Hamel and his seven mates succeeded in escaping from Joseon. They were afraid of Joseon people might chase them, so they oared their way, lowering a sail not to come in sight.

Late afternoon, they could get out of fear of being caught again when they reached the last tip of Joseon. Their whole bodies seemed to be paralyzed.

On Sept. 6, they found one of Japanese islands, Hirado where old VOC branch was located. In 1666, the VOC branch was located in Deshima, an artificial island, Nagasaki.

In the evening of that day, they anchored to the west coast of the island.

On Sept. 7, wind and waves kept changing and they found that they were between several islands standing in a line. They went to the islands.

On Sept. 8, although they kept sailing, they found that they stood at the same place as last evening. Because of the tide, they spun round the same place.

To get out of the islands, they dashed toward the sea, but they failed due to a strong wind and could drop the anchor in one bay. They could not know where they were and so they boiled rice.

Occasionally, they saw some residents passing in a ship, but they did not seem to care about them.

Towards the evening, they found that a ship with six knights let one person off on the other side of coast. Hamel and his mates attempted to run away, but they were caught by them.

They found that the knights looked similar with Japanese. They took a Dutch flag, crying out "Holland, Nagasaki".

Their arrival caused confusion and many people came to take a look at them.
According to Hamel, everyone wore one or two swords at their side. They were Samurai (Japanese knight). Those days, common people or merchants could not wear a sword at their side. Only Samurai had the authority to wear two swords, which was the special right of the ruling class.

By the way, where did Hamel and his mates arrive?


Hamel wrote that they arrived in Goto(五島).

According to 『Bunrygisadaegang(分類記事大綱)』owned by the National Diet Library in Japan, "Dutch people were shipwrecked in Joseon and were seized for 12 or 13 years andeight of them escaped to Goto(五嶋 = 五島).” Judging from this, they arrived in Gamigoto(上五島) in the northern end of the Goto Islands.

In addition, according to 『일기(日記)』(owned by Nagasaki Hyeonrip Library), Hamel and his 8 escapee companions arrived in「Nama」in Gamigoto territory that is the present administrative district of Japan[Aogatakou(靑方鄕) Gamigotomachi(上五島町) Minamiura(南松浦郡) Nagasaki(長崎縣)].