Japan and the Japanese

28 JAPAN. A. D. 1542-1545.
offers of friendship and good will.' * And then calling in the aid
of a woman of Lew Chew, whom he employed as interpreter, he proceeded
to make very particular inquiries of the captain as to where
he had found these men, and why he had brought them thither.
To whom," says Pinto, " our captain replied, that without doubt
we were merchants and trusty people, whom, having found ship-
wrecked on the island of Lampucan, he had received on board his
junk, as it was his custom to do by all whom he found in such
case, having himself been saved in the same way from the like dis-
aster, to which all were liable who ventured their lives and prop-
erty against the impetuous fury of the waves." Satisfied with this
answer, the prince came on board; not with his whole retinue,
though they were all eager for it, but with only a select few.
After examining the ship very curiously he seated himself under an
awning, and asked the Portuguese many questions
about their
country, and what they had seen in their travels. Highly delighted
with their answers and the new information they were able to give
him, he invited them to visit him on shore the next day, assuring
them that this curious information was the merchandise he most
wished for, and of which he never could have enough. The next
morning he sent to the junk a large boat loaded with grapes,t
pears, melons, and a
great variety of vegetables,
for which the captain
returned a
present of cloths and Chinese jewels. The next day,
having first moored the ship securely, the captain went on shore
with samples of his goods, taking with him the three Portuguese,
and ten or twelve of the best-looking of the Chinese. Their reception
was very gracious, and the prince having called together the
* The terms Chenyecu and Chcnyhequu. are represented in two letters,
one dated in l&ol (Sclectarum Epistolarum ex India, Lib. i.), addressed to
Xavier by a companion of his ; the other, dated in 1500, and written by
Lawrence, a converted Japanese and a Jesuit (Ib., Lib. ii.), as commonly em-
ployed in Japan to designate Europe.
Golownin mentions that at the time of his imprisonment (181 2), he found a
prophecy in circulation among the Japanese, that they should be conquered
by a people from the north. Possibly both these prophecies that mentioned
by Pinto and that by Oolownin might be a little colored by th
patriotic hopes of the European relaters.
t Golownin says there arc no grapes in Japan, except a small, wild kind,,
??ry sour, which arc salted and eaten as salad.