Japan and the Japanese

86 JAPAN. A. D. 15771580.
>ob one resorted to by the Portuguese. The converted king of
Giotto having died, the guardian of his infant son showed himself
hostile to the missionaries ; but this circumstance was an ad-
vantage to Nagasaki, which received many fugitives
from these
islands.
The new king of Arima being brought, by the latars of the vis-
itor, to a better disposition, was baj>tixed, and became one of the
most zealous of the converts. Both the emperor Nobinanga and
his three sons still continual very well disposed to the missionaries,
allowing Father Gnecchi, who was a favorite with him, to establish
a house, a church and a seminary, at A/izi(giama, his local cajiital,
which he had greatly beautified, and between which and Miako he
had caused a highway to be built, at great cxpen.se and with im-
mense labor. His evident design to make his authority absolute,
had indeed led to a league against him, which, however, proved of
no avail, this attempt at resistance resulting in the subjection of all
the kings of the western half of Nipon, except Morindono, of Nau-
gato. The good service which the missionaries rendered, in persuading
the Christian princes, and the Christian vassals of the
unconverted ones, to submit to the emperor, as their superior lord,
caused Valignani to be very graciously received, both at Miako and
also at Anzuqiania.
On the visitor's return to Xiino, the converted kings of Bungo
and Arima, and the prince of Omura, determined to send ambassa-
dors to be the bearers of their submission to the Pope. For this
purpose two young nobles were selected, scarcely sixteen years of
age : one, prince of Fiunga, the son of a niece of the king of Bungo,
the other, prince of Arima, cousin of the king of Arima, and nephew
of the prince of Omura. They were attended by two counsellors
somewhat older than themselves, by Father Diego de Mcsquita, as
their preceptor and interpreter, and by a Japanese Jesuit, named
George Loyola, and, in company with Father Valignani, they sailed
from Nagasaki February 20th, 1582, in a Portuguese ship bound
for Macao, now the head-quarters of the Portuguese trade to Japan.
They arrived at Macao after a very stormy and dangerous passage
of seventeen days ; but the season of sailing for Malacca being
oast, they had to wait there six months. When at length they did
ail, they encountered very violent storms ; but at last, after twenty-