s an interesting account(253) of this journey
and visit, which resulted in a charter of privileges(254) for the London
East India Company to trade in any port of the empire. Having arranged to
his great satisfaction this important matter he returned to Hirado, where
he established a factory to serve as the basis for future English trade.
In this, however, he encountered no little opposition from the Dutch
traders, who had a factory in the same place. For while these enterprising
nations, who had been allies in the days of the Armada, could combine very
readily in opposition to the Spanish and Portuguese, it was not easy for
either of them to look on complacently while the other secured for itself
superior advantages in the matter of trade. Captain Saris tried to come to
some agreement with his rivals, so that the prices of commodities might be
kept up, but he was compelled to see the Dutch factory, in order to crowd
him out of the field, putting the goods which they had for sale at prices
which were ruinous to both. Having established matters, however, on as
satisfactory a footing as he could arrange, and having left his comrade,
Captain Cocks, in charge of the English factory, he sailed for home.

The subsequent events in the history of English trade with Japan may as
well be traced here. The relations of the English and Dutch in the East
grew steadily more inimical. Perhaps this was due to the increasing
rivalry in trade and navigation which prevailed between them at home. In
1617 the London East India Company fitted out an expedition of five large
vessels. This fleet arrived in the East in the summer of the following
year. After much hostile skirmishing in which the Dutch obtained the
permanent advantage, and the English commander was about to retire, word
was brought to them from Europe that a peace had been arranged between the
two countries. The English and Dutch vessels accordingly sailed to Japan,
where they took a hand at trade; because in those days ships always were
sent to the East prepared either to fight or trade as the case required.
But this amicable arrangement did not last many years. The massacre at the
Spice Islands in 1623, for which Cromwell afterward exacted an indemnity,
ended all attempts at co-operation in the East. Soon after this the
English company withdrew entirely from the Japanese trade, having lost in
the effort forty thousand pounds. The Dutch were thus left without a
rival, and we shall