Samurai William: The Englishman Who Opened Japan by Giles Milton Page B

men” that Adams and his crew had met elsewhere on their voyage. These fearsome warriors were small but stocky, yet were elegantly attired and immaculately coiffured. They cut quite a dash as they clambered aboard the Liefde . Adams himself had no opportunity to record his first impressions, but most newcomers
to Japan were left feeling that they were distinctly underdressed in comparison with the Japanese. This strange-looking race wore their hair neatly plucked at the front, revealing shiny pates, but tied into a long bushy lock at the back. This was smeared with scented oil and tucked into a bun. They wore exquisite silken robes, “after the fashion of a nightgown,” and were armed with terrifying curved swords so sharp that they could slice through bone. Fortunately for the crew of the Liefde , on this occasion they kept them firmly in their scabbards. Indeed, they showed no interest in Adams and his crew and ignored the groaning men on deck. “The people offered us no hurt,” recalled Adams, “but stole all things that they could steal.” Their pillaging was carried out systematically and with considerable care. The Liefde was turned inside out and the choicest items were pilfered by the raiders. “All thinges was taken out,” wrote Adams, “ … what was good or worth the taking was carried away.” What grieved him most was the loss of all his sea charts and navigational equipment—the tools of his trade. Only his prized world map, secreted in the Liefde ’s great cabin, remained undiscovered.
    He was desperate to speak with the raiders in order to beg them for food and fresh water. He attempted to converse in Dutch and Portuguese, both of which he spoke tolerably well, but the men looked at him with blank eyes and barked something in Japanese. Adams gave up trying to communicate, “neither of us both understanding the one the other.” The only word he could make out was “Bungo”—the fiefdom in which he and his men had ended their harrowing voyage.
    Much had changed in Bungo since Pinto’s arrival almost sixty years earlier. Otomo Yoshiaki was long dead and his family had suffered a string of calamities and military setbacks. The fiefdom was no longer intact, for the Otomo lands had been partitioned between quarreling minor princelets. War had become endemic and violence a way of life. But luck—for once—was on Adams’s side. The local brigand who controlled this particular stretch of
coast was intrigued to learn of the arrival of the Liefde . When he heard that the ship had been ransacked, he ordered discipline to be restored and, belatedly, “sent soldiers aboard to see that none of the marchants’ goods were stolen.” Some of the pilfered cargo was returned and the perpetrators were punished for their crime.
    The brigand also recognized that the near-derelict vessel was in no condition to remain offshore, where her rotten timbers were at the mercy of the winds and tide. Three days after arriving in Japan, “our shippe was brought into a good harbour, there to abide till the principall king of the whole island had news of us, and untill it was knowne what his will was to doe with us.” Adams and his men suddenly found themselves treated with great friendship. They were given the use of a little house on the foreshore, “where we landed all our sick men and had all refreshing that was needfull.” For some, the fresh fruit and clean water came too late. Three of the weakest men died shortly after being landed and several more were so seriously ill that they were unable to eat. “[They] lay for a long time sick,” wrote Adams, “and in the end also died.” The eighteen remaining crew members made a surprisingly rapid recovery and were soon congratulating themselves on having survived their terrible ordeal. After a voyage of unspeakable hardship, they had met with friendship on the farthest side of the world.
    Or so they thought. What they did not realize was that they had landed in a