WILL ADAMS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 124, 12 October 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

WILL ADAMS

FIRST ENGLISHMAN WHO SET FOOT IN JAPAN.

When all eyes are turned towards Japan and its dead Emperor it is of interest to read the extraordinary story of that sturdy British seaman, Will Adams, who was the first Englishman who ever set foot in Japan. And that was 300 years ago.

Lord JJedesdale tells the story with much color and vivacity in his new book, "A Tragedy in Stone." This book contains many fascinating papers on other subjects. But as a memorial to Will Adams has just been arranged in Japan his story is most topical.

A ROMANTIC STORY. Will Adams, says Lord Redesdale, "lived and died' in Japan in circumstances so bewilderingly romantic that Defoe, had he known of them, might have been inspired to write a seeond "Robinson Crusoe." It is the simple tale of a sturdy British seaman, who, after going through perils innumerable, landing on a foreign' shore, won by his honesty and force of character the respect and affection of those among whom the caprice of fate had cast his lot, earning from the ruler of the land honors which had never been conferred before upon a Western man, and which no man has ever attained since.

"For some two centuries and a-half Adams' tomb had been forgotten and hidden by an undergrowth of trees and shrubs. It was discovered in 1872 by Mr. Walter, and it is now proposed to maintain it for al ltime, appointing as its custodian an old sailor or soldier." The place where he lies buried is "in the lovely woods which crown the hills by which the harbor of Yokosuka is hemmed m. ... It is singularly appropriate as the last resting place of the. man who first built a ship on foreign lines in that country. For from the time in which Will Adams was chief you may look upon the great arsenal in which I saw the building of the mighty Satouma, a great ironclad of between 19,000 and 20,000 tons. I could not help thinking of the spirit of the old pilot watching over the place; the throbbing of machinery, the hissing of steam, the clank of iron beating upon iron, the thousands of workmen swarming over the hulls of the great ships—is there not some fitness in these surroundings?"

HE BUILDS A SHIP. Compare this scene with the one which Adams, to please the Shogun, built him a small ship. "Adams answered that he was no carpenter) and had no knowledge thereof. 'Well, do your endeavor,' quoth he; 'if it be not good it is no matter.' So Adams built him a ship of 80 tons, or thereabouts, with which the Shogun was highly pleased. But to go back a little to the events which led Will Adams to Japan. "I am a Kentish man," he wrote, "borne in a towne called Gillingham, two English miles from Rochester, one mile from Chattam, where the King's ships doe lye; and that from the age of 12 years olde 1 was brought up in Limehouse, neere London, being apprenticed 12 years to Master 'Nicholas Diggines; and myselfe have served for Master and Pilott in her. Majestie's ships; and about eleven or twelve years have served the Worshipful Companie of the Barbarie Merchants, untill the Indish traffick from Holland began, in which Indish traffick I was desirous to make a little experience of the small knowledge which, God had given me. So in the yeare of Our Lord 1598 I was hired for Pilot Major of a fleete of five sayle, which was made ready by the Indish Companie."

HOW HE GOT TO JAPAN. They went via the Magellan Straits to the coast of Peru, thence tp Japan, having heard that there was a good market in that country for woollen cloth, of which they had a large store. After four months and twenty-two days on the voyage from the island of Santa Maria they sighted land. The Jesuits told the Japanese that he and his 110 men were pirates. But "the Emperour" (that is to say, the Shogun Iyeyasu) "hearing of us, sent presently live gallies, or frigates, to us, to bring rnee to the Court, where his Highness was, which was distant from Bunge about an eighty English leagues. Soe that as soon as I came before him he demanded of me of what countrey we were; so I answered him in all points; for there was nothing that he demanded not, both concerning warre and peace between countrey and countrey; so that the particulars here to wryte would be too tedious, and for that time I was commanded to prison being well used with one of our marinery that came with me to serve me."

A WONDERFUL INTERVIEW. , "It must have been a wonderful interview," says Lord Redesdale, "that between the bluff English sailor and the Oriental potentate, the master of many swords, and before whom all Japan trembled; for at that time, although the Mikado, the Son of Heaven, was the Emperor, it was the Shogun that governed in his name. Will Adams, alone, defenceless, and as we know from himself in hourly dread of being 'crossed'— that is, crucified —might well have been forgiven if he had shown some fear. But never for one moment does he appear to have lost his head, and the impression which he made upon the great Shogun must at once have been favorable."

AN EMPEROR'S ADVISER. Lord Redesdale goes on to tell us the wonderful story of how Will Adams "blossomed out into the confidential friend, adviser, and even teacher of a powerful ruler at the other end of the world. Truly a wonderful story. There seems to have been but one limit to his power. 'Home he might not go.' . . "Although Adams' letters breathe a spirit of deep affection for the English wife from whom, he was so cruelly separated, and from his daughter Susan, as years went on he took to himself a Japanese wife, by whom he had two children. Of this marriage there is no record. All that we learn is that the lady existed, and that her monument stands to this day at Hemin by the side of his own. The story of the marriage has been woven by a Japanese playwright into a melodrama." Adams later on had liberty to undertake voyages, and he went as far as Siani. But he died in 1(120. "His memory is yet green in Japan, and in the city of Tokio, near the famous Nipon-bashi, there is a street called Angincho, after him—Anjin the Pilot being the name by which he was known all over the country."