The Ship “Return” At Japan.

The ships Return and Experiment were sent out to the East from England, in 1671. From Bantam, they sailed direct to the island of Formosa, and, in July, 1672, ¹ both vessels were lying in the roadstead of Tywan. From this island, the two ships were to have proceeded to Japan, but this intention was abandoned, so far as the Experiment was concerned, as that vessel set sail for England, on the 19th November, 1672. The Return, after a prolonged stay at Tywan, departed for Japan, and arrived at Nagasaki on the 29th June, 1673. ² The factors, however, had only been about one week in that port, when in sailed the Experiment carrying the Dutch flag, and manned by Dutchmen, a circumstance recorded in their Diary in the following words: “To our great grief and discontent we saw our companion a prisoner, God knows what they have done with the ship’s company, but to our apprehension she was no ways damnified, so that the parting from us in the time of peace, we judge her to have been surprized, the truth God knows,” who they hoped would keep them out of the hands of the Hollanders. ³