Japan and the Japanese

48 JAPAX. A. D. 1542-1550.
saint, and the Jesuit historians of the Japanese mission, embellish
this story by the addition of several romantic particulars. Arigiro,
they tell us, had long been troubled with remorse of conscience, for
which he could find no remedy, and which he only aggravated in
the attempt to cure it by retiring for a time to a Japanese monas-
tery of bonzes. Having made the acquaintance
of some of the
earliest Portuguese adventurers to Japan, he consulted them as to
this malady, one of whom, by name Alvares Yaz, having heard the
fame of Xavier, strongly advised the inquiring Japanese to seek
his assistance. Angiro was much inclined to do so ; but the
danger and distance of the voyage deterred him, till, having killed
a man in a rencontre, the fear of arrest drove him to embark on
the first vessel he could find, which happened to be a Portuguese
ship bound for Malacca, and commanded by George Alvarez, a.
great admirer of Xavicr's. The good example and edifying discourse
of this pious sea-captain brought Angiro to the determina-
tion to become a Catholic; but being disappointed in finding Xavier
as he had expected, or, according to other accounts, being refused
baptism by the vicar of the bishop of Goa resident at Malacca, he
thought no more but of returning home again, and with that
object, not meeting with any ship bound direct for Japan, he cmbarked
for Chinchco, in China. Thence he sailed for home; but a
terrible storm drove him back to the port he had left, reviving also
his almost forgotten resolution to become a Catholic, in which he
was the more confirmed by happening to find in the harbor his old
Portuguese friend, Alvares Vaz, in command of a ship on her way
back to India. Yielding to the persuasions of this old friend,
Angiro sailed in his ship for Malacca ; and, on landing there, tho
very first person whom he met was George Alvarez, who immediately
took him to Xavier. These accounts also give him two Ja panes"
servants, both of whom arc stated to have accompanied him to (ioa,
and to have been baptized, one by the name of John, the other
ly that of Anthony. And this last part of the story is confirmed
by a letter of Xavicr's, dated July, 1540, and written from Malacca
on his way to Japan, in which letter he gives an interesting, and
at the same time characteristic, account of his converts, very much
in substance, and even in expression, like what we may read in tha
very latest missionary reports.