Part 2

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]