1 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



was a wide rambling bungalow of wood and paper, roofed with tile and 

 surrounded by a garden of trees trimmed witli fantastic artificiality, of 

 flowers and wild growth. Here lived the present member of the 

 ancient noble Tanegashima family that previously ruled the island. 

 My brother called on him one day, and was cordially received, and from 

 him we obtained accounts of the first coming of Europeans to Japan 

 and of the introduction of firearms. It was the custom to keep a 

 family record, and the contemporary account of this episode of the 

 history of the island is most interesting. In addition to the account 

 set down at the time in the family records a complete narrative of the 

 events was written by a priest of the island named Monshi about 1606, 

 or sixty-three years after they occurred, when, as he says, there were 

 still living some old men, with hair as white as the Japanese crane, who 

 remembered the arrival of the foreigners. This narrative he called 

 " Teppoki," or " gun-record." In recent years a history of the Tane- 

 gashima family has been written in Japanese by Tokihito Nishimura, 

 and these original accounts are included in it. During some long rainy 

 days on the island our friend Kiyoshi Kanai translated the family 

 records and the " Teppoki," and we studied out their meaning and in- 

 terpreted them in English as well and as closely as we could. They 

 were written in old-fashioned Japanese and many passages are obscure 

 in meaning and difficult to render. 



As the " Teppoki " tells the whole story well and as it incorporates 

 the account given in the family records, I shall give our translation of 

 it, leaving out the other, which would be largely duplication. 



There is an island called Tane, 44 miles from Gushu.^ Our ancestors always 

 lived there. People say that the reason why they call it Tane is that, though 

 it is small, it is full of people and they are all well-to-do. As a seed planted 

 grows and brings forth fruit without end, so multiplied and prospered the 

 dwellers on this island.^ 



On the 25th day of August, 1544, a large ship was found on the beach of 

 Nishi-no-mura, and they did not know from what country it came. The whole 

 crew numbered more than a hundred, the shape of their bodies was not like 

 ours and they could not talk with us. The peojile that saw them thought them 

 very curious. Among them there was a Chinese student named Goho; we had 

 no way now of knowing his last name. The head officer of Nishi-no-mura was 

 Oribenosho Tokitsura, and he knew a good deal. He met Goho and with his 

 cane he wrote on the sand as follows:''^ "We do not know whence the crew of 

 the ship comes. How diflferent their figure is ! " Then Goho wrote : " They are 

 merchants of the southwest barbarians. Though they know about the principle 

 of emperor and subjects they are ignorant about ceremony. So that when they 



^ The southern province of Kiushiu, now called Osumi. 



* Tanegashima means literally " Island of seed," from Tane — seed, ga — of, 

 shima — island. 



*" The meaning of the written characters in Chinese and Japanese is much 

 the same whereas the spoken languages are mutually incomprehensible. 



