The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-10

Japan We're not the least interesting
| part OF his experiences. He tells US
that when sailing the eastern seas he
and his comrades were wrecked and
left stranded on a desert island There
they We're picked up by a Chinese
pirate. From his craft. after a series
OF mishaps, they landed on the Island
| OF TaniXunla, which may be identified
with Tanega Shina, just TO the south
Iof the southernmost of the four great
islands of Japan. Here they were we'll
ireceived by the governor, who asked
many questions about Portugal.
''whereunto.' says Pinto. I'VE rendered
him such answers as might rather fit
his humor than agree with the truth
| Invited on the shoreaby the japanese
lSovernor of Tanega Shima, the Portu-
| guese employed themselves in fishing
hunting or visiting the temples of these
! Gentiles. as Pinto calls them. 1t hap
! pened that the governor, while out
riding, saw one of them-Diego lei
Understanding with an arQuebus,
| wherein he was very expert The
| governor had never set eyes on a gun
| before, and was SO nightly taken with
this manner of shooting that he desired
to be informed of the secret of the
powder, which he concluded must be
some sort of sorcery. Proud of the SEN
sation he had created Diego made
| three shoots for the governors benefit,
| bringing down kite and two turtle
doves. The governor was so delighted
| that he told Diego to get on his horse,
4, and SO rode with him to the palace,
accompanied by a great crowd. Diego
gave his aTquebus to the governor, who
declared that he valued it more than all
the treasures of China, and then per-
suaded his guest to teach him how to
make gunpowder. Clever japanese
craftsmen were employed to make guns
of the same pattern; and before Pinto
and his companions left the island
that is, within five six months-600
muskets had been turned out. The fame
of the new weapon was soon carried
across what we now call the Van Die
men straits to the Island of Kiu-Kiu
Pinto'S kingdom of Bungo. The king,
who was possibly no more than a Dali
MIC of high degree. subject to the ruler
of all Japan. having heard of the ar
rival of the Portuguese at Tanega Shi-
ma, and of the wonders of their dis
course, wrote to the governor asking
that they might be forwarded to his
capital: "for / have heard of a truth"
he wrote, that these same men have
-
tiers of the whole universe, and have
affirmed unto You on their faith that
there is another world greater than
ours, inhabited by black and tawny
people,
The governor was unwilling to part
with Diego Zeimoto until that marks
man had taught him to shoot as
straight as he could himself; but he
sent Pinto and another Portuguese.
These two were roWed across the
straits, and after a long journey by
land, came to Fuchea, the capital this
doubtless being the Fukuoka of our
maps, on the northwest coast. The king
was suffering at the time from govt;
but Pinto, according to his own YER
sion, cured him in month, by means
of "a certain wood infused in water"
While the king was laid UP the Portu-
guese traveller enlightened him and the
grandees of the court on the subject
of the universe in general and the king
dom of Portugal in particular devot-
ing his leisure time to sport. He shot a
great store of turtles and Quails with
his arquebus; and this new manner of
shooting, he writes. seemed no less
marvellous to the Inhabitants of this
land than it had been to those of Tame
ga Shima.
But the first Introduction of firearms
into the kingdom of Bungo threatened
at one time to have tragic consequences
for the Portuguese. The kings son
wanted to learn to shoot, and begged
Pinto to teach him. Pinto did his best
to put off the young prince; but one
day, when the Portuguese was asleep,
the prince. seeing the arquebus hang
ing on the wall, took it down, charged
it about two spans deep with powder
and then stole off with his prize. Sc
lecting an orange tree as a mark, he
aimed carefully and then fired the re-
suit being that the barrel burst and
the young gentleman's right thumb was
all but blown off. The Japanese boys
who We're with him "a l away and ra.s-
ed the cry that tn prince had been
shot by the strange s gun, and Pinto
was reused by an angry mob, who put
him into irons while the priests
servants of the devil' he styles them
LOUDLY required that he should be
tortured to death. Fortunately the
king" carried in a chair, appeared on
the scene, and. on hearing Pinto's ex-
plantations, ordered him to be set at
liberty. Pinto at the same time under
took to heal the princes wound, and,
though no ''chirurgeon,'' managed to do
it in the space of month, for which
he received a fee of fifteen hundred
ducats. The Portuguese then returned
to Tanega Shima, whence they sailed
for Liampo (which is a seaport of the
kingdom of China, where at that time
the Portugals traded" Liampo being
the modern Ning-po.
Some time later-namely, in 1856
when Pinto was sent by the Portuguese
vfceroy, Don Alfonso de Noronha on a
mission to the King of Bungo, he found
that there We're above thirty thousand
in the city of Fuchea alone.
He was also informed by certain mer-
chants of good credit that in 1.-The whole
island of Jappon" there We're above
three hundred thousand firearms, and
that the Japanese were exporting them,
by WAY of trade to the Liu-Kiu ISL