The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-12-09
How the laps Learned to Shoot.

on their faith that there is another
world greater than ours, inhabited by
black and tawny people,"
The governor was unwilling to
part 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 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 gout; but Pinto, according to
his own version, cured him in q
| month, by means of "a certain wood
infused in water" While the King
Was laid up, the Portuguese traveller
enlightened him and the grandees of
| the court on the subject of the uni
verse in general and the kingdom Of
Portugal in particular, devoting his
| leisure time to sport. He shot q
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 1t had been to those of
| Tanega Shima.
But the first introduction of fire.
arms 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 Portu-
guese was asleep, the prince, seeing
the arquebus hanging on the wall,
took 1t down, charged 1t about two
spans deep with powder, and then
stole off with his prize. Selecting an
orange tree as mark, he aimed care
| fully, and then fired, the result being
that the barrel burst, and the young
-, gentleman's right thumb was all but
blown off. Two Japanese boys who
came with him ran away, and raised
the cry that the prince had been shot
by the strangers gun, and Pinto was
reused by an angry mob, who put
him In irons, while the priests-"ser-
wants of the devil' he styles them
loudly required that he should be tor
tured to death. Fortunately the
"King," carried in a chair, appeared
on the scene, and, on hearing Pinto's
explanations, ordered him to be set at
liberty. Pinto at the same time un-
dertook to heal the princes wound,
and, though no "chirurgion," man.
aged 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 1855
when Pinto was sent by the Portu-
guese viceroy, Don Alfonso de Nor
onha, on a mission to the King of
Bungo, he found that there were
about thirty thousand arquebuses in
the city of Fuchea alone. He was
also Informed by certain merchants
of good credit that in "the whole ISL
and of Jappon" there were above
three hundred thousand firearms,
and that the Japanese were exporting
them, by way Of trade, to the Liu-
Kiu Islands. There is not so small
an hamlet" Pinto writes, "but hath
hundred at least; as for cities and
great towns, they have them by thou
what the inclination of this people
is, and how much they are naturally
addicted to the wars, wherein they
take more delight than any other ma
tion that we know" - st. James
Gazette. =