the school of his native city, one for the best English Essay, and the other for the best Latin Verse, a composition in which he all his life took delight.
[See Campbell's "Lives of the Chief Justices," "Foss's Judges," "Gentleman's Magazine, 1832."]
William Adams
Navigator, the first English Voyager to Japan,
Was born at Gillingham, near Chatham, about the year 1560. At the age of twelve he entered on a seafaring life as an apprentice to a master mariner of Limehouse. He subsequently entered the navy. On the opening of the Dutch trade with the East Indies he was tempted to join an expedition of five ships which sailed from Rotterdam, in June, 1598. In this little fleet he occupied the position of pilot-major. His ship, the Charity, of 160 tons and 110 men, was the only one which survived the voyage. It reached the coast of Japan in April, 1600. Of the others, two were driven back by storms through the Straits of Magellan, and eventually returned to Holland, one was captured by a Spanish cruiser off the coast of Chili, and the fourth perished in the South Pacific.
On his arrival in Japan, Adams was at first received with kindness, and, though subsequently thrown into prison, he was soon released, and succeeded in acquiring the friendship of the Emperor, for whom he built two ships. For this service he was presented with an estate
