Sir Ernest Mason Satow - The Voyage of Captain John Saris to Japan, 1613

Edited by
Sir Ernest Mason Satow

First published by Ashgate Publishing

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ISBN 13: 978-1-4094-1372-1 (hbk)

WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society.

THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS TO JAPAN,

1613.

SECOND SERIES.
No. V.

THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JOHN SARIS TO JAPAN, 1613.

Edited from Contemporary Records
BY
SIR ERNEST M. SATOW, K.C.M.G.,

Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to China, and late Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Japan.

LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
M.DCCCC.

LONDON:
PRINTED AT THE BEDFORD PRESS, 20 AND 21, BEDFORDBURY, W.C.

THE MS. journal of Saris's voyage from Bantam to Japan was transcribed for this volume by Miss Sainsbury, and the copy carefully compared with the original by Mr. William Foster, of the India Office. A great part of the material used in the Introduction was either furnished or pointed out by that gentleman, who kindly took the trouble of copying a good deal of it from the old records of the East India Company. A large debt of gratitude is further due to him from the Editor for the useful notes he has contributed to the work, for his invaluable assistance in correcting the proofs, and for undertaking various other burdens which usually devolve upon an editor.

To Professor Mikami Sanji, of the Imperial University, Tokio, the Editor is indebted for copies of Japanese documents, and to Professor Riess, of the same institution, for valuable suggestions and the loan of books. His thanks are also due to the Hon. Matsura Atsushi for the portrait of his ancestor which accompanies the volume, as well as for notes on the family pedigree; to Admiral Penrose Fitzgerald, and Captain Ottley, R.N., for help in explaining nautical terms, etc.; to Mr. D. F. A. Hervey, C.M.G., Mr. W. P. Groeneveldt, and Mr. G. P. Rouffaer, for explanations of Malay terms; and to Professor R. K. Douglas, of the British Museum, and Mons. Lon Van de Polder, of the Netherlands Legation at Tokio, for similar assistance in identifying the Chinese and Dutch words occurring in the text. He has also been much indebted to Mr. W. G. Aston, C.M.G., and Sir Frank Swettenham, K.C.MiG., for friendly help of various kinds and to Dr. Murray, one of the editors of A New English Dictionary, who was good enough to permit him to see unpublished slips of that monumental work.

The Index has been compiled by Miss H. F. Fenwick.

The portions included within square brackets in the text have been taken from Purchas's published version of the journal.

Amongst the strange and outlandish words in the text, some being names of places, others those of persons, others again those of textile fabrics, not a few have eluded the endeavours of the Editor and his friends to identify and elucidate them. Possibly these riddles might be solved if life were long enough to devote a dozen years or more to exploring the hidden corners of knowledge. That not being a justifiable expectation, he can only offer an apology for the imperfections of his work, which have taught him, at least, to regard with sympathy the shortcomings of fellow-workers in the same field.

London, August 15, 1900.

THE present volume contains Saris's original journal of his voyage from Bantam to Japan in 1613, and of his stay in that country, printed from the manuscript in the India Office Records. To this have been added from Purchas, Cocks's narrative of the events at Hirado during Saris's absence on his journey to Court, some extracts from Purchas's version of the journal which do not appear in the MS., the abridged account of the homeward voyage of the Clove, and a trade report drawn up by Saris during his residence at Bantam in 1605-09; also, from the India Office Records, a letter written by him at the Cape, and his report addressed to the East India Company from Plymouth on his return.

"The journal preserved at the India Office (Marine Records, No. xiv) is a volume of 135 folios, well written, and containing, in the earlier portion, rough sketches, in a green wash, of portions of the African coast. These are on sheets inserted between the leaves of the Diary, and it is possible that there were more of them, and that the rest have been lost. It is, however, more likely that, as the Diary itself was not finished, the later sketches were also omitted.

"It is in Saris's own hand, as is proved by a comparison with letters of his in the India Office. But that it is not the original (rough) log seems to be certain, for the following reasons:

(1) It is unfinished, breaking off in the middle of a page with no apparent reason.

(2) It omits many particulars given by Purchas in his printed version, which was taken, he says, from the navigator's "owne journall." Some of these may of course be amplifications by Saris (who was evidently in communication with Furchas when the latter was preparing his work); but others appear to be certainly from the original log.