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MANAGING TRADE FLOWS

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 50

The Voyages of the “Sea Adventure”

to Ayutthaya, 1615–1618
The English East India Company and
its Siam–Japan Trade

DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA*

Preface: The English in Siam

The English East India Company (EIC) first arrived in Siam in 1612, when its traders
were given a royal audience by King Songtham (r. 1610/11–28) in Ayutthaya. Peter
Floris and Lucas Antheuniss, Dutchmen working for the EIC, came to Patani on the
Globe and then branched out to other ports, exploring the possibilities of trade in
mainland Southeast Asia.1 Armed with a letter from King James I, the EIC employ-
ees led by Antheuniss and Thomas Essington were able not only to approach the
court, but also to observe for themselves the possibilities of trade in Siam. This first
sojourn in Ayutthaya marked the start of over a decade of Anglo–Siamese contacts,
through the establishment and maintenance of an EIC factory in Ayutthaya.
During this first phase, the EIC was to stay in Ayutthaya for only eleven years,
closing its factory in 1623. It was not until the 1660s, after a gap of around thirty
years, that the company returned to trade in Siam. After a troubled stay, the EIC
once again left Siam in 1685, and was engaged in war with the court of King Narai
(r. 1656–88) over several disputes. The only English merchants coming to Siam
after 1688 were “country traders” mostly based in India.
This essay examines the earlier phase of the EIC’s involvement in Siam, using the
three voyages of the junk Sea Adventure to Ayutthaya as a focal point. These voy-
ages will be used to highlight the hopes the English had, and point out the obsta-
cles they faced in trying to maintain a Japan–Siam trading route of their own. The
general outline of the story is fairly well known, thanks to the unflagging scholarly
as well as popular interest in the stories of William Adams, especially, and of the first
Englishmen in Japan. The work of Derek Massarella, William Corr, and Anthony
Farrington are outstanding.2 But it is by looking at the details of the interactions
between the English and the various components of the port of Ayutthaya and
Hirado that I can partially respond to Haneda Masashi’s plea for a comparative,
cross-cultural study of ports and port cities.3

Siam’s Japan Trade

It was clear to every foreign trader coming to Siam in the beginning of the seven-

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 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618 51

teenth century that there was a good market for Siamese goods in Japan, while
Japanese silver was very much in demand in Southeast Asia. John Saris, writing in
1608 while in Bantam, reported that in Siam “is much silver in bullion, which com-
meth from Japan.”4 Siamese trade with Japan reached its peak at roughly the time
of the EIC’s arrival in Ayutthaya. Floris received news from Ayutthaya in April and
May 1613 that three junks had arrived there from Japan, and obtained so much
cargo to carry back to Japan that the nachodas of the first two junks had had to
buy two more vessels.5
Trade and diplomacy were closely connected during this earlier phase of
Siamese–Japanese relations. Letters and gifts were exchanged by Kings
Ekathotsarot (r. 1605–10) and Songtham of Siam, and the Tokugawa shoguns
Ieyasu, Hidetada, and Iemitsu.6 King Songtham alone sent embassies to the court
of the shogun in 1616, 1621, 1623, 1625, and 1626.7 During his reign, an era of
economic recovery after the wars of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries,
long-distance trade was conducted both to the west (with the Europeans and vari-
ous ports in India) and to the east (with China and Japan).
The Japanese community in Ayutthaya was, before the 1630s change in
Tokugawa policy, a vital component of the relations between Siam and Japan.8
Although the principal role of many Japanese in Siam appears to have been as the
king’s mercenary troops, there was also a strong commercial element in the
Japanese community. The Japanese in Ayutthaya, and later the Japanese mestizos,
seem to have been very active in the procuring and processing of deerskins for
export. This was a role that directly served the Ayutthaya–Hirado/Nagasaki trade.9
Although Bantam (Banten) was the main headquarters of the EIC in the earlier
phase of its involvement in Southeast Asia, the Company’s factors in Siam also had
a close working relationship with their colleagues in Japan. This was because of the
suitability of certain Siamese commodities for the Japan market. William Adams
was a key contact in Japan. The Kentish pilot worked both for the Company (on a
two-year contract of employment) as well as for the shogun of Japan, to whom he
was an informal adviser with the rank of hatamoto.10 He also traded on his own
behalf, of course.

The Globe in Siam and Patani

Floris, Antheuniss, and company arrived in Patani in mid-June 1612. Floris knew
little about the Siam–Japan trade at that stage, thinking that “the trade for Japon is
butt of small importance.”11 By mid-January 1613, he had a clearer idea of the
Japan trade, and was able to list (from information gathered from the Dutch) the
goods required in Japan, which naturally included Chinese silks, raw silk, and—
from Siam—deerskins, wax, and a certain fish skin (obviously rayskin). “From
Japan is brought nothing butt silver, whereof they have there 3 sortes, the one yield-
ing more profet then the other.” But once again information was not as clear as
Floris would have liked, because Japan junks were not coming to Patani at that
point.12 The EIC hoped to obtain enough Chinese silks in Patani and Siam to sell in
Japan.13 The EIC and its Dutch rivals dreamt of the establishment of a long-term
trading route that would take the appropriate Siam commodities to sell for big

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profits in Japan. The main goods dealt in by the EIC in its Siam–Japan trade were
to be sapanwood and deerskins.
Sapan or “brazil” wood (Caesalpina sappan) is a red dyewood that sold very well
in Japan. It was mainly used to dye textiles, especially silk. Deerskins, in plentiful
supply in Siam and neighbouring kingdoms, also sold well, as did buffalo- and
cowhides. A drawback in shipping deerskins was their tendency to rot. Richard
Cocks noted that in buying deerskins “care must be had in chusing of them large
and without holes.” Another commodity which the EIC hoped to export from Siam
to Japan was the rayskin. Called “shark skins” in Japanese documents, these are
the skins of stingrays from the Gulf of Siam. The rayskins from Siam were used, for
example, in the making of samurai sword handles.14 Other Siam commodities sent
to Japan included brown sugar, black lacquer, ivory, and Indian textiles.
An indicator of the EIC’s intent concerning the Siam–Japan trade may be seen
in the content of Saris’s memorandum to Cocks, recently appointed head of the
factory at Hirado. Saris thought that, of all the things that were likely to be “fitting
and...benyfityall” to the Company, “[t]he first is the present buying and fitting of a
junke for Syam and Pottanye” with broadcloth, Indian (Cambay) cloth, ivory, and
rials, to arrive in Siam [Ayutthaya] before the end of February in order to trade with
the Chinese junks there—“trading with them is the greatest hope of benyfitt,”
Chinese goods for Japan being of a reasonable price there. From Siam, if time per-
mitted, the junk was to be sent on to Patani, to buy up Chinese goods, then to come
back to Ayutthaya to take in a cargo for Japan.15 Based on Saris’s ideas, the
Company drew up a plan to use ships sailing from Bantam to Patani and Ayutthaya
to buy silk, pepper, sapan and hides; and then going on to sell this cargo in Japan—
all within one monsoon period.16 This triangular route never worked for the EIC,
largely owing to problems of timing and the lack of silk in Patani and Siam (see
below).

The Sea Adventure

Will Adams’s fellow shipwreck survivors on the Liefde, Jan Joosten van Lodensteyn
and Melchior van Santvoort, each successfully completed trading journeys from
Siam to Japan in 1613.17 No doubt with such examples in mind, the EIC factory in
Hirado decided to conduct trade with Ayutthaya through a junk bought in Japan.
The ventures of the EIC on its junk the Sea Adventure represented both the accel-
eration and the culmination of its attempt to establish a lucrative Siam–Japan
trading link.
Buying a junk was to prove more difficult than the EIC had thought. Cocks,
Adams, and Edmund Sayers (Sayer) went to Nagasaki to buy one, but were at first
unable to do so. They consigned the goods already assembled for Southeast Asia
on a Japanese junk bound for Cochinchina, reasoning that Jan Joosten van
Lodensteyn had a few years earlier been well-received there.18
Foreigners living in Japan or serving the bakufu were allowed to obtain occasion-
al goshuin or shuin-jo (vermilion seal passports). Although this gave them official
permission to go on trading voyages abroad with Japanese ships and crews, it also
obliged them to observe certain customary rules. As will be seen later, the English
knew what these practices were, but some still rankled, such as the custom allow-

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 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618 53

ing the Japanese officers and crew of a goshuin junk to have their own space in the
hold.19
A junk of around 200 tons was bought at Nagasaki in August 1614 for 2,000
taels, (re)named the Sea Adventure, and was prepared for the voyage to Siam with
Adams as captain and Richard Wickham (“a man of proud and noble bearing like
a captain”) as cape merchant, supported by Sayers. Cocks intended to send £1,000
sterling in the vessel, along with a cargo of £200 in rials of eight, four chests of
Cambay cloth which were not vendible in Japan, plus £100 worth of Japanese
“armor, piks, cattans, bowes and arrows and other triffels to geve away in presents
to the King of Syam & others.” But the first voyage of the Sea Adventure (late
1614–June 1615) was abortive. Even Adams’s skill as a pilot could not overcome
severe weather, a leaky ship, and a mutinous crew, and the junk only got as far as
the Ryukyus (Okinawa). The English had to start all over again in late 1615, the junk
having been “well repaired,” at great cost to the company, by Adams.20 Leaks and
mutinous crews were to be regular features in the Sea Adventure’s life as an EIC
junk.
From a letter of 1615, we learn that the goods sent from Bantam and Patani,
consisting of pepper, lead, quicksilver, several kinds of Indian textiles, and fowling
pieces, have so far not brought the EIC much profit in Japan. One alleged reason
was that many presents had to be given to important persons, and there were
“chardges” to be paid too. The English at Hirado were therefore hoping for a good
Siam trade, or perhaps—though this was a long shot—trade with China and
Ryukyu.21
Apart from the Japanese officers and crew, the Sea Adventure also carried
Japanese merchants and their goods on board, charging them freightage.22 Cocks
gave instructions that any tonnage in the hold claimed by the “offecers” of the junk
be granted to them, for the sake of future (harmonious) collaboration.23 Yet it was
normal shuin-sen practice to have officers and crew claiming space in the hold for
their goods. As will be seen later, space on the ship was to be a bone of contention.
Since it was more than likely that the EIC would have to do business with the
Chinese, Cocks urged the EIC agent in Ayutthaya to “use all Chinas in generall
kyndly & to doe for this man in perticuler [Li Tan, Chinese “captain” in Hirado] more
then I would desyre you to doe for myselfe.” This was because Li Tan was “dangling
before Cocks the totally unfounded prospect of English access to ports on the
Chinese mainland.”24
When the Sea Adventure did actually leave Japan, it carried 2,400 taels in silver
on it. Cocks hoped for a good return cargo of sapanwood and deerskins, the price
in Japan for sapan at that time being three-and-a-half taels per picul, while 100
deerskins fetched 33 taels.25

Edmund Sayers and Will Adams in Siam (January–June 1616)

On this journey Will Adams was captain, and Edmund Sayers cape merchant. The
journal kept by Sayers between December 1615 and November 1616 is an impor-
tant source directly concerning EIC trade in Siam.26 Though references to this
voyage are also found in other documents, Sayers’ journal—in its rather concise,
cryptic way—provides a day-by-day account of the EIC’s Japan–Siam venture and

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 54 DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA

mentions goods sold and bought, officials and traders encountered in the Siamese
capital, as well as presents and bribes given.
Sayers and Adams arrived at the Bar of Siam in January 1616, at about the same
time as Shoby Dono’s vermilion-seal junk from Nagasaki. This junk was later to be
chartered for the EIC to carry part of its cargo back to Japan.
Since Sayers’ principal task was to obtain sapanwood and deerskins for Japan
with the silver and cash he had been given to take to Siam, the EIC concluded a
deal with the king’s factors by late January for the purchase of 3,000 piculs of
sapanwood. If not an actual royal monopoly at this juncture, then most of the
sapanwood must have been in the hands of the crown, though Sayers bought some
from the “captain” or head of the Portuguese settlement. While in Ayutthaya, Sayers
also sold some textiles to Okphra Chula, and “all our Indaye clathe” to an uniden-
tified trader whose name had been intriguingly anglicised to “Jeremy Lee.”27
The total amount of sapanwood loaded onto the ship was 3,400 piculs.
Deerskins, which were not a royal monopoly, formed the other major part of the
cargo, 3,700 pieces in all. Shoby’s junk left Siam at roughly the same time, and
took to Japan 4,560 deerskins belonging to the EIC—these had been bought by
Benjamin Farie “from a Portugall after they wer laden.” The EIC in Hirado was to
pay Shoby freight costs of 24 pieces of deerskin per hundred pieces. “Andrewes
Ditty,” otherwise known as Li Tan, also sent goods on Shoby’s junk.28
Sayers’ journal of his Siam journey gives a good idea of the sorts of people the
EIC had to deal with in order to assemble a Japan cargo as well as the extra expens-
es they incurred while trading in Siam. Captain Adams gave King Songtham pres-
ents worth 158 taels 5 mas and 5 candereen29 of Japanese weapons. The giving of
high-quality, well-crafted weapons to figures at court reflected the value attached to
Japanese arms by the Siamese elite. Even their translator, “a Moor,” was given a
Japanese sword as a present.30 The katana was of course used by King Songtham’s
Japanese mercenary guards.
The English gave presents to several officials of the Siamese royal court, includ-
ing the phrakhlang minister, the “Capten of the Japanes,” and—interestingly
enough—both the syahbandar of the Muslims (Okphra Chula) and that of the
Chinese (Okphra Choduk). This was done to facilitate their trade. From Sayers’
journal it may be seen that gifts were given in installments to key figures. The
phrakhlang minister, for example, was given a gun, a Japanese sword, and a
kimono on 24 January, a kyodai (a small dressing table or vanity) on 31 January,
and later still, on 26 February, he received an “Engleshe loucking glase” as an extra
present.31
Okphra Chula, whose domain was trade with the Indian Ocean rather than the
China Seas, was nevertheless able to offer the EIC sailing equipment for sale at
market prices in getting the Sea Adventure ready for its journey back to Japan. The
Muslims in Ayutthaya traditionally traded in eaglewood—an aromatic wood which
was in demand in Japan too—as evidenced by Tokugawa Ieyasu’s request for it in
his letter to King Ekathotsarot of Siam in 1606.32
Sayers also dealt with private traders in Siam, such as the aforementioned
Jeremy Lee, and “the ould Tourke,” obviously a “Moor” merchant of Ayutthaya. He
sold much of the EIC’s Indian cloth to Jeremy Lee, and some “zeallaes” to the Turk.
Sayers reveals too that a “bribe” of two Siamese silver catties had to be given to

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“Uprabeesett” (Okphra Phisit or Phiset) to secure the right to buy sapanwood from
the king. This man was obviously one of the king’s factors.33
Farie, the EIC agent in Siam, hinted at differences between the EIC men in
Ayutthaya and the captain and Japanese officers of the Sea Adventure. Adams was
in favour of his mariners having their share in lading the ship with goods, while Farie
did not approve. Farie claimed that some of the 2,400 piculs of sapanwood bought
by the EIC and brought down to the river mouth could not be laden “for want of
roome.” When he entreated Adams, the latter refused to listen, “alledging that they
were all trew men and might lade whatt they pleased in the potaccoes.”34 Farie want-
ed Cocks to take notice of this, “for I assure you the Company ar exseedingly
abused herin by his [Adams’] lardg prevyledges granted to his purser & rest, wher-
by I think the jonk to be laden by himself & marriners.”35 According to another EIC
servant, the Japanese mariners, in accordance with “the custome of the cuntre,”
had the privilege to lade up to nearly one-third of the ship’s total cargo.36 One major
reason for this “custom” was that Japanese seamen were paid rather low wages.37
Sayers’ journal contains a list of non-EIC goods shipped on Giquan’s junk, showing
that the purser, butler, carpenter, and other “officers” and passengers on the junk
had a total of 153 piculs of sapan and 1,500 pieces of hides in it, while the crew
had 15 picules of sapan and 2,600 pieces of deerskins between them.38
The Sea Adventure returned to Japan, in company with a Nagasaki-bound
Chinese junk chartered to carry EIC goods (with “Giquan” as nakoda). A third junk
was also chartered to carry EIC goods, namely the one belonging to the Japanese
Shoby Dono. Sayers travelled on the Chinese junk, which was laden with 1,375
piculs of the EIC’s sapanwood.39 According to the EIC men in Hirado, the deerskins
that arrived in Japan on the Sea Adventure were “soo evell intreated by wormes that
worse could not be.”40 Cocks managed to sell the sapanwood at various prices
between 24 and 28 mas per picul, while the deerskins sold for 20 to 28 taels per
100 skins (lower prices than expected). Cocks remarked that had the skins not been
so worm-eaten they would have fetched more than 30 taels per 100.41 Once again
revealing hostility towards Will Adams’ men (if not Adams himself), in 1617 the EIC
factors in Ayutthaya claimed that the bad condition of the deerskins could well have
been the fault of Adams’ purser.42 Such a claim would have increased Cocks’ dis-
trust of the purser, who was suspected of having pocketed 50 taels of the 1,690
used to refit the Sea Adventure.43
But at least the Sea Adventure arrived promptly in Japan, whereas the Chinese
junk on which Sayers was travelling took so long to arrive in Satsuma that “shee
was nott expected this yeare” (1616).44 The junk had suffered three months’ “toss-
ing at sea,” and lost most of the people on board, and “had it not byn for Mr
Edmond Sayer, an English merchant whoe under God was her best pilot, she had
never com into Japon.”45 Sayers recounted that the junk had departed from Siam
when the season was “far spent.” The problem was compounded by the “China
pilot which had no understanding of navigation: for when he was out of sight of the
land hee knew not where he was, nor what course to take.” Both the incompetent
Chinese pilot and the nakoda “Giquan” himself died on the voyage. Sayers’ success
in navigating the junk safely to Satsuma (arriving there on 17 September 1616) was
due to his having kept “a journall of the ship’s course & the way he esteemed her
to have made,” plus his fashioning a pair of wooden compasses with the help of an

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old piece of “Japon plat.” It was a heroic undertaking for Sayers and the remaining
five able-bodied men who acted as his crew, action born of necessity but still requir-
ing immense stamina and resourcefulness.46
By mid-December 1616, Shoby’s junk had not yet arrived in Japan; it was not to
do so until the middle of the next year. The ship was leaky, and the weather foul, so
it was forced to put in at Champa for repairs. The EIC in Ayutthaya sent John
Ferrers and “Petter Hall” (a Dutchman) on a specially-purchased pinnace of 15–16
tons to help out Shoby, as well as to survey goods suitable for the Japan market
that a Champa envoy to Siam had claimed was available in his country.47 EIC traders
were also sent to Cambodia to buy goods for Japan, such as beeswax and nam-
rack, a type of black liquid lacquer found in Siam and Cambodia and used in mak-
ing Japanese lacquerware.48 When Shoby’s junk arrived, its cargo of more than
4,500 deerskins was almost worthless, being worm-eaten like those on the Sea
Adventure.49
The first venture of the EIC on Sea Adventure, although involving high overhead
costs, had given the English a positive picture of future prospects.50 According to
Anthony Farrington, sapanwood brought the EIC profits of 200 to 300 per cent in
Japan.51 Yet the Company’s hopes of a plentiful supply of Chinese goods, either in
Siam or in Patani, were not being fulfilled.52 For all his faults, Richard Cocks was per-
ceptive in the matter of EIC trade in Southeast Asia insofar as it related to silk for
Japan. He wrote to London that, contrary to there being enough silk to send to
Japan and Bantam, at Ayutthaya and Patani “I am suffitiently enformed…by Mr
Lucas Antonison & others that there is noe quantity of silk to be had at nether place
to speak of, yea, non at all at Syam, nether any stuffes or silk ware.” Cocks empha-
sised again that Siam was useful for its deerskins and sapanwood, while Patani had
pepper and wax.53

The Sea Adventure Returns to Siam (January–May 1617)

Wanting to buy or freight a Chinese junk, the EIC tried to sell the Sea Adventure
but, given its seagoing record, there were no takers.54 Soon after its arrival in
Hirado, the EIC factors therefore began to prepare the Sea Adventure for another
Siam voyage. The VOC was also said to be preparing “a great junck for Syam.”55
This may have been a reference to the captured Portuguese junk San António,
which the Dutch used for voyages between Hirado and Ayutthaya until 1617.56
The Sea Adventure sailed once again to Ayutthaya, arriving in January 1617. In
order to prevent any repetition of the near-disaster encountered by Sayers on the
Chinese junk, Cocks sent two English pilots, James and Robert Burgess, on the Sea
Adventure. The captain was, however, Japanese (a “Skidayen Dono”), while William
Eaton acted as merchant. Cocks still thought that, since Japanese mariners carried
away about half of the goods on any one ship, “per meanes of their large pre-
vileges,” it might be better for the EIC to take the deerskins and sapanwood from
Ayutthaya down to Patani, to await shipment on a large English ship. By doing so,
the EIC would no longer have to use any Japanese junks or mariners.57 But since
EIC ships for this route were scarce, for the time being he had to make do with a
Japanese skipper and yet another potentially mutinous Japanese crew.
About to embark on the Sea Adventure, Eaton wrote to London urging that the

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EIC send ships of its own from Southeast Asia to Japan. He said that Siamese
sapanwood and deerskins would bring a “resnable good proffit if the saied com-
modities be brought in your English shipes, which may easely be brought to pase
if your Worshipes please but to give order that a greate shipe of some 5 or 6 hun-
dred tunnes may go everey year to Patania and there to take in hear lading” of the
goods sent beforehand from Siam. This was what the Dutch had been doing, for
they “have everey yeare a greate shipe…from Pattania” to Hirado.58
Complaints about Dutch competition or hostility become more prominent after
1616. The English traders in Ayutthaya claimed that the Dutch resented the EIC’s
recent successful sales and their Japan “retornes.” The factors at Ayutthaya wrote
to John Browne at Patani in May 1617 that the Dutch were spreading “evell reports”
about the English, using their “lying, vipporous, scorpean toonges.” The VOC
trader Houtman was characterised as a vile, drunken man, though in fairness it
must be said that drunkenness was a fault not confined to the Dutch alone.59
At the same time that Eaton was pinning his hopes on increased support from
London, Wickham wrote to Siam expressing anxiety about the Company’s overall
position in Japan. Wickham recounted to Farie the new shogun Hidetada’s actions
against the EIC, which deprived the English of “most of our former priveledges, butt
chefly of that mayne point to have free trade in any part of his dominiones, as
Miaco, Sacay & c,” leaving them “confined…only” to Hirado and Nagasaki.
Wickham claimed that having to sell all their goods at these two ports alone “hath
nott a little hindered us this yeare.”60 This step may indeed be seen as one of the
first steps towards total control of overseas trade (and foreign traders) taken by the
Tokugawa bakufu.61
Wickham was absolutely blunt about the EIC’s failure to sell any of the English
goods that the Company had pinned its hopes on (brown thread, spectacles, gal-
lipots), and stated that were it not for the goods from Siam, plus “a little broade-
cloth and lead…sent us this yeare from England,” the EIC in Japan “should nott
otherwise have retorned one peny this yeare” on goods sent to Hirado. Wickham
had advised the EIC to send enough vendible goods to Japan (Chinese silks, lead)
so that the Company could buy up much-needed Japanese silver.62 At the Siam
end, Johnson and Pitt also hankered after good Japanese silver to use in buying
goods for Japan. The Siamese wanted “new” silver coins, but unfortunately the EIC
had brought low-quality silver on the Sea Adventure’s first voyage.63
When the Sea Adventure reached Ayutthaya on 24 January 1617, the money and
goods brought by the EIC was worth around 50 catties Siamese. In return, the
English managed to assemble a good cargo of 2,531 (or 2,331) piculs sapanwood;
9,000 deerskins; 1,001½ catties of silk, “with other goodes vendabell for Japon”
such as Siamese lead (36 piculs), rattan, and betel nut.64 This suggests that EIC
relations with the court, and with other merchants in Ayutthaya (other than the
Dutch), were still good.
The Sea Adventure left Ayutthaya on 28 May 1617, and reached Hirado on
7 September, after a “tedious” voyage during which Eaton and company had to
“indure much trobell & missery.” By the last part of the voyage, they “had nether
cabels nor anchors left us, nor scarce a sayle left to help us withall.” Eaton conclud-
ed that his ship “weare noe better then a rake in the sea.” Thirty-four died, and all
the rest fell sick, apart from only twelve who were able to bring the junk safely into

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harbour at Tsushima.65 Later on, Cocks revealed that apart from foul weather, Eaton
had had to contend with a mutinous crew. It was a wearyingly familiar story.66
Assessing the Siam trade, Eaton observed that Indian cloth from the
Coromandel coast could be sold in large quantities and to great profit in Ayutthaya,
for instance blue byrams, red “zelas,” white baftas, chintz, and cumerbands. He
noticed that Lao merchants from Lan Chang came to Ayutthaya, and also hoped
for the opening of trade with Chiang Mai (Lan Na), but realised that Chiang Mai was
now under the Burmese king’s control.67 Unfortunately for the EIC, its Chiang Mai
venture of 1612–3 had not resulted in anything other than one of their two men
being caught up in fighting between the Lan Na and Burmese armies and taken
prisoner to Burma, while the other was never heard of again.68

Aspects of an Englishman’s Life in an Asian Port

The traders of the EIC were not solely occupied with fulfilling the Company’s trade
objectives, although details of their personal lives rarely appear in the documents.
Always fastidious and detailed in his advice to others, Richard Cocks warned
Richard Wickham in 1614, when the latter was preparing to go to Siam on the Sea
Adventure, about “the femining gender…the liberty of these partes of the world is
overmuch in that kinde.”69 It must be assumed that some EIC men took advantage
of this “liberty” in the cosmopolitan port of Ayutthaya to cohabit with local women.
When Benjamin Farie died suddenly on 21 September 1616, less than an hour after
eating a “very harty” breakfast, he only had time to say “Give my woman and child
ech of them a catte.” It is probable that this refers to a native woman who lived with
Farie in Ayutthaya, and their child.70 But the possibility of an Englishman living with
local women was not limited to the case of Siam or the port of Ayutthaya. Will
Adams had his Japanese wife and “concubine,” while Edmund Sayers left Japan in
1623 “leaving behind a daughter Joan by his Japanese woman Maria.”71
In 1616 Cocks, a literate man, asked Benjamin Farie to send him his copy of Sir
Walter Raleigh’s recently published The History of the World (1614), a history of the
ancient world written while Raleigh was in prison. Edward Wilmot in Hirado sent
Farie gifts from Japan: a “scrittore covered with lether & bossed with brase, con-
taining 13 boxes.”72 Wickham also sent Farie via the Sea Adventure “3 Japon toyes”
made of gold-sprinkled lacquer (makie).73 But Farie was already dead when the
EIC’s junk arrived. The factors at Ayutthaya, Johnson and Pitt, must have sent
Cocks a copy of The History of the World on the Sea Adventure’s 1617 voyage,
because Cocks thanked them for doing so, and in return sent them presents in
1617—one small Japanese-made “scritorio” each, the prices of which he meticu-
lously recorded in his diary.74
Life in Ayutthaya for the EIC men was potentially perilous. Their competitors the
Dutch proved more adept at intrigue. Complaints were made in EIC letters about
the behaviour of the VOC opperhoofden, Maerten Houtman and Cornelis van
Neijenrode (“Newrode”). Edward Long suspected Neijenrode of having given bribes
“to doe what wronge hee may against the English nation.” In 1621 a fierce row
erupted when the “Chief Justice” [Okya Yomarat?] of Ayutthaya came to the EIC
factory and demanded the handing over of a Chinese debtor, then held in the EIC
factory on the chief justice’s own authority, and two Japanese (ex-VOC employees

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 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618 59

now working for the EIC). In a fit of hot-headedness, John Dodd, second to Long
at the Siam factory, and these two Japanese went to see the “umpra” (okphra) or
leader of the Japanese community to demand what was going on. On the way
there, a fight ensued between Dodd, his two companions, and some one thousand
armed men (presumably Siamese). The two Japanese were injured, while Dodd was
taken prisoner. The Japanese “umpra” came with a troop of forty armed men to the
place where Dodd was held, and had him released. This action displeased Okya
Phrakhlang (minister for foreign affairs and the treasury), who chided the “umpra”
for having thus taken matters into his own hands. The Japanese “umpra” therefore
had the two wounded Japanese executed out of fear of the Phrakhlang. At the balai
or court of the Phrakhlang, Neijenrode, reasoning that all were guilty, declared that
all those involved deserved to die, including Dodd. Long deemed this to be very
“un-Christian” behaviour on the Dutchman’s part.75 Dodd survived, but English
prestige in Ayutthaya had taken a battering.

The Sea Adventure’s Final Siam Voyage

(January–December 1618)
But the story of the Sea Adventure did not end with the completion of its second
Siam voyage. Richard Cocks, fighting hard and fruitlessly for a restoration of the
EIC’s “privileges” in Japan by the shogun, was outfitting a junk for Siam in late
1617. By mid-November 1617, he was still not ready, but was telling Johnson and
Pitt in Siam to look out for “skyns & wood” for its cargo.76
After yet another expensive refitting, by late December 1617 the Sea Adventure
was ready to sail again for Siam, laden with Japanese silver plate, plus some gifts
and Japanese luxuries.77 The chief justice in Hirado, Matsuura Shigetada, wanted to
send some passengers on the EIC’s junk, leading to a delay in its departure. Finally,
Cocks was able to avoid giving in to his requests by invoking the authority of the
shogun’s goshuin.78
On the Siam side, by August 1617 Pitt was able to assemble some 20,000 deer-
skins at a good price (4½ taels per 100 pieces), in preparation for two junks expect-
ed from Japan.79 During the long wait for the Sea Adventure to arrive in Siam, Pitt
(now alone because Johnson had died) hoped to assemble an even larger quantity
of deerskins, namely 50,000–60,000. He also aimed to send rayskins to Japan
too.80
Cocks sent a letter to Johnson and Pitt via the Sea Adventure and from which it
can be clearly understood that the EIC had had to send two vessels to Japan in
1617 because the Sea Adventure could not carry all the goods assembled by the
Siam factory. Cocks was again concerned about the quality of the deerskins from
Siam, and exhorted Johnson and Pitt to “have a greate care to look to the curying
or drying of the skins.” To the Siam factory’s wish that 10,000 silver taels from
Japan be sent to Siam for purchase of Japan cargoes, Cocks replied that Company
policy was to send cash only to Bantam, so Siam would only get 2,000–3,000 taels.
He also chided the Siam factors for the late dispatch of the Sea Adventure, which
had almost led to its journey being a total disaster.81
On the diplomatic aspect of running the Siam factory, Cocks advised his Siam
colleagues to keep on friendly terms with the leader of the Japanese community in

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 60 DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA

Ayutthaya, not only for trade advice but especially to “keepe under our mutenose
Japon mareners,” on whom, it must be stressed, the EIC depended for every voy-
age undertaken by the Sea Adventure. In a postscript, Cocks recommended that
the EIC traders in Ayutthaya cultivate relations with another potentially useful con-
tact, “Mr Peeterson [James Peterson] the English Umpra.” To this purpose Cocks
wrote to Peterson himself, and added small presents—two fowling pieces, some
satin and damask—for Peterson and the Japanese “Umpra.”82
Of this mysterious English “Umpra” little is known. James Peterson was reputed-
ly much in favour with the Siamese king. Whatever Cocks may have advised, by July
1618 he was noting in his diary that, far from currying favour with Peterson, Pitt had
even got into a drunken brawl with him instead. Pitt had invited Peterson to a “ban-
ket,” quarrelled with him, and had even tried—with the aid of some three
Japanese—to “bynd hym and take hym prisoner.” But Peterson laid about him with
such force that two of Pitt’s Japanese followers were killed, with the third one—and
Pitt himself—fleeing for their lives. Cocks had been told this story by a Dutch cap-
tain, Matthijs ten Broecke. Already aghast at Pitt’s indiscretion in picking a fight with
one of the King of Siam’s favourites, Cocks was probably not consoled when Ten
Broecke explained that all this had been “doone in drink.”83
The Sea Adventure left Hirado on 2 January 1618, but encountered “a cruell
storme” and could get no further than Satsuma, missing the monsoon. The ship
was able to depart after forty days, but leaks forced it to put into Naha. The ship
was repaired there and left the Ryukyus on 10 November. But the misfortunes of the
Sea Adventure did not end just yet. Only three days out, it encountered another
“most cruell storme,” developed yet more leaks and had to put ashore on an island
near Macao. But, in the words of Eaton, “at last it pleased God after much danger
and trobell that wee arrived in the river of Syam the last of December, praysed be
God for it.”84
When he arrived at Ayutthaya, Eaton found Edward Long in charge of the English
factory there, assisted by George Savage (his second), William Barrett, Richard Pitt,
and some others. Clearly the EIC had tried to address the problem of a lack of per-
sonnel in Siam, though Savage and Barrett were both dead by December 1620.85
Together the EIC men managed to assemble a reasonable cargo for Japan.
The Sea Adventure was no longer serviceable, “being so ould and rotten as she
was,” so the EIC had to buy a new junk of 240 tons in Siam for 1,272 taels. This
new junk left Siam on 9 June 1618 and arrived at Hirado on 8 August 1618. It was
almost immediately sold to some Japanese for 3,100 taels. The cargo of this junk
had consisted of 2,100 piculs of sapanwood, 300 piculs of lead, 45 piculs of “oyle
nuttes,” 33 piculs of betel nuts, 950 deerskins, and 920 rayskins. The costliest item
was the sapanwood, at 1,135 taels. Of these, all the lead had been sold to the
shogun at 5½ taels the picul, while of the other goods only 350 piculs of sapan-
wood and 850 deerskins, plus some “oyle nuttes,” had been sold by early 1620.86
In that same year, Cocks told London that the shogun had declared that no more
lead could be imported into Japan “till this greate quantety brought by us & the
Hollanders be spent, for the Hollanders brought in their shipping this yeare 4000
pico English lead & 1000 pico from Syam in their junck.”87
After the final voyage of the Sea Adventure, the EIC in Japan ceased to send
junks to collect cargoes from Siam. In explaining why the EIC sold the new junk

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 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618 61

bought at Siam once it had got to Japan, Eaton wrote that “wee wanted meanes to
sett out the junck againe of another vioage, and for that wee sawe littell profit to
arise in setting out of junckes formerly.”88 The Sea Adventure had sailed four times
from Hirado in the service of the EIC, reaching Ayutthaya three times, twice bring-
ing back reasonable amounts of Siamese commodities for the Japan market.
Always plagued by leaks, it did not survive its third Siam voyage. In Derek
Massarella’s words, “[t]he Sea Adventure had cost £1,000 but through her leaky
hull alone much of the [Japan] factory’s precious capital had drained.”89

Closure of the Siam Factory: Causes and Reactions

By 1620, the shogun had forbidden the English to use Japanese seamen on their
vessels—yet another crucial step towards a tighter control over foreign traders, and
a measure that limited English options even more.90 But the Company still tried to
send vessels from Southeast Asia to Japan. For example, the Turtle went to
Champa and Siam in 1621 with goods for the Japan market.91 But she lost her
monsoon, and had to put in at Champa instead in October 1621, whence she
sailed back to Siam.92
Then the EIC decided to close its Siam factory because it was “unprofitable.”93 In
1622 Fursland at Batavia was already ordering that, if possible, the EIC men in
Ayutthaya should sell the cargo of the Fortune, “and come all awaye uppon the
shippe, takeing first leave of the kinge and to deliver over the howse to bee kept for
us untill our retourne thither.”94 A year later another vessel, the Bee, was sent to
Ayutthaya and Patani to close down the factories there.95 It was around this time too
that the English factory in Japan was dissolved. The process took longer than
expected. It was perhaps symptomatic of the EIC’s lack of discipline, as its Batavia
council complained in December 1623: “the…factories of Japan, Siam & Pattania
wee have dissolved, and had been done the last yeare if our orders had been
observed.”96 The EIC agent in Siam Edward Long claimed that the king would not
let them leave, and that the delays were also caused by difficulties in debt collec-
tion.97 In 1624, the Roebuck went from Java to Siam to buy rice, and on its return
brought Long (who died on the voyage) and his assistant Scudamore.98
During the heyday of Siamese diplomatic contact with Japan, the English at
Hirado had encountered the Ayutthayan envoys of 1621. When the Siamese
ambassadors were returning to Hirado from the shogun’s court, they visited the EIC
factory, the ambassador exchanging gifts with Richard Cocks. The envoy gave
Cocks a barrel of wine, and received a bottle of “annise water” in return. The envoy
asked Cocks to give him a “letter of favour, with an English flagg, yf in case they
mett with any English or Hollands shipps at sea,” which Cocks agreed to do.99 That
the English were trading in Japan was something in their favour in the eyes of the
Siamese court. The King ordered from the EIC two Japanese betelnut boxes, made
of makie.100 It may be seen from all the above that the Siamese still held English
seapower in some esteem, but this power, and the EIC’s trading influence in East
Asia, was not as considerable as the Siamese seemed to assume.
A few years after the Company closed its Ayutthaya and Patani offices, Henry
Hawley at Batavia was still writing positively about the trade at Ayutthaya: “The trade
of Syam is cheafly with the silver of Japon…It affordeth many pretious drugs, deer-

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 62 DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA

skinnes, varnish & lead for Japon, as also tinne at a low rate, and for vittaile, it doth
abound at lower prices than well can be imagined.”101
Hawley saw that the Dutch in Batavia were still trading with Siam. At a time when
the Dutch had to contend with Sultan Agung and Javanese hostility, the VOC was
buying much-needed rice supplies from ships coming from Siam. It was to be a
matter of time before the VOC returned to reopen its Ayutthaya factory.
The EIC, in this first phase of its Siam venture, staked much on trade with Japan.
The Company’s Ayutthaya factory nevertheless failed to cement this tie with Japan;
nor was Hirado able to sustain the link. Owing to many factors, the Siam–Japan
trade network never became an integral part of the EIC’s activities. The major rea-
son for the failure to join this trade network was the decision of the EIC to close its
Gulf of Siam factories in the mid-1620s, and its closure of its Hirado factory in
1623.102
The EIC realised that it needed more personnel in Siam, but manpower was
scarce. In 1617, the Ayutthaya office had written to Cocks at Hirado bewailing the
undermanning of the English factory in Siam. The chief agent Benjamin Farie had
died, and the English were left with only Johnson and Pitt, the third EIC man in
Siam “beinge nether fitt nor capabell to be imployed in any buisnes whatsoever.”
The Company also lacked large boats to run up and down the Chao Phraya selling
goods as well as buying merchandise for Japan such as hides and rayskins.103
William Eaton, after his trip to Siam in 1617, repeated the need for more person-
nel in Ayutthaya, namely at least “6 facctors, to be imployed up & downe the river
as ocation shall be offered [on these boats].”104
In 1618, the personnel shortage in Siam worsened as John Johnson died, leav-
ing Richard Pitt the sole person in charge of the EIC’s Ayutthaya factory. Pitt
recounted to Cocks how both he and Johnson had been very ill. He himself now
asked to return home, his wages being “soe small and my chardges soe great.”105
Although Edward Long and George Savage came to oversee the factory later,
assisted by at least three or four other Englishmen, the personnel problem persist-
ed, since by 1620 Savage was dead. To add to the EIC’s problems in Ayutthaya, its
employees Edward Long and John Dodd clashed with each other so openly that,
according to John Jourdain Junior in Patani, the “blackes” (non-Europeans, here a
nakoda called “Penia Sway”) brought news of their violent quarrels to the English
there.106
The EIC’s use of the Sea Adventure, a Japanese ship of only 200 tons, clearly
was considered a disadvantage. Cocks certainly wanted a larger vessel that could
carry more hides and wood. In 1616, the year of the Sea Adventure’s first Siam voy-
age, the EIC’s Patani office reported to the Ayutthaya factory that a large Dutch ship
of 800 tons, and a smaller one, were setting sail for Japan.107 Between 1613 and
1623, a total of forty-eight Dutch ships sailed to or from Hirado, compared with a
paltry seven EIC vessels.108
In weighing the pros and cons of using an English ship manned by English
mariners, who would have to be well and regularly paid, though staking no claims
to space in the hold, or using Japanese mariners who did not need to be main-
tained for long at the Company’s expense, but who demanded space on the junks
as part of their “privileges,” Cocks and others concluded that the Company stood
to incur more expenses in using English crews. Being employed seasonally,

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 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618 63

Japanese crews did not have to be paid all through the year. But in these circum-
stances it might have been better to send EIC goods as freight on “other juncks &
to pay according to custom of the cuntrey.” Cocks was obviously discouraged by
the whole Sea Adventure episode, and told London that he had wanted to sell the
junk for a profit, then ship the goods as freight on foreign junks.109
Although smaller vessels were available to the EIC in mainland Southeast Asia,
the English in the Gulf of Siam area still had problems securing suitable cargoes,
and lack of discipline was also a problem. Pitt wrote to Cocks telling of a pinnace
that he sent to Patani and Bantam under Robert Burgess to report on the state of
the Siam and Patani factories. But Burgess, “cleaned contry to his order,” went to
Ligor (Nakhon Si Thammarat) instead, where he abused the people, caused all the
mariners to “rone awaie,” and then sold the pinnace and its cargo, “& spent itt all
thair”!110
In 1622, the EIC still yearned for things that its deadly rivals the VOC no longer
considered realistic. An EIC man, possibly Adam Denton, wrote about the possibil-
ity of the English getting to China via Siamese tribute missions to the Chinese
court.111 This had been the idea that had first drawn the Dutch to Ayutthaya, but it
had very soon proven to be a mere dream. The Dutch had instead duly set about
establishing strong Siam–Japan and (later) Siam–Batavia trading routes.
Nevertheless, the Dutch had had trading problems of their own in the 1620s, and
they had closed their factories in the Gulf of Siam region at roughly the same time
as the English. Batavia was already writing to the Heren XVII in 1621 that the fac-
tories of Siam, Patani, Songkhla, and Phatthalung, among others, were not fulfill-
ing the Company’s demand for goods. It was thus difficult to even think of follow-
ing the directors’ exhortations to expand trade, seek new trade routes, and procure
good cargoes.112 Even if this may be seen as a plea for additional resources, it still
reflected certain realities about the VOC’s Southeast Asian trade. These withdrawals
did not appear to be thought of as permanent—not even by the English.113
The Dutch returned very quickly to Ayutthaya. The Siamese court conflicts of
1628–9 were even reported on by Dutchmen.114 The VOC’s Siam office was indeed
never really out of operation, and by the early 1630s the Dutch had become a key
commercial force in Ayutthaya. This revival of its trade in Siam was made possible
by Batavia’s demand for Siamese rice as well as forest produce, and by the return
to successful Dutch commerce in Japan based on the sale of sapanwood and deer-
skins.115

Conclusion
The journeys of the Sea Adventure may perhaps be seen as Anglo–Japanese ven-
tures. The English had to rely on Japanese pilots and crews, however mutinous they
were on occasion. The Sea Adventure travelled with the shogun’s goshuin. The
Japanese crews of the Sea Adventure were entitled to space for their goods in the
hold and, especially on the third Siam voyage, to taking a quota of passengers on
board ship. Shoby, whose junk carried EIC goods that could not fit in the Sea
Adventure, was an acquaintance of the English in Japan, as was the captain,
Skidayen. William Adams, captain of the Sea Adventure on two occasions, was then
an employee both of the Japanese shogun as of the EIC. While in Siam, the EIC

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 64 DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA

had to keep on good terms with the Japanese “Umpra” (okphra), leader of the
Japanese community in Ayutthaya, since the English employed Japanese both on
the Sea Adventure and in their factory. These trading voyages thus involved close
collaboration and interaction between English, Japanese, Siamese, and Chinese in
the port cities of Ayutthaya and Hirado/Nagasaki.
The failure of the EIC in its first phase of trading in Siam may be ascribed to
many factors: the increasingly interventionist policy of the Tokugawa shogunate,
keen competition from both Asian and Dutch traders, the incompetence of some
EIC key personnel, disunity among these employees, sheer bad luck, and so on.
But one key factor was the EIC’s failure to latch on to important trade networks in
Asia, with the Siam–Japan trade being one of them. In order to be part of these
trading gravy trains, the English would have had to resort to military as well as com-
mercial enterprise. Unlike the VOC, the EIC was unable or unwilling to maintain a
strong garrisoned port in Southeast Asia.
To give an idea of how much the EIC regretted this failure, and its future hopes
concerning a return to Hirado or Nagasaki through Southeast Asia, I will refer briefly
to two more Ayutthaya-related EIC documents. It appears that each time the
English thought of returning to Ayutthaya, they regarded Japan as a principal des-
tination for Siamese goods. As the EIC returned to mainland Southeast Asia and
traded in Lovek (Cambodia), the Company employees on the spot reported to their
superiors in Bantam that Siam was even more than Cambodia “a gallant place for
tradeing,” having goods such as hides for the Japan and China markets.116 In 1670
Gerald Aungier and his council in Bombay wrote to the EIC in London that “Siam
appears to us the most convenient for the last lading port to Japon in regard the
quantity of sapan wood & deer skins there procureable,” and recommended that
the Company settle a factory in Siam if it was hoping to carry on a trade either from
Bantam or Surat (or both).117
As D. K. Bassett pointed out, the Japan trade was to be used as a major reason
for the EIC to return to Siam in the 1670s, when some of the traders on the Return,
which had been refused trade in Japan, stayed on in Ayutthaya, in effect re-estab-
lishing the English factory in Siam. The EIC wanted to sell English manufactures
(notably wool) in Asia, a policy that would prove its “Achilles heel.” Hopes of both
renewing a Siam–Japan trade and selling English products for a profit in Asia were
to be unfulfilled. The English factory in Siam’s second phase was to prove a spec-
tacular catalogue of incompetence, corruption, and—ultimately—disastrous fail-
ure.118

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Bibliography of Works Cited

Anderson, John. English Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth Century. London, 1890.
Bassett, D. K. “English Relations with Siam in the Seventeenth Century.” Journal of the Malayan
Branch, Royal Asiatic Society 34:2 (1961): 90–105.
Coolhaas, W. Ph., ed. Generale missiven van gouverneurs-generaal en raden aan Heren XVII der
Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie. Vol. 1, 1610–1638. ‘s-Gravenhage: Nijhoff, 1960.
Corr, William. Adams the Pilot. Folkestone: Curzon, 1995.
Farrington, Anthony, ed. The English Factory in Japan. 2 vols. London: The British Library, 1991.
——— and Dhiravat na Pombejra, eds. The English Factory in Siam 1612–1685. 2 vols. London: The
British Library, 2007.
Haneda Masashi, ed. Asian Port Cities 1600–1800. Local and Foreign Cultural Interactions. Singapore:
NUS Press and Kyoto University Press, 2009.
Heeck, Gijsbert. A Traveler in Siam in the Year 1655, translated by Barend Jan Terwiel. Chiang Mai:
Silkworm, 2008.
Massarella, Derek. A World Elsewhere: Europe’s Encounter with Japan in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Mulder, W. Z. Hollanders in Hirado 1597–1641. Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1980.
Nagazumi, Yoko. “Ayutthaya and Japan: Embassies and Trade in the Seventeenth Century.” In From
Japan to Arabia: Ayutthaya’s Maritime Relations with Asia, edited by Kennon Breazeale, 89–103.
Bangkok: The Society for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks, 1999.
Polenghi, Cesare. Samurai in Ayutthaya. Yamada Nagamasa, Japanese Warrior and Merchant in
Early Seventeenth-Century Siam. Bangkok: White Lotus, 2009.
Satow, E. M. “Notes on the Intercourse between Japan and Siam in the Seventeenth Century,”
Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, 13 (1885): 139–210.
Smith, George Vinal. The Dutch in Seventeenth-Century Thailand. De Kalb: University of Northern
Illinois Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 1977.
Thompson, Edward Maunde, ed. Diary of Richard Cocks. Cape-Merchant in the English Factory in
Japan 1615–1622. With notes by N. Murakami. Tokyo: Sangkōsha, 1899.
Toby, Ronald P. State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan. Asia in the Development of the
Tokugawa Bakufu. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

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 66
Notes
Abbreviations
EFJ Anthony Farrington, ed. The English Factory
in Japan 1613–1623. 2 vols. London: The
British Library, 1991.
EFS Anthony Farrington and Dhiravat na
Pombejra, eds. The English Factory in Siam
1612–1685. 2 vols. London: The British
Library, 2007.
NA Nationaal Archief, The Hague.
* Dhiravat na Pombejra, an independent
researcher on 17th–18th century Thai history,
was a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts of
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, between
1985 and 2006.
1 “Peter Floris” was the anglicised name of
Pieter Willemszoon Floris, as “Lucas
Antheuniss” was that of Lucas Anthoniszoon.
See Floris’ account of his voyage in EFS
1.77–121, Doc. 8.
2 Massarella, World Elsewhere; Corr, Adams
the Pilot; EFJ.
3 Haneda Masashi, ed., Asian Port Cities
1600–1800, 1–11.
4 EFS 1.72, Doc. 4, letter of John Saris,
Bantam, c. 1608. It appears, though, that
rials of eight were worth more than bullion.
5 EFS 1.104–5, Doc. 8, Floris’ journal, 25 April,
8 & 23 May 1613 entries. Siam was a port
where wood appropriate for shipbuilding was
plentiful, and labour readily available.
6 See Satow, “Notes on the Intercourse
between Japan and Siam in the Seventeenth
Century,” 189–210; Nagazumi, “Ayutthaya
and Japan,” 89–97.
7 Nagazumi, “Ayutthaya and Japan,” 90–3.
8 On the Japanese community in Ayutthaya,
see for example Polenghi, Samurai of
Ayutthaya, 136. The most famous inhabitant
of the nihon-machi in Ayutthaya was of
course Yamada Nagamasa (Okya Senaphi-
muk).
9 Smith, The Dutch in Seventeenth-Century
Thailand, 76.
10 Corr, Adams, 97.
11 EFS 1.80, Doc. 8, Floris’ journal, 3 July 1612
entry. Yet the Japanese were well known in
Patani. Floris remarked in October 1613,
after the perpetrators of a Javanese slave
revolt had burned down much of the town,
that this town had twice been burned before,
once by Javanese and another time by the
“Japanasians” [sic] (Doc. 8, 119).
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DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA
12 EFS 1.98, Doc. 8, Floris’ journal, 15 Jan.
1613 entry.
13 EFS 1.216, Doc. 66, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
in London, 1 Jan. 1617.
14 EFS 1.148, Doc. 30, Commission from
Cocks at Hirado to Wickham, 25 Nov. 1614.
See also Heeck, A Traveler in Siam in the
Year 1655, 52 (folio 37r.).
15 EFS 1.127, Doc. 15, Saris’ remembrance left
with Cocks, 5 December 1613.
16 EFJ 1.5, Introduction by Anthony Farrington.
17 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 110.
18 EFS 1.145, Doc. 28, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
in London, 25 Nov. 1614.
19 Corr, Adams, 185–6; Polenghi, Samurai of
Ayutthaya, 15–20.
20 EFS 1.146, Doc. 28, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
in London, 25 Nov. 1614; Doc. 29, Cocks at
Hirado to Denton at Patani, 25 Nov. 1614,
146; Doc. 30, Commission from Cocks at
Hirado to Wickham, 25 Nov. 1614, 148–50.
The “trifles” included Japanese fans and
boxes too. If any were left over after the gift
giving, the Japanese weapons were to be sold
for profit. See also Anderson, English
Intercourse with Siam in the Seventeenth
Century, 60–61; Thompson, ed., Diary of
Richard Cocks. Cape-Merchant in the
English Factory in Japan 1615–1622, 1.1–2,
7, 1 June 1615 and 11 June 1615 entries;
Massarella, World Elsewhere, 157.
21 EFS 1.166, Doc. 38, Coppendale at Hirado
to EIC agent at Ayutthaya, 5 Dec. 1615. In
1616, Farie asked Cocks to send him any
unsold Indian textiles, presumably because
they could be sold in Siam. See Doc. 51,
Farie at Ayutthaya to Cocks at Hirado, 26 May
1616, 196.
22 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 157.
23 EFS 1. 171, Doc. 41, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
Agent in Ayutthaya, 6 Dec. 1615.
24 EFS 1.171, Doc. 41, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
Agent in Ayutthaya, 6 Dec. 1615; last quota-
tion in paragraph from footnote by
Farrington, 171.
25 EFS 1.170, Doc. 41, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
Agent in Ayutthaya, 6 Dec. 1615.
26 EFS 1.174ff, Doc. 43, Sayers’ journal of his
voyage from Hirado to Siam, 7 Dec. 1615–22
Nov. 1616.
27 EFS 1.175, 177, 182, Doc. 43, Sayers’ jour-
nal, 17 Jan. 1616, 2 Feb. 1616 entries.
28 EFS 1.195–96, Doc. 51, Farie at Ayutthaya to
Cocks at Hirado, 26 May 1616. Li Tan (also
known as Andrea Dittis) was recognised as
the chief among the Chinese resident in
 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618
Hirado and Nagasaki, and a principal partici-
pant in goshuin trading voyages to Southeast
Asia and Taiwan (EFJ 2.1554).
29 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 177.
30 EFS 1.180, Doc. 43, Sayers’ journal.
31 EFS 1.177, Doc. 43, Sayers’ journal, 31 Jan.
& 26 Feb. 1616 entries.
32 Nagazumi, “Ayutthaya and Japan,” 90.
33 EFS 1.177, Doc. 43, Sayers’ Journal, 5 Feb.
1616 entry.
34 Potacco is probably a transliteration of the
Portuguese patache, an advice boat or small
ship used for communication between larger
vessels.
35 EFS 1.197, Doc. 51, Farie at Ayutthaya to
Cocks at Hirado, 26 May 1616.
36 EFS 1.213, Doc. 63, Eaton at Hirado to
Smythe in London, 18 Dec. 1616.
37 EFS 1.243, Doc.80, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC in London, 15 Feb. 1618.
38 EFS 1.184, Doc. 43, Sayers’ journal.
39 EFS 1.192, Doc. 49, A court of merchants
held at Ayutthaya, 10 April 1616. However, a
letter from Farie to Cocks dated 26 May 1616
gives the amount of sapan as only 852 and a
half piculs (EFS 1, Doc. 51).
40 EFS 1.201, Doc. 56, Nealson and Osterwick
at Hirado to Farie at Ayutthaya, 21 Sept.
1616.
41 EFS 1.211, Doc. 62, Cocks at Hirado to
Browne at Patani, 16 Dec. 1616. The goods
were sold to Li Tan and the Matsuura, with a
little bit being sent on inland to the Kyoto area
(Massarella, World Elsewhere, 177–78).
42 EFS 1.226, Doc.70, Johnson & Pitt at
Ayutthaya to Cocks at Hirado, 23 May 1617.
43 Corr, Adams, 195.
44 EFS 1.210, Doc. 61, Totten at Hirado to Farie
at Ayutthaya, 4 Dec. 1616.
45 EFS 1.211, Doc. 62, Cocks at Hirado to
Browne at Patani, 16 Dec. 1616.
46 EFS 1.217, Doc. 66, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
in London, 1 Jan. 1617; EFJ 1.529, Doc.
222, Sayers at Hirado to Saris in England,
4 Dec. 1616; Massarella, World Elsewhere,
177.
47 EFS 1.222, Doc. 69, Ferrers at Champa to
Cocks at Hirado, 18 May 1617; Doc. 70,
Johnson & Pitt at Ayutthaya to Cocks at
Hirado, 23 May 1617, 223–4; Doc. 71
Johnson & Pitt at Bar of Siam to Browne at
Patani, 28 May 1617, 228.
48 EFS 1.193–94, Doc. 50, Instructions from
Farie to Savage and Facey, Ayutthaya, 15 May
1616.
49 EFS 1.229, Doc. 72, Diary of Cocks, 4 July
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67
1617 entry; Doc. 80, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC in London, 15 Feb. 1618, 243.
The Sea Adventure and Shoby’s junk brought
a total of around 9,000 deerskins, but to put
this figure into perspective during 1616 three
Dutch ships had brought in 37,397 deerskins
(Massarella, World Elsewhere, 178–9).
50 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 178.
51 EFJ 1.10, Introduction.
52 EFS 1.191, Doc. 49, Court of merchants held
at Ayutthaya, 10 April 1616.
53 EFS 1.216, Doc. 66, Cocks at Hirado to EIC
in London, 1 Jan. 1617.
54 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 202.
55 EFS 1.202, Doc. 56, Nealson & Osterwick at
Hirado to Farie at Ayutthaya, 21 Sept. 1616.
56 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 186.
57 EFS 1.211–12, Doc. 62, Cocks at Hirado to
Browne at Patani, 16 Dec. 1616; Doc. 66,
Cocks at Hirado to EIC in London, 1 Jan.
1617, 218.
58 EFS 1.212, Doc. 63, Eaton at Hirado to
Smythe in London, 18 Dec. 1616.
59 EFS 1.227–28, Doc. 71, Johnson & Pitt at
Bar of Siam to Browne at Patani, 28 May
1617.
60 EFS 1.219, Doc. 67, Wickham at Hirado to
Farie at Ayutthaya, 15 Jan. 1617.
61 On Tokugawa control of, and need for, for-
eign trade, see Toby, State and Diplomacy in
Early Modern Japan, 5–10, 169–70, etc.
62 EFS 1.219–20, Doc. 67, Wickham at Hirado
to Farie at Ayutthaya, 15 Jan. 1617. “Meaco”
or “Miaco” was what the English called Kyoto,
while “Sacay” denoted Sakai.
63 EFS 1.225, Doc. 70, Johnson & Pitt at
Ayutthaya to Cocks at Hirado, 23 May 1617.
64 EFS 1.227, Doc. 71, Johnson & Pitt at Bar of
Siam to Browne at Patani, 28 May 1617.
Eaton himself wrote that he arrived in Siam
on 19 January 1617; Doc. 75, Eaton at
Hirado to Smythe in London, 20 Dec. 1617,
232.
65 EFS 1.232–33, Doc. 75, Eaton at Hirado to
Smythe in London, 20 Dec. 1617; Doc. 71,
Johnson & Pitt at Bar of Siam to Browne at
Patani, 28 May 1617, 227.
66 EFS 1.243, Doc.80, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC in London, 15 Feb. 1618.
67 EFS 1.232, Doc. 75, Eaton at Hirado to
Smythe in London, 20 Dec. 1617.
68 On the EIC men in Chiang Mai, see EFS 1,
Docs. 8 and 27; Anderson, Intercourse, 55,
62.
69 EFS 1.147, 151, Doc. 30, Commission from
Cocks at Hirado to Wickham, 25 Nov. 1614.
 68
70 EFS 1.228, Doc. 71, Johnson & Pitt at Bar of
Siam to Browne at Patani, 28 May 1617.
71 EFJ 2.1569–70.
72 EFS 1.214, Doc. 64, Wilmot at Hirado to
Farie at Ayutthaya, 18 Dec. 1616. A “scrit-
tore” (éscritoire) is a writing set. Gifts were
often exchanged among the EIC men. As
another example, Pitt sent his colleague
Browne in Patani a Japanese sword (katana)
in 1617, EFS 1.230, Doc. 73, Pitt at
Ayutthaya to Browne at Patani, Aug. 1617.
73 EFS 1.220, Doc. 67, Wickham at Hirado to
Farie at Ayutthaya, 15 Jan. 1617.
74 The Historie of the World was one of the
works written by Raleigh when he was in the
Tower of London, accused of involvement in
the “Main Plot,” a Protestant plot against King
James I. EFS 1.238, Doc. 76, Cocks at
Hirado to Johnson & Pitt at Ayutthaya, 23 &
30 Dec. 1617; Doc. 77, Diary of Richard
Cocks, Dec. 1617, 29 Dec. 1617 entry, p.
239. The price of Johnson’s escritoire was 3
taels, while Pitt’s cost 1 tael 8 maes.
75 EFS 1.281–82, Doc. 115, Long at Ayutthaya
to Jourdain jun. at Patani, 10 Aug. 1621. See
Polenghi, Samurai of Ayutthaya, 44.
76 EFS 1.231, Doc. 74, Cocks at Hirado to
Johnson & Pitt at Ayutthaya, 21 Nov. 1617.
77 EFS 1.239, Doc. 77, Diary of Richard Cocks,
Hirado, 29 Dec. 1617 entry; Massarella,
World Elsewhere, 250.
78 EFS 1.238, Doc.77, Diary of Richard Cocks,
Hirado, 24 Dec. 1617 entry.
79 EFS 1.230, Doc. 73, Pitt at Ayutthaya to
Browne at Patani, Aug. 1617.
80 EFS 1.245, Doc. 82, Pitt at Ayutthaya to
Cocks at Hirado, 5 May 1618.
81 EFS 1.236, Doc. 76, Cocks at Hirado to
Johnson and Pitt at Ayutthaya, 23 & 30 Dec.
1617; Massarella, World Elsewhere, 204.
82 EFS 1.235–38, Doc. 76, Cocks at Hirado to
Johnson & Pitt at Ayutthaya, 23 & 30 Dec.
1617; Doc. 77 Diary of Richard Cocks,
Hirado, Dec. 1617, 30 Dec. 1617 entry, 239.
Cocks’ letter to Peterson has not survived.
83 EFS 1.247, Doc. 83, Diary of Richard Cocks,
Hirado, 3 July 1618 entry.
84 EFS 1.254–55, Doc. 80, Doc. 84, Doc. 92,
Eaton at Nagasaki to Smythe & EIC in
London, 10 March 1620.
85 EFS 1.265, Doc. 100, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC in London, 14 December
1620.
86 EFS 1.255–56, Doc. 92, Eaton at Nagasaki
to Smythe & EIC in London, 10 March 1620.
According to the VOC opperhoofd Van
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DHIRAVAT NA POMBEJRA
Nijenrode the cost of the EIC’s new junk
was 42 Siamese catties (NA, The Hague,
VOC 1070, fs. 519v.–520).
87 EFS 1.265, Doc. 100, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC in London, 14 Dec. 1620.
88 EFS 1.256, Doc. 92, Eaton at Nagasaki to
Smythe & EIC in London, 10 March 1620.
89 Massarella, World Elsewhere, 254.
90 Thompson, Diary of Richard Cocks, vol. 2,
Correspondence, 310, Cocks at Nagasaki
to EIC in London, 10 March 1620; EFJ
2.850, 852, Doc. 351, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC, 30 Sept. 1621.
91 EFS 1. 292–93, Doc. 123, Jourdain jun. at
Patani to Fursland & council at Batavia,
23 Feb. 1622.
92 EFS 1.291, Doc. 122, Jourdain jun. at
Patani to Fursland & council at Batavia, 10
Feb. 1622; Doc. 123, Jourdain at Patani to
Fursland & council, 23 Feb. 1622, 292–3.
93 EFS 1.291, Doc. 121, Fursland & Council
at Batavia to EIC, 11 Jan. 1622.
94 EFS 1.294, Doc. 126, Fursland & council at
Batavia to EIC in London, 27 Aug. 1622.
95 EFS 1.312, Doc. 137, Consultation by
Fursland & council at Batavia, 21 March
1623.
96 EFS 1.316, Doc. 140, Brockedon & council
at Batavia to the EIC in London, 14 Dec.
1623.
97 EFS 1.308, Doc. 134, Long at Siam to
Fursland & Council at Batavia, 20 Nov.
1622; Doc. 135, Fursland & Council at
Batavia to EIC in London, 8 Feb. 1623,
311–2.
98 EFS 1.315, Doc. 139, Diary of John
Goninge at Batavia.
99 EFS 1.284, Doc. 117, Diary of Richard
Cocks, 14 Nov. 1621 entry. The Siamese
envoys to Japan were Khun Phichit Sombat
and Khun Prasoet.
100 EFS 1.250, Doc. 86, Diary of Richard
Cocks, 15 Dec. 1618 entry.
101 EFS 1.325, Doc. 149, Hawley & council at
Batavia to EIC in London, 6 Feb. 1626; see
also Doc. 151, Hawley & council at Batavia
to EIC in London, 18 July 1627, 326.
102 See for example EFS 1.312–13, Doc. 137,
Consultation by Fursland & Council at
Batavia, 21 March 1623; Introduction, 8,
etc.
103 EFS 1.226, Doc. 70, Johnson & Pitt at
Ayutthaya to Cocks at Hirado, 23 May
1617. This third man was probably Thomas
Winterbourne, mentioned by William Eaton
in his December 1617 letter to London.
 THE VOYAGES OF THE “SEA ADVENTURE” TO AYUTTHAYA, 1615–1618
104 EFS 1.232–33, Doc. 75, Eaton at Hirado to
Smythe in London, 20 Dec. 1617.
105 EFS 1.245, Doc. 82, Pitt at Ayutthaya to
Cocks at Hirado, 5 May 1618.
106 EFS 1.266, Doc. 101, Jourdain jun. at
Patani to Long at Ayutthaya, 31 Jan. 1621.
107 EFS 1.200, Doc. 53, Browne at Patani to
Farie at Ayutthaya, 20 June 1616. In 1618
Pitt dreamt of building a large junk in
Champa for only ten catties, Doc. 82, Pitt at
Ayutthaya to Cocks at Hirado, 5 May 1618,
246. But Cocks poured cold water on this
immediately, citing that EIC had no policy of
building ships itself; Doc. 84, Cocks at
Hirado to Pitt at Ayutthaya, 17 Aug. 1618,
249.
108 From Mulder, Hollanders in Hirado
1597–1641, 119, 263–301.
109 EFS 1.243, Doc. 80, Cocks at Hirado to
Smythe & EIC in London, 15 Feb. 1618.
110 EFS 1.246, Doc. 82, Pitt at Ayutthaya to
Cocks at Hirado, 5 May 1618. Burgess was
from the very beginning of his career in the
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69
East characterised by the Company as
“headstrong, drunken and lecherous” (EFJ
2.1548–49, biographical notes).
111 EFS 1.290, Doc. 120, An anonymous
description of part of the East Indies, c.
1622.
112 Coolhaas, ed., Generale missiven, vol. 1,
112.
113 See EFS 1.294, Doc. 126, Fursland &
Council at Batavia to EIC in London, 27
Aug. 1622.
114 NA, The Hague, VOC 1098, Memorandum
of 13 December 1629, Siam.
115 See Smith, The Dutch in Seventeenth-
Century Thailand.
116 EFS 1.329–30, Doc. 153, Browne and
Greenway at Lovek to Skinner and council,
17 Jan. 1655.
117 EFS 1.372, Doc. 194, Aungier and council
at Bombay to EIC in London, 23 Jan. 1670.
118 Bassett, “English Relations with Siam in the
Seventeenth Century,” 90–105.