He was no sooner ashore than all his nobility came to see the ship, attended by a vast number of soldiers, every person of any note bringing a present; some of venison, some of wild-fowl, and some of wild-boar, the largest and fattest we had ever seen, while others brought us fish, fruits, and various things.  They greatly admired the ship, and seemed never to be satisfied with looking at her; and as we were much pestered by the number of these visitors, I sent to the king, requesting he would order them to remove, to prevent any inconveniences that might arise.  The king immediately sent a principal officer of his guard, with orders to remain aboard, to see that no injury was done to us, and ordered a proclamation to that effect to be made in the town.  The same night, Hendrik Brewer, who was chief of the Dutch factory at Firando, came to visit me, or rather to see what had passed between the king and us.  I wrote this day to Mr Adams, who was then at Jedo,[11] nearly 300 leagues from Firando, to inform him of our arrival.  King Foyne sent my letter next day by his admiral, to Osackay (Osaka,) the nearest port of importance on the principal island, whence it would go by post to Jedo, and he sent notice to the emperor by the same conveyance, of our arrival and purposes.

[Footnote 11:  Called Edoo, in Purchas.]

In the morning of the 12th, we had fish brought to us in abundance, and as cheap as we could desire.  We this day weighed to make sail for the road; and, on this occasion, the king sent at the least threescore large boats, or gallies, well manned, to tow us into the harbour.  On seeing this multitude of boats, I was in some doubts of their intentions, and sent my skiff to warn them not to come near the ship.  But the king was in the headmost boat, and observing my suspicions, waved his handkerchief for all the boats to wait, and came aboard himself, telling me that he had ordered all these boats to assist in bringing me round a point which was somewhat dangerous, on account of the strength of the tide, and could not be stemmed by even a good breeze of wind, and if the ship fell into the eddy, we should be driven upon the rocks.  Having got this explanation, we sent our hawsers to the Japanese boats, on which they fell stiffly to work, and towed us into the harbour.  In the mean time, the king breakfasted with me, and when I proposed rewarding his people for towing me in, after we were at anchor, he would not allow them to accept of any thing.

We now anchored in five fathoms, on soft ooze, so near the shore that we could have talked with the people in their houses.  We saluted the town with nine guns, but had no return, as there are no cannon at this place, neither any fortifications, except barricades for small arms.  Several nobles came off to bid me welcome, two of whom were men of high rank, named Nobusane and Simmadone.  I entertained them well, and, at their departing,