Japan and the Japanese

80 JAPAN. A. D. 15571577.
also very friendly; he gave the missionaries an establishment, first
at Vocoxiura, and, after that city had been burned by the bonzes, at
a port of his called Cochinotzu, on the southern coast of the south-
western peninsula of Ximo. The prince of OMUUA, a dependency
of Arima, and the prince of the island of Tucuxiiuu, the same at
which Pinto had first landed, then a dependency of Firando, were
both among the converts, and exceedingly zealous to induce their
subjects to follow their example; and, notwithstanding the hostility
of the bonzes, the frequent wars between the princes, and
repeated internal commotions, by which the missionaries Averc often
in danger, the new religion continued to spread in all parts of Ximo,
and in fact to be carried by native converts to many parts of Nipon
which no missionary had yet reached. Meanwhile, new establish-
ments also had been gained on the island of Nipon, in addition to
The fame of the mis-
that at Amanguchi, at its western extremity.
sionaries had induced an old Tundi, or superior of a Buddhist mon-
astery near Miako, to send to Amanguchi to ask information about
the new religion. Father Vilela was despatched, in 1G5D, for his
instruction, and though the Tundi died before the arrival of the
missionary, his successor and many
of the bonzes listened with
respect to the words of Vilela. As none, however, were willing
to receive baptism, he departed for Miako, where he found means
to approach Josi Tir, the Kubo-Sama, and to obtain from him
permission to preach. Having secured the favor of Mioxindono,
the emperor's principal minister, and presently that of Daxandono,
the chief judge, he converted many bonzes and nobles, and built up
a large and flourishing church.
An attack upon the emperor by Morindono, king of Naugato,
who forced the city of Miako, and set it on fire, detained Vilela
fijta while in the neighboring town of Sakai, the most commercial
pHrce in Japan, which seems, at that time, to have been a free city,
as it were, with an independent government of its own ; and thera
also a church was planted. But tiie emperor soon reestablished his
affairs ; and although, from the hostility of Morindono, the church
at Amanguchi was very much depressed, everything went on well
at Miako, where Vilela was joined, in 1565, by Louis Almeida, and
by a young missionary, Louis Froez, lately arrived from Malacca.
Of their journey from Cochinotzu to Miako, we have a detailed