The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-06-25
ROMANTIC EPISODE.
How william Ad.9. Became Prince

the Orient.
Twelve miles from Yokohama, down
Mississippi bay, says a corTespon Ient,
writing from Yeddo, Japan, is the town
of YokOsko. It is at the head of q lit
| tie land-locked harbor and has the most
beautiful surroundings imaginable.
The island and the mainland, all are
crowned and covered with groves of
evergreen trees. In the distance to the
west the Wakoni range of mountains is
| plainly seen, and towering above all
other points is Fusi-yama, the highest
mountain IN Japan. Yokosko is a town
of the old order of things. Here the
Japanese have their naval station, with
capacious machine-shops, foundEies and
docks. Across a lesser inlet is the old
village Eof Hemimura, g fishing town,
and as old, for aught that is known, as
the fisheries of Japan. On a hill side
above the village is the temple of To-
ko-san. It is a Buddhist temple and
has the carved stone lions and dragons
and shaven-bearded priests, gilt images
of Buddha, and lesser deities.
1t is like all temples in Japan, en-
powered in a beautiful grove, and
there is enough of the beautiful in its
surroundings to incline any heart to
worship the giver of such beauty.
From this temple a winding path leads
up to the crest of high, rounded hill,
! from which is spread before you pic
ture of intense and varied beauty-the
wide sea, studded with green islands,
the long, high shore-line with deep in
| dentations of inlet and harbor lofty
mountain ranges and deep valleys. Here
in the grove, browning the hill, midst
| fir, cypress, palm and bamboo trees, is
the grave of William Adams, the first
] Aro~r L, To- Il, u
have been a remarkable man. In the
whole history of the orient no other
stranger has arrived at such an infu-
ence over a strange people.
Adams was q native of the county of
| Kent, England. His occupation was
sea-going. He served in the English
navy in the olden days of the 'Virgin
| queen" and held the position of master
of a vessel In the wars with Spain. He
must have been with tho bold bucca-
neers who hunted Spanish treasure and
merchant ships on every sea. While on
shore IN little village surrounded by
the green hills of Kent, he had met a
blue-eyed, fair-haired Saxon girl. They
loved, plighted their troth, and after he
had taken a voyage or two they were
welded. Between the sea and shore
several years passed happily and pros
perously. Two children, boy and a
girl, were theirs, both the image of the
mother, with the same glimmer of gold
IN their hair and the same blue of the
Kentish sky in their eyes. But times
grew bad. The wars had ruined trade.
English ships lay idle in their harbors.
Holland, Spain and Portugal had then
the trade and commerce of the world.
Adams received an offer from the Dutch
East India company to pilot a squadron
of five merchant vessels to Asia. He
babe farewell to England and his fair
haired wife and children, and repaired
to Holland, whence he set sail in 1898.
After nearly two years of untold hard
ships, with only one ship left of the five
and only five able-bodied seamen, In
the greatest distress for the want of
food and water, they sighted the coast
of Japan. On tine 10th day of April,
1900, they made a harbor in the prov
ince of Bungo, in the southern part of
Niphon. The people hocked around
the ship. By signs Adams made their
wants known. The sick were taken on
shore and tenderly cared for. Soldiers
, were stationed on the ship to protect
the cargo. Four or five days elapsed,
: when some Portuguese arrived from
: Nagasaki, where they had a trading
station. They alone had of all European
people, since the wonderful accounts OF
Marco Polo, found the islands of Japan.
The Portuguese had come to the orient
as traders and missionaries. Between
them and the Dutch there was every
reason for rivalry. They were warning
with each other for the trade and wealth
of the Indies. One was Jesuit and the
other Protestant in religion. The Por-
tuguese having been sent for by the
J prince of the province of Bungo, they
represented that the Dutch were pirates
in commerce and heretics in religion,
! and should be beheaded for either az d
cruci6ed for both.
This being more responsibility than
the prince wished to assume, he re-
ferred the whole matter to the tycoon,
whose capital was then at Osaca, eighty
miles north. The tycoon sent at once
for Adams. On the way Adams ascer-
/ tanned the feeling of the Portuguese
and what they were anxious to accom-
plish, and he also saw by the headless
/ trunk and suspended bodies how fire..
quent capital punishments were IN
/ Japan and for what slight offenses they
were in use. Iyeyas was the tycoon.
, He was the first of the Tocagawa fami.
? 1y, which ruled after him for $50 years.
? Through 2, 500 years of written history
r he is considered their "Alfred the
} Great" by Japanese historians. When
r in the presence of the tycoon Adams
, found a mild-mann0red, unpretendinp
man, who questioned him thoroughly
> of England and Holland, of their com.
, merce and trade and their wars, and es.
} pecially of their object in coming tc
Japan.
| After the interview, which lasted sew
/ eral hours, Adams was placed in con.
4 finement. He was kept there forty.
r three days and nights. With the Wis
( ions of CHASTITY, heRdless trunks and
bodies suspended on crosses, having
been pierced by spears, his sleep could
| have been neither sweet nor refreshing
( But Iyeyas was too great and too shrewd
1 a man to be used by the Portuguese
/ Jesuits, and Adams had told so straight
forward a story, and exhibited such an
! intimate knowledge of the history OF
{ Europe, the trade and commerce of its
+ different nations, and of the variou,
arts and sciences, that Iyeyas was
l strongly impressed with him. To the
? Portuguese opportunities he answered
that he saw nothing in the conduct OF
, the strangers to condemn, but much to
= commend, and ordered the release OF
Adams. He sent their ships to Yeddo
{ and told the whole crew to content
[ themselves in Japan, as they would
r never be allowed to leave it. Adams
was taken into the employ of the gov
| eminent and he taught Iyeyas mathe-
matics and navigation, and how to
build, launch and rig large ships.
, Adams wrote home each year 10 his
family by the annual Portuguese ship.
but failed to receive any answer. He
repeatedly requested of the tycoon per
mission to go to his family, and was as
often told that he must be content here.
as permission to depart could never be
allowed. To induce him to stay and in
terest him in the work of bodybuilding.
teaching navigation and military tactics,
he was given a large tract of country
with a great number of departments.
I over which he had absolute authority.
He was ranked among the nobility next
to the princes of the empire. He was
called Amin, the Japanese name of pi-
lot, and part of Yeddo was, and to
this day is, called ADjin-Cho, or district
of Amin.
In this way twelve years had elapsed