Although 910 years have elapsed ice his death, tke town of Gilling+ ham, in Kent, has now decided pay' fi tribute to one of ltd famous sons, Will Adams, thd "pilot, maier of a fleet of flyd sayle" who spent an enforced exile of 20 years in Japan as naval and economic adviser to the Shogum Teyasu, He was the first Britis subject to settle in that country and his memory has long beett honoured by its -people, who hayd named a street in Tokyo after him. Gillingham's tribute will take the form of an obelisk which will be erected on a suitable site. 4 wee 1 Will Adams took service in year 1598 with the Dutch Eng India Company in Spanish-Amerk can trade, From "Perow," com temporary records tell us, his feed of "five sayle" pursued a storme tossed course to "Iapon," arriving ata port in the province off Bungo, not far from "Langasacke"™ (Nagasaki) on April 19, 1000, From that time until his death in Mayy 1620, he remained in an exile, which, though gilded, was none the less bitterly deplored. The Enge lish, pilot, brought as a captive into the presence of Ieyasu, who wag then practically what Adams calls him, "Emperou" of Japan, was immediately recognized by that shrewd judge of character as at able and honest citizen of the Western world. That he and hig native land were being privately, slandered to Ieyasu by the "Iesuites and the Portingails," who were of that time the only other Europeans in the country, probably did him more good than harm in the Japane ese ruler's eyes. He was retained at the Japanese court and employs ed as a master shipbuilder and alg as a kind of agent when othey English and Dutch traders begat to arrive, In fact, it was by hid good offices that the foundation were Laid of English trade Japan, 1 During his latter years he for time exchanged the Japanese sex" vice for that of the English factory, established by Captain John Sarid at Firando (Hirado) near Nagasale, and made two voyages in the first units of the first Japanese navy, which he had had constructed, to the Loochoo Islands and Siam. His constantly reiterated desire to see his native land and his wife and children again was to be at last frustrated by adverse circum stances. So far as the wife was concerned, he partially comforted him self, sailor fashion, by taking one other—a Japanese with whom he at ease for many years on estate granted to him by Ieyasu at Heini, near the modern town and naval base of Yokosuka, where their two graves are shown to this day, Another adventurer who visited him there describes Adam's place thas: "This Phebe (Heini) Lordship geuen to Captain Adames pr. the ould Emperour, to hym and his for caver, and conformed to his sonne, called Joseph. 'There is above 100 farms, or howsholds, oppon it, besides others under them, all' which are his vassales, and he hath power of life and death oner them, they being his slanes; and he hauing as absolute uthoritie over them as any tone (king) in Japan hath over, his vassales." From further details it would seem that Adams used his authority Kindly, so that the neigh= hours "rejoiced (as it should seme) of Captain Adames retame." vee i The letters of Will Adams are well worth reading, both for the vivid sithanette of the writer whicl stands out from their.quaintly, spelt pages and for the picture given by him of Japan as it was im his time—when the land swat with friars and converts, when 16 embargo had yet been laid on foreign commerce, and when the native energy of the Japanese people had not yet been affected by, two centuries and a half of bureaucracy and timid seelusion—
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.