I70 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



whole story is most interesting, but there is place for only a few extracts 



here. Their junk hove to first at the southern end of the island and 



was then conducted by native boats to " a great town, named Miay- 



gimaa "^^ where the chief nobleman of the island soon came on board. 



The account reads :^^ 



He no sooner perceived us three Portugals, but he demanded what people we 

 were, saying, that by our beards and faces we could not be Chineses. . . . 

 Thereupon having called a woman of Lequia" whom he had brought to serve 

 as an interpreter between him and the Chinese, captain" of the junck; "Ask 

 the Necoda, said he unto her, where he met with these men, and upon what 

 occasion he had irotight them hither with him into our country of Jappan? " 

 The captain thereunto replied, that we were honest men and merchants. . . . 

 After he had seen all the commodities in the junck, he sate him down in a 

 chair upon the deck, and began to question us about certain things which he 

 desired to know, to the which we answered him in such sort, as we thought 

 would be most agreeable to his humour, so that he seemed exceedingly satis- 

 fied therewith; in this manner he entertained us a good while together, making 

 it apparent by his demands that he was a man very curious, and much inclined 

 to hear novelties and rare things. 



^c- 



On leaving the vessel the lord of the island asked the strangers to 

 come ashore and visit him, and they did so, being royally entertained 

 and answering many questions regarding the world from which they 

 had come, which was entirely unknown to the Japanese. Within three 

 days all the goods on the ship weie disposed of at great profit, but 

 Pinto and his companions remained on the island after that more than 

 five months. Again the narrative reads : 



Now as for us three Portugals, having nothing to sell, we imployed our 

 time either in fishing, hunting or seeing the temples of these Gentiles, which 

 were very sumptuous and rich, whereinto the Bonzes, who are their priests, 

 received us very courteously, for indeed it is the custom of those of Jappan to 

 be exceedingly kind and courteous. . . . Diego Zeimoto went many times a 

 shooting for his pleasure in an harquebuse that he had, wherein he was very 

 expert, so that going one day by chance to a certain marsh, where there was a 

 great store of fowl, he killed at that time about six and twenty wild ducks. 

 In the mean time these people beholding this manner of shooting, which they 

 had never seen before, were much amazed at it. . . . The lord of the island 

 sent presently for Zeimoto, just as he was shooting in the marsh, but when 

 he saw him come with his harquebuse on his shoulder, and two Chineses with 

 him carrying the fowl, he was so mightily taken with the matter, as he could 



and the last name for Zeimoto, especially as the Japanese account says dis- 

 tinctly that there were three men. 



" The name of the chief town which was then as now the chief one of the 

 island, and to which Pinto came according to the Japanese account, is Akaogi 

 or Nishi-no-omote. He evidently confused with it the name of the small island 

 Mage-shima that lies a few miles out to sea in front of the town. 



" From the translation by H. C. Gent published in London in 1663. 



" Pinto's version of Liu Kiu, the name of the island chain to the south. 



" The three Portuguese were then traveling in the vessel of a Chinese pirate. 



