ABSTRACT
In his earliest years in Japan, Adams was prohibited from leaving the country by the personal edict of Tokugawa Ieyasu. That he almost certainly could have made good his escape, had he so desired, is immaterial; by the time Adams became a man ‘called in the Japann tonge ANJIN SAMMA (and) by that nam I am knowen all the sea cost allong’, as he stated in his letter of January 1613 to Augustus Spalding at Bantam in Java (Rundall, 1850, 44), he was comfortably situated in Japan, a trusted, respected and tolerably wealthy member of society. His situation in Togukawa Japan was wholly unlike that of many Europeans, mainly mariners but also including some gunners, who were unable to leave the Asian societies in which they found themselves, being closely guarded to prevent any attempt at escape. After Saris’ visit to Ieyasu, Adams was at liberty to leave Japan. The reasons he gave for not doing so were threefold; he had not yet made sufficient money to enable him to return home in appropriate affluence, he had grown to dislike the company of John Saris, the Clove’s commander and, lastly, he desired to serve the East India Company, especially were they to pursue the chimaera of the northwest passage. Adams was also esteemed and successful in Japan. (Massarella, 1990, 223)
