Japan and the Japanese

40 JAPAN. A. D. 1547-1548.
mcnt selected by the Lord," so Pinto piously observes, "for his
praise, and the exaltation of the holy faith."
In fourteen days, the ship reached Chinchco, but found the
mouth of the river leading to it blockaded by a famous Chinese
corsair, with a great fleet; to avoid whom they turned aside and
sailed for Malacca.
In this eity Pinto met, apparently for the first time, with
Master Francis Xavier, general superior or provincial of the order
of the Jesuits in India, in all parts of which occupied by the
Portuguese he had t
already attained a high reputation for self-
devotion, sajbclity, and miraculous power ; and who was then at
Malacca, ou his return to Goa, from a mission on which he had
lately been to the Moluccas. "The father," says Pinto, "had
received intelligence of our arrival, and that we had brought with
us the Japanese Angiro. lie came to visit George Alvarez and
myself, in the house of one Cosmo llodriguez, where we lodged, and
passed almost a whole day with us in curious inquiries (all founded
on his
lively zeal^for
the honor of God) about the countries we had
visited ; in the course of which I told him, not knowing that ho
knew it already, that we had brought with us two Japanese, one
of whom appeared to be a man of consideration, well skilled in the
laws and religion of Japan. Whereupon he expressed great desire
to see him ; in consequence of which, we brought him to the hos-
pital, where the father lodged, who received him gladly and took
him to India, whither he was then on his way. Having arrived at
Goa, Angiro there became a Christian, taking the name of Paulo
de Santa Fe [Paul of the Holy Faith], and in a short time learnt
to read and write Portuguese, and mastered the whole Christian
doctrine; so that the father only waited for the monsoon, to go to
announce to the heathen of the isle of Japan, flirist r .the Son of the
living God, nailed to the cross for our sins (as ho was accustomed
to do), and to take this man with him as an interpreter, as he after-
wards did, and his companion also, who, as well as himself, professed
the Christian faith, and received from the father the nam
of John."