Condition. The pamphlet is in Very Good condition but it lacks the outer thin paper wraps usually found on this pamphlet. Essentially the pamphlet starts with the title page. There are appoximately 7 ink spots in the middle of the front cover. The bottom right front cover corner is chipped. Internally it is clean with no foxing, toning, marking or stains. The portion of the wraps that overlap the text block is creased and has numerous small tares, breaks and dog eared corners.

The author provides very interesting commentary regarding the trading activity in Japan. Regarding the merchant sailors, he notes:

Jacks ashore was Jack ashore. Their pockets full of money from the sale of booty, the sailors used to surge through the small town, eating, drinking and fighting. No wonder that sometimes the townspeople laid hold of them until the English Captain bailed them out. In the end Cocks was compelled to restrict the sailors to Kawachiura, where special houses were built for their entertainment on the Hill above that small port. This Hill was known as Maruyama and when the Dutch moved to Nagasaki in 1641 the name of the hill was transferred to the same quarter in Nagasaki, where to-day (1927) the geisha quarter is still called "Maruyama" after its original on Hirado. (page 45)

While one often finds comments that Adams was buried in Hemi, Yokosuka, Paske-Smith, concluded that was incorrect and he was actually buried in Hirado, where he died. He states:

Adams therefore died at Hirado. Where was he buried? Could his remains have been transported to Hemi-mura? It seems quite out of the question. There were no means known in Japan to preserve bodies for such a long journey. Could his body have been cremated and the ashes take up north? I think not, because if so why did Cocks wait until December 1621 to deliver at Yedo the two swords of Adams to his son Joseph, to whom they had been willed:....

Surely if the body or ashes had been taken to Hemi-mura in 1620 the Swords would have been carried also.

Moreover, Cocks was a solid old Protestant. It would have been against his own feelings and also against his Christian upbringing to have the body of his old friend cremated; he tells us himself that it was not usual to burn the body of even Japanese Christians:....

It is quite safe, therefore to assume that Adams was buried in Hirado, where he died. The place of his burial must have been 'Our ordenary buriall place' because it was not until February 1621 that the English received the grant from the Feudal Lord for a special plot of land as a cemetery.

Mr. S. Kato, a close student of Hirado history, has placed the site of the 'ordenary buriall place' as on a hill above the Dutch Factory. ... That no tombstones exist is easy to understand, for, but a year or so after the death of Adams, the Christian persecution broke out with such ferocity that all cemeteries and Christian tombstones were overthrown and the bones dug up and scattered to the four winds. (pages 53-55)

 
Title Page.

Contents.

I.     Introduction                                   9
II.    English Trade                                 19
III.   The "English House"                           33
IV.    The Nagasaki Agency                           39
V.     Social Life                                   43
VI.    Matsuura Hoinko                               47
VII.   Will Adams, Master Pilot                      49
VIII.  Richard Cocks, Captain of the English         57
       List of Guarantors of English Memorial        67
       List of Subscribers to the English Memorial   68


Listing of Full Page Illustrations (black & white halftones).

The English front of the English Memorial        Frontispiece
The Japanese front of the English Memorial            14
General Picture of Hirado. From an old drawing        18
The English back of the English Memorial              24
The "English House" at Hirado.  From an old drawing   32
The Japanese back of the English Memorial             40
The "Dutch House" at Hirado.  Taken from an old print 42
Prince Shigenobu Matsuura Hoinko                      46
The Dutch Ship "de Liefde"                            50
His Excellency Arthur Cocks, Lord Somers              58



                                                     Page
The English front of the English Memorial        Frontispiece

(Wording on front of English Memorial here)

The Japanese front of the English Memorial  14


General Picture of Hirado. From an old drawing  18


The English back of the English Memorial   24


The "English House" at Hirado.  From an old drawing  32


The Japanese back of the English Memorial  40


The "Dutch House" at Hirado.  Taken from an old print 42


Prince Shigenobu Matsuura Hoinko  46


The Dutch Ship "de Liefde"  50


His Excellency Arthur Cocks, Lord Somers  58



Colophon.