early part of 1618.
During a visit to Nagasaki in February and March, Cocks makes several
interesting references to the Christians whom he met among the natives;
and on his arrival at this half-Christianised town, the Chinese junks,
which were dressed with flags in his honour, flew the cross of St.
George among the rest. Before Foyne's death at Firando, the English
had been compelled to haul down their flag on account of the Christian
symbol that it bore. Meanwhile, however, on the north of Kiushiu bloody
persecutions were being carried on; and a little later is recorded the
news of the crucifixion of some thirty-seven men and women in Kokura.
Disquieting rumours were also afloat of a confederacy of the southern
daimios against the shogun.
Soon, however, occurred an event which concerned the English more
nearly than the political state of Japan. On the 8th of August, to
their intense indignation, a Dutch ship arrived at Firando bringing
in, as prize, the English ship _Attendance_, which had been captured
in the Moluccas. To do him justice, the Dutch factor Speck seems to
have regretted the action and offered to restore her, but not, as Cocks
remarks, before there had been time to empty her. An immediate journey
to court naturally followed, in order to put in a written protest
against this proceeding of the Dutch. But Cocks was told "that for
facts committed in other places the emperor would not meddle with it",
so that, but for the easing of his conscience afforded by the delivery
of his protest, and the pleasure of some sight-seeing, he might as well
have remained at Firando.
For nearly the whole of the year 1619 and 1620 the diary is wanting;
and during the early part of this period the Dutch were masters of
the sea, and the English in Japan were completely isolated. But, in
order to maintain their interests in the East, the English Company had
already, in 1617, despatched a fleet of five ships under command of
Captain Martin Pring. He reached Bantam in the middle of 1618, and,
sailing thence to Jacatra, had news of the Dutch attack on the English
in the Moluccas. He was soon after joined at Bantam by a reinforcement
of six large ships under Sir Thomas Dale, who assumed the command of
the combined fleet. After some skirmishing, the English retired to
India to refit; and there Dale died. Pring then again sailed eastward;
but, finding himself outnumbered by the Dutch, he was on the point,
early in 1620, of dividing his forces and himself sailing for Japan,
when he received news of the union of the English and Dutch Companies.
Thus relieved from fear of attack, he proceeded on his voyage and
reached Firando in safety.
How the English fared in Firando during these two years we learn from
Cocks's letters to the Company.[32] In the determined attack which
the Dutch made on the English factory there can be little doubt that,
had not the Japanese protected them, our countrymen would have fallen
victims to the Hollanders, who, "by sound of trumpet aboard all their
ships in the harbour of Firando, proclaimed open wars against our
English nation, both by sea and land, with fire and sword, to take
our ships and goods and destroy our persons to the uttermost of their
power, as to their mortal enemies." But in the midst of these troubles
there was a gleam of light in trade prospects, for the shogun was at
last induced, early in 1620, to allow Nagasaki to be included in the
English privileges. The advantages of that port, with its fine harbour,
over the poor "fisher town" of Firando, with its bad anchorage, are
duly set forth by Cocks; and we learn, at the same time, the reasons
why the larger town was not selected at first, "which heretofore
was not thought fit, because then a papist Portingale bishop lived
in the town, and there was ten or twelve parish churches, besides
monasteries." But now all was changed; churches and monasteries had
been levelled with the earth, and even graveyards uprooted and "all
the dead men's bones taken out of the ground and cast forth." The news
of the union of the two companies will account for the English still
remaining in their old quarters in Firando, to keep near the Dutch,
instead of migrating to Nagasaki.
Death had also in this interval brought misfortunes to the English
factory. The first loss was that of Whaw, the Chinaman, upon whom
Cocks so much relied to obtain privileges for the China trade. Then
Nealson died in March, 1620. And, last of all, "our good friend Captain
William Adams, who was so long before us in Japon, departed out of
this world the 16th of May last." If for no other reason, we must on
Adams's account deplore the loss of Cocks's diary for this period,
which would undoubtedly have contained some details of his last illness
and death. It is also to be regretted that we do not find more personal
details about Adams in the portions of the diary which have survived;
but he was so often absent on trading voyages and other business that
Cocks must be excused if he tells us no more than he does. As already
noticed, the cape-merchant held him in some awe, and, if we may believe
the diary, Adams was inclined to be somewhat hasty in temper. On the
other hand, he did the Company good and faithful service, and, to
judge by small things, the reader will not fail to notice the patience
with which he waited, time after time, on the dilatory pleasure of
court officials, in the interest of the English. His influence with
the shoguns is more than once referred to. "The Emperor [Iyéyasu],"
writes Cocks in 1616, "esteemeth him much, and he may go and speak with
him at all times, when kings and princes are kept out"; and again, in
1620: "I cannot but be sorrowful for the loss of such a man as Captain
William Adams was, he having been in such favour with two Emperors
of Japon as never was any Christian in these parts of the world, and
might freely have entered and had speech with the Emperors, when many
Japon kings stood without and could not be permitted." Adams had a
wife and daughter living in England. He also had a son and daughter
in Japan.[33] To all of these he left his property in equal shares.
References are several times made to the disposal of his goods and
to the transmission of money to England, as well as to difficulties
arising from the disposition of certain goshons or trading licences
belonging to his children in Japan.[34]
The result in Japan of the union of the English and Dutch Companies
was, as we have seen, that the English factory remained at Firando
instead of removing to the far more commodious town of Nagasaki.
A combined fleet of English and Dutch ships, sailing under the
modest name of the Fleet of Defence, was equipped for the purpose of
endamaging the common enemy and of diverting the trade of China from
the Philippine Islands to the Dutch and English settlements; in other
words, to blockade the Spanish and Portuguese ports and seize as many
of the Chinese trading junks as possible. In the two expeditions to
the Philippines undertaken by the fleet before the English and Dutch
again separated, they captured many prizes; and the Dutch are said to
have treated their Chinese prisoners with great cruelty, while their
new allies interfered to protect these unfortunate people. All the
time, however, that the English were thus engaged at sea, peaceful
negotiations were still being carried on by Cocks for establishing
trade with China, though it is not surprising that "our joining with
the Hollanders to take China junks is ill thought of."