Japan and the Japanese

DUTCH AND ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE EAST. 133
which, neither this expedition nor two subsequent ones were able
to proceed. The four other ships, under the charge of Houtman,
reached the west coast of Java, and, in spite of the arts and
opposition of the Portuguese, whom they found established at Bantam,
in that island, they opened a trade with the natives, not with-
out an occasional intermixture of hostilities, in which they lost
more than half their numbers, besides being obliged to abandon and
burn one of their vessels. The other three ships returned to Hol-
land in 1598. This voyage had not been profitable; yet the actual
commencement of the long desired Indian traffic greatly stimulated
the hopes of the merchants, and that same year not less than four
distinct India squadrons were fitted out one of two vessels, under
Houtman ; another, under Jacques Mahay, of five vessels, known
as Verhagen's fleet, from the chief promoter of the enterprise ; a
third, of three vessels, under Oliver Noort ; and a fourth, of not
less than eight vessels, set forth by a new East India association,
including not only the merchants of Amsterdam, but those of the
other cities of the province of Holland, rudiment of the afterwards
so celebrated DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY. The first and last of
these expeditions proceeded by the Cape of Good Hope. The other
two were to attempt the passage by the Straits of Magellan.
The Dutch merchants were at this time much richer than those
of England, and for these enterprises of theirs to India they ob-
tained the assistance of quite a number of adventurous Englishmen.
Houtman had an English pilot, named Davis Noort ;
carried, in the
same capacity, Thomas Melis, who had made the voyage round the
world with Cavendish. The fleet of Mahay had two English pilots,
William Adams and Timothy Shotten, with the former of whom, as
being the first Englishman who ever reached Japan, and long
a res-
Went there, our narrative has chiefly
to do.
Born, according to his own account, on the banks of the Med-
way, between Rochester and Chatham, Adams, at the age of twelve,
had commenced a seafaring life, apprentice to Master Nicholas Dig-
gins, of Limehouse, near London, whom he served for twelve years
He acted afterward as master and pilot
in her majesty's (Queen
Elizabeth's) ships. Then, for eleven or twelve years, he was em
ployed by the worshipful company of the Barbary merchants. The
Dutch traflic with India beginning, desirous, as he tells us, " to
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