Japan and the Japanese

78 JAPAN. A. D. 1551-1557.
at the appearance of Cosme do Torres, who, from being plump
and portly, had, under the thin diet of the country, and the labors
of the mission, grown to be exceedingly lean and haggard. At
all events, it was found impossible to revive his fervor, and, as the
Jesuits wanted no unwilling members, it was decided to release him
from his vows. lie returned with Nugnes to Goa. whence, not long
after, he sailed for Lisbon. In his book he relates his last visit to
Japan, but with no mention of his having joined the Jesuits, of
which our knowledge is drawn from the published letters of the
missionaries, including one dated in 1554, and written by Pinto
himself, from the college at Malacca, addressed to the scholars of
the college of Coimbra, and giving a sketch of his travels in the
East.
Having arrived at Lisbon, Sept. 22, 1558, he delivered to the
queen regent a commendatory letter from the viceroy of Goa, and
had the honor to explain to her what his long experience suggested
as of most utility for the affairs of Portugal in the East, not forgetting
also some private application for himself. The queen referred
him to the minister, who gave him high hopes ; but at the end
of four or five years of tedious solicitation, which became more in-
supportable than all his past fatigues, he concluded to content himself
with the little fortune which he had brought from India, and
for which he was indebted to nobody but himself. Yet he piously
and loyally concludes that if he had been no better rewarded for
twenty-one years' services, during which he had been thirteen times
a slave, and seventeen times sold, it could only be attributed to the
divine justice, which disposes of all things for the best, and rather
to his own sins than to any want of royal discernment. He died
about 1580, leaving his narrative behind him, which was not printed
till^^l 1, and which was written, as he says at the beginning of it,
in his old age, that he might leave it a memorial and heritage to
his children to excite their confidence in the aid of Heaven by the
example of his own sufferings and deliverances.*
* For some further remarks on Pinto and his x>ok, see Appendix, note D.