On the 5th I received a letter from Domingo Francisco, the Spanish ambassador, dated five days before from Ximenaseque, [Simonoseki,] and another from George the Portuguese. The ambassador went over land from that place to Nangasaki, and sent the letter by his servant, to whom I shewed the commodities he enquired after, referring him for others till the return of our general, but gave him an answer, of which I kept a copy. The man chose two pieces of fine Semian chowters and eight pieces of white bastas, paying seven tayes each for the chowters, and two tayes each for the bastas. A Spanish friar or Jesuit came in the boat along with the ambassador's servant, and asked to see our ship, which the master allowed him at my request, and used him kindly; for the old saw has it, That it is sometimes good to hold a candle to the devil. This day Mr Eaton, Hernando, and I dined with Unagense, and were kindly entertained.
About ten o'clock of the 6th November, 1613, our general and all his attendants arrived at Firando from the emperor's court, accompanied by Mr Adams. Immediately after his arrival, he sent me, with John Japan, our jurebasso, to visit both the kings, and to thank them for their kindness, for having so well accommodated him with a barge or galley, and for the care they had taken of the ship and every thing else during his absence. They took this message in good part, saying they would be glad to see our general at their houses. At this time certain merchants of Miaco came from Nangasaki to our house to look at our commodities, and among the rest took liking to ten pieces of cassedy nill, for which they agreed to give three tayes each. As had been done by other merchants, I sent the goods to their lodging, expecting to receive the money as usual; but they only sent me a paper, consigning me to receive payment from Semidono, who was newly gone from Firando on a voyage, and was met by our general. I sent back word to the merchants that I must either have payment or the goods returned, to which they answered, I should have neither one nor the other; and as the person with whom they lodged refused to pass his word for payment, I was forced to apply to both the kings for justice; but I first sent word aboard our ship, if the boat of Miaco weighed anchor to go away, that they should send the skiff to make her stay, which they did, and made her come to anchor again. In the mean time I went to the kings. The younger king said that Semidono was able enough to pay me; but when I asked him if Semidono refused to pay, whether he would, he answered no. While we were talking about the matter, the old king came in, and told me he would take order that I should be satisfied; so in the end the person with whom the merchants lodged passed his word for payment of the thirty tayes; yet the orders of old Foyne Same had come too late, if our skiff had not stopt the Miaco merchants. This day Captain Brower and all the merchants of the Dutch factory came to visit our general, and Nobisone sent him a young porker as a present, with a message saying he would come to visit him in a day or two.
S.11. Occurrences at Firando after the Return of Captain Saris.[40]
The 7th of November, 1613, I sent in the first place some presents to the two kings of Firando, and afterwards went to visit them. On the 8th, Andrew Palmer, the ship's steward, and William Marnell, gunner's mate, having been ashore all night and quarrelled in their cups, went out this morning into the fields and fought. Both are so grievously wounded, that it is thought Palmer will hardly escape with his life, and that Marnell will be lame of his hands for life. The 9th I went aboard ship early, and called the master and all the officers into my cabin, making known to them how much I was grieved at the misconduct of some of them, particularly of Palmer and Marnell, who had gone ashore without leave, and had so sore wounded each other, that one was in danger of his life, and the other of being lamed for ever; and besides, that the survivor ran a risk of being hanged if the other died, which would necessarily occasion me much vexation. I also said, I was informed that Francis Williams and Simon Colphax were in the boat going ashore to have fought, and that John Dench and John Winston had appointed to do the like. John Dench confessed it was true, and that he had seen Palmer and Marnell fighting, and had parted them, otherwise one or both had died on the field. I told them these matters were exceedingly distressing to me, and I trusted would now be remedied, otherwise the ship would be unmanned, to the overthrow of our voyage, and the vast injury of the honourable company which had entrusted us. After much contestation, they all engaged to amend what was amiss, and not to offend any more, which I pray God may be the case. I told them also, that old king Foyne had complained to me, threatening, if any more of them went ashore to fight and shed blood, contrary to the laws of Japan, he would order them to be cut in pieces, as he was determined strangers should have no more licence to infringe the laws than his own subjects.
[Footnote 40: We here resume the narrative of Captain Saris. Purch. Pilgr. I. 378. The observations of Mr Cockes, contained in the three preceding sub-sections, break off abruptly in the Pilgrims, as above.--E.]
At my return ashore, old Foyne Same came to visit me at the English house, and told me that the piece of Poldavy, and the sash I gave him, were consumed when his house was burnt down. This was in effect begging to have two others, which I promised to give him. I likewise got him to send some of his people aboard, along with John Japan, our jurebasso, to intimate to our men that if any of them went ashore to fight, he had given strict orders to have them cut in pieces. This I did in hopes of restraining them in future from any more drunken combats. Towards night, Juan Comas, a Spaniard, came from Nangasaki, bringing two letters from Domingo Francisco, one for me, and the other for Mr Cockes, together with three baskets of sugar as a present to me, and a pot of conserves, with many no less sugared words of compliment in his letters, saying how sorry he was that our seven fugitives had gone away during his absence, excusing himself and the Jesuits, who he pretended had no hand in the matter, and pretending they had never spoken against us, calling us heretics. He said our men had gone from Nangasaki, three of them in a Chinese or Japanese soma for Manilla, and four in a Portuguese vessel. Yet I esteem all these as vain words to excuse themselves, and throw the blame on others; for the Spaniards and Portuguese mutually hate each other and the Japanese, as these last do them.
The 11th I visited Nobesane, who used me kindly, and would have had me dine with him next day, but I excused myself on account of the press of business in which I was engaged, and the short time I had to stay. I met old king Foyne at his house, who requested to have two pieces of English salt beef, and two of pork, sodden by our cook, with turnips, radishes, and onions, which I sent him. The 12th, the governors of the two kings came to visit me at our factory, whence they went aboard the Clove, accompanied by Mr Cockes, to signify to our crew that they should beware of coming ashore to fight and shed blood; as, by the law of Japan, those who went out to fight and drew weapons for that purpose, were adjudged to death, and all who saw them were obliged to kill both offenders, on pain of ruining themselves and all their kindred if they neglected putting the combatants to death.
The 14th I sent Mr Cockes and our jurebasso to wait upon the kings, to entreat they would provide me twelve Japanese seamen who were fit for labour, to assist me in navigating the ship to England, to whom I was willing to give such wages as their highnesses might deem reasonable. The kings were then occupied in other affairs, so that my messengers spoke with their secretaries, who said they needed not to trouble the kings on that business, as they would provide me twelve fit persons; but that there were several vagrant people about the town who would be willing enough to go, yet were very unfit for my purpose, as they would only consume victuals, and of whom the Dutch made use without making any request on the matter, and it was not known what had become of these men or of the ship; but, as the matter was now referred to them, they would look out for such as were fit for our purpose.
The 18th, Foyne sent me word he would visit me, and meant to bring the dancing girls of the country along with him, which he did soon after, accompanied by three courtezans, and two or three men, who all danced and made music after their fashion, though harsh to our ears. The 19th, the Chinese captain, and George Duras, a Portuguese, came to visit me, requesting me to send to Semidono to procure pardon for two poor fellows who were like to lose their lives for bidding a poor knave flee who had stolen a bit of lead not worth three halfpence; and though the malefactor was taken and executed, these men were in danger of the same punishment, had I not sent Mr Cockes to Semidono with my ring, to desire their pardon for my sake, which he engaged to procure, and did in effect.
The 20th, Samedon, king of Crats,[41] sent me word he meant to go on board our ship, so I went there to meet him, and he came along with both the kings of Firando, when we saluted them with five pieces of ordnance; and we afterwards fired three with bullets at a mark, at the request of Samedon, who gave me two Japanese pikes, having cattans or sables on their ends. At their departure we again saluted them with seven guns, one being shotted and fired at the mark. The 22d I sent a present to the king of Crats, which was delivered to him at the house of Tomesanes the young king, where he was at breakfast. Samedon accepted it very kindly, sending me word by Mr Cockes that he was doubly obliged to me for his kind entertainment aboard, and for now sending him so handsome a present of such things as his country did not produce, all without any desert on his part, and the only recompence in his power was, if ever any of the English nation came into his dominions, he would give them a hearty welcome, and do them all the service in his power.