NOTES ON LIU-KIU. 269 



became regularly established, and a considerable amount of business was 

 yearly transacted between the two countries. No events of any importance 

 occurred before the accession of Chun-tien in 1187. This monarch was a 

 descendant of the ancient kings of Japan, but it is uncertain at what jjeriod 

 his family settled in Liu-kiu. He is said to have been the son of the famous 

 warrior Tametomo, who, after the defeat of his party in the civil war of 

 1166, was exiled to Vries Island, and fled some years later to Liu-kiu. 

 Before his succession he had been Governor of Pou-tien, a town in the southern 

 part of Okinawa-sima, and his crown was at first disputed by Li-yong, a rival 

 prince who was afterwards defeated and killed. Chun-tien's reign was 

 memorable for the introduction of writing, — the characters having been 

 apparently borrowed from the Jajianese. 



Of Chun-tien's son we hear little, but his grandson, who succeeded in 

 1249, was unfortunate in having his country ravaged by famine and pestilence. 

 Afraid lest he might be considered in some measure to blame, or anxious 

 that everything should be done to alleviate his subjects' sufferings, he called 

 a meeting of his nobles and offered to abdicate. They proposed Ynt-sou, a 

 descendant of the ancient kings of Liu-kiu. The king at once made him 

 jirime minister, and having satisfied himself as to his fitness, yielded him 

 the crown. The choice of the nobles was a successful one, for Ynt-sou 

 appears to have made useful laws in connection with agriculture and taxes, 

 and to have been generally beloved. Under his rule the islands to the north — 

 Tatao (the present Oo-sima), Kikaiga-sima, and probably Kakirouma — were 

 added to the kingdom, and his reign was further marked by a fortunate 

 escape from another Chinese descent. Chit-sou, Emperor of China at that 

 time, bearing in mind the successes of his imperious predecessor Yang-ti, 

 fitted out a fleet with the intention of i-econquering the Liu-kius in the year 

 1291. The expedition, however, does not seem to have been a popular one. 

 The Tartars and Chinese had been so roughly handled in their descent on 

 the Japanese about this time, that they began to regard these predatory 

 excursions as not always quite such simple aftairs as they should be. There 

 was therefore but little warlike ardour on board the ships that left the 

 Fokien ports, and after cruising for a short time in the Formosa Channel, 

 and making a descent on the Pescadores Islands, they returned home, having 

 never even been within sight of their destination. 



Ynt-sou was succeeded by his son and grandson, and in 1314 Yu-ching, 

 the fourth son of the latter, commenced a reign of war and disorder, in which 

 the island became ultimately divided into three distinct kingdoms, — San-nan, 

 Chiusan, and San-pe or Sanboku — in which state they existed for nearh' a 

 century. Yu-ching retained the middle kingdom, which had Shiuri ^ for its 

 1 The word Shiuri merely means "chief city," as does also its Chinese ajiiiellation 



