Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan (Volume 26) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898. Excerpt: ... HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH FACTORY AT HIRADO (1613--1622). WITH aN INTRODUCTORY CHaPTER ON THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH ENTERPRISE IN THE FAR EaST. BY Dr. Ludwig Riess. PREFACE. The original materials on which the following History of the early intercourse of the English East Indian Company with Japan is based, are, with few exceptions, preserved in the British Museum and in the India Office. While on a seven months leave of absence I received, on the 2nd of October 1893, permission from the Secretary of State for India to search and take notes from the Records at that Office relating to China and Japan. For about four weeks Mr. W. Foster, a clerk in the Registry and Records Department, kindly allowed me the use of his comfortable office, and offered me evenfacility for studying the volumes of Original Correspondence, the Itopy Book of Richard "Wickham, some ships' journals and a most valuable compilation written in 1824 and entitled "Supplement to China Materials. Book I. Japan." My sincere thanks are due for the great liberality and politeness shown to me. Abstracts from the whole series of Original Correspondence, the East Indies volumes in the Public Record Office and the Court Minute Books have been published by the late W. Noel Sainsrury in his admirable Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, East Indies, China and Japan. (Volumes I--III; London 1862--1878). Where on the following pages the quotation Cal. of State Papers occurs, this valuable work is referred to. The " Diary of Richard Cocks, Cape Merchant in the English Factory in Japan 1615--1(522 " has been most carefully edited for the Hakluyt Society by the well-known Palaeographer and Principal Librarian of the British Museum, Dr. Edward Maunde Thompson. In the Appendix he has added some important le...