Japan and the Japanese

34 JAPAN. A. D. 15421545.
had seen adopted by Portuguese surgeons in India, in twenty days
had the young prince able to walk about again ; lor which he
received so many presents that the cure was worth to him more than
fifteen hundred cruzados. Information coming from Tanixuma that
the Chinese corsair was ready to sail, Pinto was sent back by the
king in a galley, manned by twenty rowers, commanded by a gentleman
of the royal household, and provided with abundant sup
plies.
The corsair having taken him on board, they sailed for Liampo,
where they arrived in safety. The three survivors of Antonio do
Faria's ship were received at that Portuguese settlement with the
greatest astonishment, and many congratulations for their return;
and the discovery they had made of the rich lands of Japan waa
celebrated by a religious procession, high mass, and a sermon.
These pious services over, all hastened with the greatest zeal and
contention to get the start of the rest in fitting out ships for this
new traffic, the Chinese taking advantage of this rivalry, to put up
the prices of their goods to the highest rates. In fifteen days nine
junks, not half provided for the voyage, put to sea. Pinto himself
being on board one of them. Overtaken on their passage by a terrible
storm, seven of them foundered, with the loss of seven hun-
dred men, of whom a hundred and forty were Portuguese, and
cargoes to the value of three hundred thousand cruzados. Two
others, on board one of which was Pinto, escaped, and arrived near
the Lew Chew islands ; where, in another storm, that in which Pinto
was lost sight of the other, nor was it ever afterwards heard of.
" Towards evening," says Pinto, " the wind coming east-north-east,
the waves ran so boisterous, wild and high, that it was most fright-
ful to see. Our captain, Caspar de Melo, an hidalgo and very brave,
seeing that the junk had sprung a-leak in her poop, and that the
water stood already nine palms deep on the lower deck, ordered,
with the advice of his officers, to cut away both masts, as, with their
weight and the rolling, the junk was opening very fast. Yet, in
spite of all care, he could not prevent the mainmast from carrying
away with it fourteen men, among whom were five Portuguese,
crushed in the ruins,
a most mournful spectacle, which took away
from us survivors all the little spirits we had left. So we suffered
ourselves to be drifted along before the increasing tempest, which