I Had Almost Forgotten To Mention, That Some China
Merchants Lately Asked Me, If We Were Allowed To Trade With China,
Whether The King Of England Would Prevent The Hollanders From Robbing
And Spoiling Their Junks?
Which question was rather doubtful to me, yet
I answered that his majesty would take measures to prevent the
Hollanders from injuring them.
We have lately had news that a tuffon or tempest has done vast injury at
Jedo, a city of Japan as large as London, where the Japanese nobility
have very beautiful houses, now mostly destroyed or greatly injured. The
whole city was inundated, and the inhabitants forced to take shelter in
the hills; a thing never before heard of. The palace of the king, which
is a stately building in a new fortress, has had all its gilded tiles
carried away by a whirlwind, so that none of them could be found. The
pagans attribute this calamity to some charms or conjurations of the
Jesuits, who were lately banished: but the Japanese converts to popery
ascribe it to the vengeance of God, as a punishment for having banished
these holy men.
We have lately had a great disaster in Cochin-China, to which place we
sent a quantity of goods and money, to the value of L730, as it cost in
England, under the care of Mr Tempest Peacock and Mr Walter Carwarden,
who went as merchants in a Japanese junk, carrying our king's letters
and a handsome present for the king of Cochin-China. They arrived at the
port called Quinham,[59] delivered his majesty's letters and present,
and were entertained with kind words and fair promises. The Hollanders,
seeing that we adventured to that country, would needs do the same, and
were at first kindly entertained; but in the end, Mr Peacock and the
chief Dutch merchant going ashore one day in the same boat, to receive
payment from the king for broad-cloth and other commodities they had
sold him, they were treacherously assailed on the water, their boat
overset, and both were killed in the water with harpoons, as if they had
been fishes, together with their interpreters and other attendants, who
were Japanese. Mr Carwarden being aboard our junk escaped sharing in
this massacre, and came away, but neither he nor the junk have ever been
since heard of, so that we fear he has been cast away.
[Footnote 59: Turon is the port of Cochin-China in the present time,
and Quinham is unknown in modern geography; perhaps the old name of
some island or village at the port or bay of Turon. - E.]
It is commonly reported here, both among the Chinese and Japanese, that
this was done by order of the king of Cochin-China in revenge against
the Hollanders, who had burnt one of his towns, and had slaughtered his
people most unmercifully. The origin of this quarrel was occasioned by a
large quantity of false dollars, sent to Quinham by the Hollanders
some years ago, and put off in payment for silks and other Chinese
goods, to the great injury of the merchants of that country. When the
falsehood of the money was discovered, they laid hands upon the Dutch
factors, and are said to have put some of them to death. Upon this the
Dutch ships came upon the coast, and landed a body of men, who burnt a
town, putting man, woman, and child to the sword. This, as reported, was
the occasion of our present mischance, and of the slaughter of Mr
Peacock, because he was in company with the Hollanders. Along with this
letter, I send you a Japanese almanack, by which you will see the manner
of their printing, with their figures and characters. And so I leave you
to the holy protection of the Almighty, resting always, &c.
RICHARD COCKS.
No. 3. Letter from Edmond Sayer, dated Firando, 5th December, 1615. But
having no Address.
I received a letter from you by the hands of Captain Copendall of the
Horiander, who arrived here on the 29th of August this year, by which I
learnt your safe arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, homewards bound, and
of the loss of some of your company; and I make no doubt that, long ere
now, you are safe arrived in England, by the blessing of God. I sent you
a letter, dated in November, 1614, by the Dutch ship called the Old
Zealand, in which I informed you of the death of Mr Peacock and Walter
Carwarden, both betrayed in Cochin-China, to our great grief, besides
the loss of goods to the company.
The last year, Mr Wickham, Mr Adams, and I, when bound for Siam in a
junk we had bought, and meeting with great storms, our vessel sprung a
leak, and we were fain to bear up for the Leukes[60] islands, where we
had to remain so long, before we could stop our leaks, that we lost the
monsoon, and had to return here. We have fitted her out again this year,
and are now ready to sail again for Siam. My greatest hope in these
parts is, that we shall be able to establish trade with China, of which
we seem to have a fair prospect through the efforts of the China captain
and his brothers; and I make no doubt that we shall have a factory there
ere long.
[Footnote 60: The Liqueo islands are here obviously meant, a group to
the south of the south-western extremity of Japan, in 28 deg. N. and long.
129 deg. 30' W. from Greenwich; such being the latitude and longitude of the
centre of the great Liqueo, the principal island of the group. - E.]
This last summer we have had great troubles, in consequence of war
between the emperor and Fidaia Same, and we do not certainly know
whether the latter be slain or fled; but the emperor gained the victory,
with a vast loss of men on both sides.[61] Having no other news to
write, I commit you to the protection of the Almighty, and am, &c.
EDMOND SAYER.
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