Page:History of India Vol 7.djvu/44

22 THE "SEPARATE VOYAGES" OF THE COMPANY and then thrown into prison for six weeks. The Portu- guese tried to get him put to death, but eventually he rose by ship-building into favour with the emperor, and received an estate " like unto a lordship in Eng- land." In 1609 the Dutch obtained leave to establish a fac- tory at the port of Firando, in Japan, and two years later a Dutch captain received through Adams's influ- ence ample privileges of trade. Adams then learned for the first time that the English also had penetrated into the Eastern seas. In 1611 he wrote a letter, full of sturdy pathos, to his " unknown friends and country- men," giving an account of his adventures and of the trade capabilities of Japan. On the arrival of Captain Saris in 1613, Adams secured permission from the em- peror for an English factory, which was accordingly established, with the hopes of also opening out trade with Corea and China. Adams entered the Company's service on a salary of £100 a year, and made many voyages, although the project of a northeast passage, to which he, like many bold sailors of the day, looked forward, remained a dream. The emperor liked him so well as to prevent his return to his wife and child in England, and in due time Adams provided himself with a wife and two children in Japan. He died in 1620, after seeing a persecution of the Christians by a new emperor, and left his estate impartially to his English and Japanese families. A road in Yedo was named Pilot Street in his honour, and a native festival still annually com-