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Chapter 5 The Arrival, Reception, and Extermination of the Portuguese and Spaniards 179 The Portuguese were the first Europeans courageous enough to venture into the Indian Ocean. In 1497 they sailed with four ships and landed at Calicut to befriend the zamorin, the ruler of these coastal lands. With the annexation of Goa in 1510 they gained their first firm foothold in Asia, and continuing the subjugation of the helpless Indians, they extended their trade through the whole of the East to the furthest and great empire of China. On the journey to the latter country it happened in 1542 that one of their ships drifted to the still unknown country of Japan and landed there in a harbor of the province and principality of Bungo on the island of Kyushu. Japanese chronicles, however, state that the first European vessel landed in Awa on the island of Shikoku, facing Kyushu, and that more or less the next year they arrived in Bungo with only one vessel. They settled there when in 1549 a youth, Georg Alvarest,1 who had fled to Goa and had been baptized there, returned with a Portuguese ship and showed the fathers of the Society2 who accompanied him, including the most venerable Francis Xavier,3 the possibility of converting his heathen countrymen, while to the merchants he demonstrated the profits they could make with their goods in Japan. At that time Japan was not closed. The barons had not yet been subjected to such strict obedience by their rulers; their subjects traveled overseas to trade, and foreign nations were at liberty to visit any part of the country. Therefore these first European visitors were not only free to land where they wanted, but the territorial lords of Kyushu, moreover, vied with each other to induce them to enter their harbors so that their subjects could profit from the trade. Consequently imported goods moved freely through the country. Everybody was craving to acquire something of the foreign rarities and, being ignorant of their value, succumbed to the most unreasonable demands. The newly arrived padres traveled around no less, marketing to these heathens their spiritual wares of the faith of salvation. Reception The Portuguese faced no problems importing either their secular or spiritual wares, because they occupied the close-by city of Macao, near China, where they had a store of Arrival foreign goods and a supply of Christian fathers. And if they were lacking the latter, they could be supplied by their countrymen and fellow believers, the Spaniards, from the city of Manila, situated in the Philippine Islands, close to Japan. Then there was also the somewhat more distant city of Goa, the Rome of India, packed with monasteries and monks, which delegated its excessive clergy to this most important task. After a short time this nation, therefore, enjoyed the height of good fortune here, inasmuch as the merchants procured the golden ore of the provinces in exchange for Indian and European goods such as raw silk, precious cloth, spices, sweet wine, medicines, and a host of natural and artificially produced goods. The padres, however, won the hearts of the inquisitive populace with the solace afforded by the hitherto unknown religion and made adoption of the Roman Catholic faith attractive through the example of their virtuous lives, performance of good deeds for the poor and sick, and especially the outward splendor of their religious services. In addition, the Japanese had a natural fondness for the Portuguese on account of their lifestyle, their dignified friendliness, and their mental affinity as people of the same latitude, and this resulted in continuing favorable developments for all things Portuguese with regard both to trade and spiritual conversions. To discuss both topics briefly: Initially the Christian fathers attracted so little faith and attention among the Japanese that even Xavier, the famous converter of heathens, grew weary of the little that could be achieved and left the country. But this was due to their lack of knowledge of Japanese customs, government, and language. They read their sermons and whatever else they wanted to communicate to the people from speeches translated by uneducated interpreters, written in Roman letters. And they did this pronouncing the words (which they themselves did not understand) in such a strange and unintelligible way that mischievous members of their audience could not help but laugh and taunted them. Later, however, when they had learned more about their surroundings and how to use the circumstances to their best advantage, the number...

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