William Adams (24 September 1564 – 16 May 1620), better known in Japan as , was an English navigator who, in 1600, became the first Englishman to reach Japan. He was later granted hatamoto status, and was recognised as one of the most influential foreigners in Japan during the early 17th century.William Adams and Early English Enterprise in Japan, by Anthony Farrington and Derek Massarella.
He arrived in Japan as one of the few survivors of the ship under the leadership of Jacob Quaeckernaeck. It was the only vessel to reach Japan from a five-ship expedition launched by a company of Rotterdam merchants (a voorcompagnie, or predecessor, of the Dutch East India Company). Soon after his arrival in Japan, Adams and his second mate Jan Joosten became advisors to shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Among Adams's legacies was his promotion of a policy of religious intolerance aimed particularly at Catholics, which later developed into a centuries-long policy of religious persecution directed primarily against Europeans and Christians of all denominations, eventually extending to Japanese converts as well. He also influenced the development of Japan's isolationist sakoku policy, under which interactions with other countries were severely restricted, almost all foreign nationals were barred from entering Japan, and Japanese commoners were prohibited from leaving the country.
For more than a decade, the Tokugawa authorities did not allow Adams and Joosten to leave Japan. Although he was eventually granted permission to return to England, Adams chose to remain in Japan, where he died at the age of 55. His Japan-born children, Joseph and Susanna, were likely expelled to Batavia in 1635, when Tokugawa Iemitsu closed Japan to foreign trade; after that, they disappear from the historical record.
Early life Adams was born in Gillingham, Kent, England in 1564. His father died when he was twelve, and he was apprenticed to shipyard owner Master Nicholas Diggins at Limehouse for the seafaring life.William Dalton, Will Adams, The First Englishman in Japan, (1861) preface, page vii He spent the next twelve years learning shipbuilding, astronomy, and navigation before entering the Royal Navy.
Naval service With England at war with Spain, Adams served in the Royal Navy under Sir Francis Drake. He saw naval service against the Spanish Armada in 1588 as master of the Richarde Dyffylde, a resupply ship carrying ammunition and food for the English fleet. It was unclear whether Adams's role during the battle was resupplying ships from the rear or fighting on the frontline. After the victorious battle, the Queen's fleet disbanded, and its sailors lost their jobs, including Adams. Later, he sought a new job in Wor'll Company of Barbary Marchauntes, or better known as Barbary Company. During this service, Jesuit sources claim he took part in an expedition to the Arctic that lasted about two years, in search of a Northeast Passage along the coast of Siberia to the Far East.
Adams's fleet consisted of: Hoop ("Hope"), led by Admiral Jacques Mahu (d. 1598), who was succeeded by Simon de Cordes (d. 1599) and Simon de Cordes Jr; this ship was lost near the Hawaiian Islands; Liefde ("Love"), led by Simon de Cordes, second in command, succeeded by Gerrit van Beuningen, and finally under Jacob Quaeckernaeck; this was the only ship to reach Japan; Geloof ("Faith"), led by Gerrit van Beuningen and in the end, Sebald de Weert; this was the only ship that returned to Rotterdam; Trouw ("Loyalty"), led by Jurriaan van Boekhout (d. 1599) and finally, Baltazar de Cordes; this ship was captured in Tidore; Blijde Boodschap ("Good Tiding" or "The Gospel"), led by Sebald de Weert, and later, Dirck Gerritz, was seized in Valparaíso.Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume 3, By Donald Frederick Lach, Edwin J. Van Kley, p. 441
Jacques Mahu and Simon de Cordes were the leaders of an expedition with the goal to reach Chile, Peru and other kingdoms in New Spain such as Nueva Galicia, the Captaincy General of Guatemala, Nueva Vizcaya, the New Kingdom of León and Santa Fe de Nuevo México.Amsterdam City Archives, NA 5057-93, f. 89–92, not. J.F. Bruijningh; transcription R. Koopman, Zaandam The fleet's original mission was to go to South America's western coast and trade their cargo for silver, then head to Japan only if the original mission failed. The crews were supposed to obtain silver in Japan and spices in Moluccas before returning home.Hendrik Doeff, Recollections of Japan, orig. Herinneringen uit Japan, 1833. Their goal was to sail through the Strait of Magellan to get to their destination, which scared many sailors because of the harsh weather conditions.
The first major expedition around South America was organised by a voorcompagnie, the Rotterdam or Magelhaen Company. It organised two fleets of five and four ships with 750 sailors and soldiers, including 30 English musicians.DE REIS VAN MAHU EN DE CORDES DOOR DE STRAAT VAN MAGALHAES NAAR ZUID-AMERIKA EN JAPAN 1598—1600, p. 31
After leaving Goeree on 27 June 1598, the ships sailed to the Channel but anchored in the Downs until mid July. When the ships approached the shores of North Africa, Simon de Cordes realised his rations had been far too generous in the early weeks of the voyage and instituted a rationing policy.Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan, by Giles Milton At the end of August, the ships landed at Santiago, Cape Verde and Mayo off the coast of Africa because of a lack of water and need for fresh fruit. They stayed around three weeks in the hope of buying some goats. Near Praia, the expedition succeeded in occupying a Portuguese castle on the top of a hill but came back without anything substantial. At Brava, Cape Verde, half of the crew of the Hoop caught fever and most of the men were sick, among them Admiral Jacques Mahu. After Mahu's death, leadership of the expedition was taken over by Simon de Cordes, with Van Beuningen as vice admiral. Because of contrary wind, the fleet was blown off course (northeast in the opposite direction) and arrived at Cape Lopez, Gabon, Central Africa.Samurai William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked Japan , by Giles Milton An outbreak of scurvy forced a landing on Annobón on 9 December.The Dutch Discovery of Japan: The True Story Behind James Clavell's Famous ... by Dirk J. Barreveld, p. 70 Several men became sick with dysentery. They stormed the island only to find that the Portuguese and their native allies had set fire to their houses and fled into the hills. The Dutch put all their sick men ashore to recover and left in early January.The Dutch Discovery of Japan: The True Story Behind James Clavell's Famous ... By Dirk J. Barreveld, p. 72 Because of starvation, the men fell into great weakness; some tried to eat leather. On 10 March 1599 they reached the Rio de la Plata in what is now Argentina.The Dutch Discovery of Japan: The True Story Behind James Clavell's Famous ... By Dirk J. Barreveld, p. 74
By early April, the crew arrived at the Strait, long, wide at its narrowest point, with an inaccurate chart of the seabed. The wind was unfavorable and remained so for the next four months. Under freezing temperatures and poor visibility, they caught penguins, seals, mussels, ducks, and fish. About two hundred crew members died. On 23 August, the weather improved.F. C. Wieder, ed., De reis van Mahu en De Cordes door de straat van Magalhaes naar Zuid-Amerika en Japan, 1598–1600 (Werken uitgegeven door de Linschoten-Vereeniging, XXI-XXIII, Hague, 1923–1925).
Voyage to Pacific
When the expedition finally reached the Pacific Ocean on 3 September 1599, the ships were caught in a storm and lost sight of each other. The Trouw and the Geloof were driven back into the strait. After more than a year, each ship went its own way. The Geloof returned to Rotterdam in July 1600 with 36 survivors of the original 109 crew.
De Cordes ordered his small fleet to wait four weeks for each other on Santa María Island, Chile, but some ships missed the island. Adams wrote "they brought us sheep and potatoes". From here the story becomes less reliable because of a lack of sources and changes in command. In early November, the Hoop arrived at Mocha Island where 27 people, including Simon de Cordes, were killed by people from Araucania. (In the account given to Olivier van Noort, it was said that Simon de Cordes was slain at the Punta de Lavapie, but Adams gives Mocha Island as the scene of his death.Cambridge Geographical Series By Bertram-Hughes Farmer, p. 51) The Liefde hit the island, but went on to Punta Lavapié near Concepción, Chile. A Spanish captain supplied the Trouw and Hoop with food; the Dutch helped him against the Araucans, who had killed 23 Dutch, including Thomas Adams (according to his brother in his second letter) and Gerrit van Beuningen. He was replaced by Jacob Quaeckernaeck.
The Trouw reached Tidore (Eastern Indonesia), where the crew were killed by the Portuguese in January 1601.Ernst van Veen, Decay or defeat ? : an inquiry into the Portuguese decline in Asia 1580–1645, dissertation Leiden University, 2000, ch. 8 fn. 14. In fear of the hostile Spaniards, the remaining crews determined to leave Floreana Island and sail across the Pacific. On 27 November 1599, when both ships sailed to Japan, the fleet was stranded on an isle which is believed to have been Hawaii. Although the book author links the reported piece of oral Hawaiian history to the Spanish Manila galleons, both the timing (eight generations before the arrival of James Cook in 1779) and the number of sailors staying in Hawaii (seven) also make a link to William Adam's journey possible.
Service under Shogunate
On 19 April 1600, when Adams and his Dutch colleague Jan Joosten arrived at Japan, they told Ieyasu about the world situation, including that there were many conflicts in Europe, and that the Jesuits and other Catholics (e.g. Portuguese, Spanish), who had been proselytizing Christianity in Japan, and the Protestants (e.g. Dutch, English) were on different sides and were in conflict with each other. Ieyasu reportedly took a liking to them for their frankness and regarded them as trustworthy. According to the record from Spanish envoy Diego de Santa Caterina, Adams was quick to convince Ieyasu that the Spanish had ulterior motives in sending missionaries to Japan.
Furthermore, according to records from Spanish accounts, 19 cannons from the De Liefde, the ship of Adams and Joosten, were also used by the Tokugawa army in the battle of Sekigahara.Cannon use during the winter siege of Osaka.
In 1604, he built the first shipbuilding dock in Japan in Ito.
In 1605, Ieyasu appointed him as a jikatatori hatamoto; or a direct vassal in the court of the shōgun,Nussbaum, Louis Frédéric et al. (2005). "Hatamoto" in ; n.b., Louis-Frédéric is pseudonym of Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, see Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Authority File . and gave him the name Miura Anjin. In the same year, Adams secured an authorisation letter from Ieyasu to invite the Dutch East India Company to trade with Japan.
In 1607, in response to Adams's achievements, Ieyasu selected him for the high-prestige position of direct retainer in the shōgun's court, entrusting him with territories and swords from Miura-gun (now a part of Yokosuka City). After Tokugawa Hidetada was installed as the second shōgun and Ieyasu became Ōgosho (retired shōgun), they formed a dual government: Hidetada controlled the official court with the government central located in Edo city, and Ieyasu controlled his own unofficial shadow government called the "Sunpu government" with its center at Sunpu Castle. The Sunpu government's cabinet consisted of trusted vassals of Ieyasu who were not in Hidetada's cabinet, including Adams and Lodensteijn, to whom Ieyasu entrusted foreign affairs and diplomacy. References: Kitajima Masamoto (ed.), "Everything about Tokugawa Ieyasu" (Shinjinbutsu Oraisha, 1983)