Japan and the Japanese

72 JAPAN. A. D. 15501551.
better harbor, from Caugoxima to Firando* caused the king of
Satsuma to issue an edict forbidding his subjects, under pain of
death, to renounce the worship of their national gods. In conse-
quence of this edict, Xavier departed for FIKANUO, which island, off
the west coast of Ximo, having separated from the kingdom of
Figen, had become independent under a prince of its own. Angiro
was left behind, but soon afterwards was obliged to fly to China,
where, as Pinto informs us, he was killed by robbers.
At Firando, in consequence of the representations of the Portu-
guese merchants, Xavier was well received ; but, desirous to see the
chief city of Japan, leaving Torres behind, he set out with Fernandez
and two Japanese converts on a visit to Miako.
Proceeding by water, he touched first at Facata, a considerable
town on the north-west coast of Ximo, and capital of the kingdom
of CIIICIIUGEN, and then at Amanyuchi, at that time a large city,
capital of NAUOATO, the most western kingdom or province of the
great island of Nipon, separated at this point from Ximo row strait.
by a nar-
The populace of Amanguchi, ridiculing Xavier's mean appearance
as contrasted with his
pretensions, drove him out of the city with
curses and stones. Winter had now set in, and the cold was severe.
The coast was infested by pirates, and the interior by robbers, which
obliged the saint to travel as servant to some merchants, who, themselves
on horseback, required him, though on foot, and loaded with
a heavy box. of theirs, to keep up with them at full
gallop. This,
however, seems a little exaggerated, as Japanese travellers on
horseback never exceed a walk while the box which Xavier carried
;
is represented by the earlier writers as containing the sacred vessels
for the sacrifice of the mass.
Arriving thus at Miako, in rather sad plight, Xavier found that
capital almost ruined by civil wars, and on the eve of becoming the
field of a new battle. He could obtain no audience, as he had
hoped, either of the Kubo-Sama or of the Xaco, nor any hearing
except from the populace, so that he judged it best to return again
to Firando.
There are two means of working upon the imagination, both of
* Otherwise written Firato, which would seem to be more correct