Note 34 — PREFACE.

Adams left a will, drawn up apparently in duplicate, in English and Japanese. It was formerly preserved in the archives of the East India Company. In the MS. volume, T. (b), vol. i. Supplement to China Materials, the English document is referred to as being among the “Collection of wills”, and the Japanese version as among “Foreign papers”. In 1850, Mr. Rundall appears to have seen the Japanese, but not the English, version, for he states that “the will of William Adams, in Japanese, is preserved among the records of the Honourable the East India Company”, but that “a translation has not been traced” (Memorials of the Empire of Japon, p. 87). He also quotes the Inventory of the Estate of Capt. William Adams, showing that the value of the property was about £500. I regret to say that these documents cannot now be found in the India Office, although, by the kindness of Mr. C. C. Prinsep, I have had every assistance in making a search.

Mr. Griffis, in The Mikado’s Empire, 1876, p. 262, gives the following interesting particulars respecting Adams and his last resting-place:—“Will Adams had a son and daughter born to him in Japan, and there are still living Japanese who claim descent from him. One of the streets of Yedo was named after him Anjin Chō (Pilot Street), and the people of that street still hold an annual celebration on the 15th of June in his honor, one of which I attended in 1873. When Adams died, he, and afterwards his Japanese wife, were buried on the summit of one of the lovely hills overlooking the Bay of Yedo, Goldsborough Inlet, and the surrounding beautiful and classic landscape. Adams chose the spot himself. The people of Yedo erected memorial-stone lanterns at his tomb. Parry’s fleet, in 1854, anchored within the very shadow of the Englishman’s sepulchre. In May, 1872, Mr. Walter, of Yokohama, after a study of Hildreth and some search, discovered the tomb which others had sought for in vain. Two neat stone shafts in the characteristic style of native monumental architecture, set on a stone pediment, mark the spot. I visited it, in company of the bonze in charge of the Shin shin temple of the village, in July, 1873.”