some good hard blows from the Spaniards, in the great and glorious seafight with the Armada, that the mighty Philip of Spain sent to uproot the people of these isles, to re-sow the land with Spaniards. In the royal service, Adams attained the rank of master and pilot. But in those days, as in the present, the royal navy, at least to men of humble birth, was more productive of hard knocks than solid pudding, our gallant pilot therefore took service with the Worshipful Company of Barbary Merchants. After twelve years, however, in this service, he seems to have reaped but little profit; for as about this time the English people were going fairly mad with the rumours of the vast wealth being gathered by Portuguese and Dutch in the Indies, Adams, whose great reputation as a navigator had reached the Low Countries, gladly accepted an offer from the Dutch East-India Company, then just formed, to accompany a fleet being fitted out in the Texel, for the South Sea, in the important position of pilot major. From that moment commences that series of adventures which were to result in giving him a place on the roll of European worthies. The fleet consisted of five ships, the largest of which was, in accordance with the custom of the period, called the "Admiral." This was what we should now call the "flag ship," for she carried Jacques Mahay, the commander in chief, who was called the "general," and with whom Adams sailed.

Now comes a catalogue of disasters, a record of misery, that in these days, when ships are something larger than mere tubs,* and cleaner than floating dust-bins, when discipline is applied as much to personal habits and mental culture, as to mere military routine; when steam, by shortening distances, or rather time in reaching them, and colonization, golddigging, or conquest, has placed a civilized community upon what, in the days of which I am writing, were but barren shores, or perhaps worse, inhabited by cannibals, would be impossible. These sad records, however, serve to immortalize the daring and hardihood of those fathers of European navies, who did so much to alter the face of our modern world.

The destination of the Dutch fleet was the Pacific Ocean, then known as the Great South Sea. Setting sail from the Texel at the end of June, in the year 1598, in August they anchored off the Cape de Verds; but here, finding the climate so unhealthy that a dangerous sickness ran through the whole fleet, they lifted anchor; but, alas! the mischief was already done; in a few days after, the general and many of the men died. By

* Why, it seems but the other day that the writer saw the little cockle-shell of a vessel in which Captain Cook circumnavigated the globe. Not being a sailor, he would as soon have made the voyage in a halfpenny steamboat.

the time they reached the coast of Guinea, they had been six months at sea, the general sickness had increased, and, to add to their misery, they found themselves short of provisions and water. Another month at sea, and they anchored off an island containing about eighty houses. This place they took by force; i. e., in their great extremities they became pirates, and plundered the poor inhabitants. By this barbarity, however, they benefitted but little, for a few days after they had again put to sea, provisions ran so short, that the men's allowance per diem was but one quarter of a pound of bread, with a like small proportion of wine and water. Thus, poor starving wretches, they became so ravenous, that they devoured the very calf-skins with which in those days it was the custom to cover ship's ropes. Nevertheless, stout-heartedly bearing up against all difficulties, these poor sickly fellows went on their way, and in April (the commencement of winter in those latitudes) they reached the newly-discovered Straits of Magellan, where they were rewarded by reaching an island, upon which they found an ample supply of penguins, fire-wood, and water.

In these straits they passed the winter, which lasted from April to August; but the miserable men had but a sorry time of it; suffering from incessant snow, hail, hunger,-for their appetites being whetted by the intense cold, ample as the provisions seemed at first, they had now become short,-losses of anchors and masts, and worse, the lives of more than one hundred of the men.

At the end of August they entered the Pacific; but here they encountered a storm so terrible that the ships parted company. Foreseeing, however, the probability of such an accident, the new "general," who, by the way, had made his own ship, instead of that in which Adams sailed, the "admiral," had named the island of Mocha, on the coast of Chili, as the place of rendezvous. Neither "Admiral" nor the other ships were, however, met with at Mocha; so Adams bent his sails for the island of Santa Maria. Being once more in a state of starvation, and observing a number of men upon the land a couple of leagues from the island, they determined to land, and barter with these people for the necessities of life. For this purpose, a party went ashore, and were so well received, that, a few days after, the captain of the ship, with twenty-three men, among whom was the brother of Adams, again landed, and were all slain by the savages, at the instigation of the Spaniards, who, it appeared, were among them.

After this disaster, Adams made for the island of Santa Maria. At that place they fell in with the "Admiral," at which they were overjoyed. Their joy, however, was soon changed to bitter grief, when,

going on board, they found that the sufferings of the crew exceeded their own, that in fact the flag-ship having reached Mocha some days before them, the "General" and all his officers, with a large party of men, being induced to go ashore, had been treacherously set upon and murdered, at the instigation of the Spaniards.

The brave fellows, however, having thus found some little consolation in their meeting once more, next began to consider the interests of the merchants, their employers. Somewhat curiously, it was only now that they began to understand that their merchandise, which consisted chiefly of woollen cloths, would be unsaleable in hot places, like the Moluccas and the Indies, where the people wore little clothing; and thus the honest fellows were at their wits' ends to know what course to take to make the remnant of their disastrous voyage profitable to their "owners." At this juncture, a certain Dutchman, who had been in Japan with the Portuguese, told them that in the latter empire woollen cloths were in demand. Hence it was resolved at once to proceed thither; but the expedition seemed to have been doomed from the first. Of the fleet of . five, three of which bore the auspicious names of "Faith," "Hope," and "Charity," which left the Texel, but the two last remained. A few days after they left Santa Maria, the "Hope" went down in a great storm: thus the "Charity," in which sailed Adams, was left to proceed on her course alone. For four long months and twenty days more, this brave vessel beat about those unknown seas. Great must have been the sufferings of the men during that period; for towards the end of that time, when they came in sight of land, of the whole crew, but William Adams and five others could stand upon their feet, and those sustained themselves rather by their mental vigour than physical strength. The master mind among these was Adams. Under Providence, he "willed" to pull his shipmates through these great straits, and he did so. On the night of the 10th of April, 1600, there happened a terrible storm; but more terrible were the swearings of the captain, and his incessant prayer that God would deliver him from his misery by death; the mutinous moanings of the starving, dying men, several of whom, wailing and gnashing their teeth, crawled down the hatchway, and would have fired the powder-magazine, but for Adams, who shamed the wretched fellows by a speech, somewhat as follows :—

"Cowards, infidels, back to your posts, and do your duty as best you may. My men, your miseries have been great, but your rewards are to come. Would you, then, at the last hour lose all hope of that heaven to which even now, in this dire misery, you are as near as if treading the land of your birth."

Such were the words of this brave pupil of Drake and Frobisher and they had the desired effect. The cowed wretches, ashamed of their despair, once more put their shoulders to the wheel; and as Adams had promised, they were rewarded; for the next morning they sighted the land of Japan.

So came to an end, perhaps, the most disastrous expedition ever sent forth by the wealthy merchant adventurers of Holland. Of the five magnificently appointed ships that had sailed from the Texel in 1598, after a voyage of two years and ten months, but one came to a safe anchorage, and that with a crew of twenty-four men, so sick and wasted by want that, but for the one master mind among them, they would never have set foot on terra firma again.

At that time Japan was open to the whole world, although the Portuguese were the only Europeans who had settled and opened up a trade there with the natives; thus our miserable ocean wanderers were well received by the Prince Bungo, who had them brought ashore, and comfortably housed.

So far all went well with our adventurers; but three days after their landing, Adams, who had, in consequence of the sickness of his captain, for some time been acting chief, became alarmed at the sight of a Portuguese Jesuit who was introduced in the capacity of interpreterbetween him and the Japanese; and with reason, for he knew that Portuguese and Spaniards were the mortal enemies of the English and the Dutch.

The Ziozoon* (Tycoon he is now called) hearing of the arrival of the Dutchmen, sent for them to court, which he then held at Osaca, the third great city of Japan. To Adams alone, however, would the potentate grant an audience. The result was extremely galling to the bold sailor; but here is an account of the interview in his own quaint language.

"I came to the great King's city, who caused me to be brought into the court, being a wonderfully costly house, gilded with gold in abundance. Coming before his highness, he viewed me well, and seemed to be wonderful favourable. He made signs to me, some of which I understood, and some I did not. In the end, there came one that could speak Portuguese; by him the king (Ziozoon) demanded of what land I was, and what made us come to his far-off land. I showed him the name of our country, and told him that my people had sought out the East Indies, and desired friendship with all kings and potentates in way

Ziozoon literally means lieutenant-general, or military chief of the empire, and subordinate to the Mikado, or real emperor of Japan.

of merchandizing, having in our land many commodities which Japan had not, and also to buy such merchandize which our country had not. Then his highness asked whether our country had wars, and I answered yes, with the Spaniards and Portuguese, being at peace with all other nations. Further, he asked me in what I did believe; I said in God, that made heaven and earth. His highness asked me divers other questions of religion, and many other things, as what way we came to Japan. Having a chart of the world, I showed him,-through the Straits of Magellan, at which he wondered, and told me I lied."

Being thus kindly received and questioned, Adams, forgetful of all personal danger, at once demanded of the Ziozoon that his employers the Dutch, and his own countrymen, might at once be permitted to trade with the Japanese, as did the Spaniards and Portuguese. To this, however, the Prince made no reply, but, greatly to the bold sailor's chagrin, ordered him to be sent to prison.

Two days after, the Ziozoon again sent for Adams, and questioned him as to the wars between the English and the Spaniards; the sailor's reply seemed to please his highness; "but," grimly writes Adams, "in the end I was commanded to prison again."

For thirty-nine days Adams was kept in durance, and in ignorance of the fate of his shipmates, moreover each day expecting to be led forth to execution on the cross,-crucifixion being the mode of putting malefactors to death. But what act of roguery had Adams committed to deserve death? asks my reader.

Well, not one; but nevertheless, as he afterwards discovered, during his incarceration the Jesuits declared to the prince that the new comers were thieves and robbers of all nations, who, if suffered to live, would injure his highness's people. "If, however," they argued, "your highness slay this Adams and his companions, henceforth their countrymen will be afraid to come to Japan." "But God," says Adams "that is always merciful at need, showed mercy unto us; for nothwithstanding our enemies' incessant intrigues to get us crucified, the Ziozoon in the end answered them that as we had as yet done no harm to him, the land, or people, their request was against all reason and justice; because the Spaniards and the Dutch or English had wars, that was no cause he should put us to death; this put our enemies out of heart."

In all probability, the Ziozoon had discovered the intrigues of the Portuguese, for he now became the fast friend of the bold English seaman. True that, for reasons which will be obvious hereafter, his highness would not permit Adams, or even his shipmates, to depart from Japan; but he set them at liberty, compelled the natives to restore