Diary of Richard Cocks, Cape-merchant in the English Factory in Japan, 1615-1622

The publications of the Hakluyt Society (founded in 1846) made available edited (and sometimes translated) early accounts of exploration. The first series, which ran from 1847 to 1899, consists of 100 books containing published or previously unpublished works by authors from Christopher Columbus to Sir Francis Drake, and covering voyages to the New World, to China and Japan, to Russia and to Africa and India. Volumes 66 and 67 of the series, edited by E. M Thompson and first published in 1883, contain the bulk of the diary of Richard Cocks (c.1565-1624), supplemented by a selection of letters. Cocks was the head of a trading post established in Japan by the British East India Company from its foundation in 1613 until 1622, when it went out of business. His diary describes Japanese society and culture in the early seventeenth century, as well as the activities of British merchants there.