These representations were not without their effect. Kōzukeno-Suke received the Dutch very graciously, approved the requests which they made on the subject of trade, and promised to lay them before the emperor pending their visit to Yedo, for which he furnished them with vessels, horses, and guides. With much persuasion he was at last induced to accept a present, which the Dutch regarded as a special favor, as he had positively declined any from the Portuguese and Spaniards. Before their departure, they were admitted to an audience from the emperor, who inquired of them how many soldiers they had in the Moluccas[80]; whether they traded to Borneo; whether it were true that the best camphor came from that island; what odoriferous woods the Dutch had in their country; and other similar questions, to which they replied through their interpreter. After they had taken their leave, Kōzukedono and Gotō Shōzaburō reconducted them out of the hall, at the same time felicitating them on their favorable audience. It was very unusual, they said, for the emperor to make himself so familiar; he did not bestow such a favor even on the greatest lords of the empire, who brought him presents of the value of ten, twenty, and thirty thousand taels; nor had he said a single word to the Portuguese and Spanish ambassadors. To Adams, who was called back to the royal apartments, the emperor expressed himself greatly delighted with the presents, as showing that the Dutch were “past masters” in arts as well as in arms.
The Dutchmen, having caused their propositions to be written out in Japanese, placed them in the hands of Kōzukedono, and on the 18th they were furnished with an order for ten horses, and a letter to the hereditary prince at Yedo. Adams, who was in as great favor at this court as at Suruga, lodged them in a house of his own, and undertook to give notice of their arrival to Sadono-Kami, president of the prince’s council and father of Kōzukedono, who sent an officer in return to make his compliments to the Dutchmen.
They made him a visit the next day, with a present, which, as a great favor, he condescended to accept. He inquired of them particularly the cause of the war which had lasted so long between the Spaniards and the Dutch, and the history of the negotiations which had brought about the recent truce. The Dutch did not conceal the small extent of their country, and the Japanese minister expressed great astonishment that so feeble a state should have resisted with such success so powerful a king. Finally, he treated them to a collation of fruit. Though very old and infirm, he conducted them to the passage, and promised to accompany them the next day to the palace. Admitted to the imperial palace, the prince thanked them for the journey they had undertaken to see him; but when (pretending orders from Holland to that effect) they besought his favor and protection, he dismissed them with a nod. An officer, however, conducted them over the palace, and the prince sent them some presents, though not very magnificent ones. They themselves made many presents, principally cloth and glass bottles, to many lords of the court, among whom they found, in high favor, a brother of the young king of Hirado.
From Yedo they proceeded to a port eighteen leagues distant (probably Uraga), where Adams had another house, and where they found the Spanish ship which had brought the ambassador from New Spain. The ambassador himself was also there. He sent them a very civil message, to which they responded with equal civility. Pressing invitations for a visit passed between them, but neither party would be the first to call on the other. By some Flemings, however, attached to the ambassador’s suite, they were assured that the ambassador had no authority to demand the exclusion of the Dutch, which he had done on his own authority. The embassy, they said, had been fitted out at an expense of fifty thousand dollars.
Upon their return to Suruga, October 1, Adams brought them the patent which the emperor had granted for their commerce, and which, being translated, proved to be in the following words:
“All Dutch ships that come into my empire of Japan, whatever place or port they put into, we do hereby expressly command all and every one of our subjects not to molest the same in any way, nor to be a hindrance to them; but, on the contrary, to show them all manner of help, favor, and assistance. Every one shall beware to maintain the friendship in assurance of which we have been pleased to give our imperial word to these people; and every one shall take care that our commands and promises be inviolably kept.
“Dated (according to the Japanese calendar equivalent to) August 30, 1611.”[81]
The Dutch were very much troubled to find that the clause guaranteeing freedom from the visits of inspectors and guards, and interference with their trade by the government, which had been the great object of their mission, was omitted. They made representations on the subject to Kōzukeno-Suke, who advised them not to press it. But as they conceived it of the greatest importance, they drew up a Japanese memorial, which Adams presented to the emperor and the request of which Kōzukedono seconded with such effect that the emperor ordered an edict granting the wishes of the Dutch to be drawn up, which he immediately proceeded to sign. Such is the statement of Spex’s narrative; but no such document appears to be preserved in the archives of the Dutch factory, the short one already given being everywhere cited and relied upon as the charter of the Dutch trade to Japan, without any mention anywhere else of any such supplement to it.
The return of the Dutchmen, by way of Miyako, to Hirado, does not offer anything remarkable, except their meeting at Sakai (whither they went to learn the price of goods and the course of trade there), with Melichor von Santvoort, one of the Dutchmen who had reached Japan at the same time with Adams. After selecting factors to stay behind, ordering the erection of warehouses, and making such presents as their small means admitted to their Japanese friends, their vessel set sail on her return the 28th of September.
The Dutch, as we have seen, had been greatly assisted by Adams. The Spanish envoy, in his negotiations, relied chiefly, as Don Rodrigo had done before him, on the advice and assistance of Father Louis Sotelo, a Franciscan friar of noble descent[82], established at Miyako, who entered with great zeal into the project of a regular trade between Japan and Mexico. But the old jealousy which the Japanese had long entertained of the Spaniards soon broke out afresh. Some soundings made along the coast by the vessel which brought out the Spanish ambassador were looked upon with great suspicion and jealousy, which Adams is said to have aggravated. Sotelo, despairing of success with the emperor, though at first he had seemed to favor his projects, subsequently proposed the same scheme to Date Masamune, who ruled over a part, or the whole, of the kingdom of Ōshū, or Mutsu, in the north of Japan, hitherto almost unknown, but to which a few missionaries had lately made their way. The prince of Ōshū adopted Sotelo’s project with zeal, affecting also quite a leaning towards the new faith, and, at Sotelo’s suggestion, he sent an ambassador to the Pope and the king of Spain[83].