Japan and the Japanese

SPANISH INTRIGUES. Ho
Having taken two places by assault, all the others, as far as the
capital, opened their gates. To save their capital, the Corcana
fought and lost a pitched battle. A second victory, on the part
of the grand admiral, drove the Corean king to seek refuge in
China, while the capital opened its gates to the triumphant
Japanese.*
But the joy of the missionaries at the success of an army led
by one of their adherents, and so largely composed of converts,
was not a little damped by a side blow from another and an unex
pccted quarter. So anxious was the Spanish governor of Manilla
to improve every chance for opening a trade with Japan, that, in
spite of the imperious character of the emperor's letter, he sent
an answer to it by a Spanish gentleman named Liano, in which,
indeed, he evaded its demands by suggesting that the mean quality
of the person who had brought it, and his not having heard any-
had led him to
thing on the subject from the Jesuits at Nagasaki,
suspect its authenticity. Liano, accompanied by a Dominican
friar, landed in Satsuma, where he met with Solis, the Spaniard
from Peru, still busy with his ship-building enterprise, and in no
very good humor with the Portuguese and the Jesuits. To confer
with Firanda, the envoys proceeded to Nagasaki, which city they
* According to the letters of Louis Froez, the prince of Omura joined the
army against Corea with one thousand men, the king of Arirna with two
thousand, and the king of Bungo with ten thousand, besides mariners and
mean people to carry the baggage. The entire number of men-at-arm in
the empire, at this time, is stated to have been, by a written catalogue, three
hundred thousand. The victories mentioned in the text were gained by an
advanced body of fifteen thousand men. The Coreans (of whom to this day
we know little or nothing) are described by Froez as different from the Chi-
nese in race and language, and superior to them in personal prowess, yet as
in a manner tributary to China, whose laws, customs and arts, they had bor-
rowed. They are represented as good bowmen, but scantily provided with
other weapons, and therefore not able to encounter the cannon, lances and
swords, of the Japanese, who had been, beside, practised by continual wars
among themselves. But in nautical affairs Froez reckons the Chinese and
Coreans as decidedly superior to the Japanese. Translations from several
Jesuit letters relating to the Corean war, will be found in Hackluyt, vol. iv.,
near the end. Siebold, relying upon Japanese authorities, insists that it was
through Corea that the arts, knowledge, language and written characters, of
China were introduced into Japan.
10*