he
close of the century.

"On the 23d of the fifth month of 1553, twenty-seven Japanese vessels
arrived at Lungwangtang. They looked like so many hills and their
white sails were as clouds in the sky. On the fifth day of the fourth
month of 1554, there appeared on the horizon a large ship which
presently reached Lungwang-tang. Her crew numbered 562. They blew
conches after the manner of trumpets, marshalled themselves in battle
array, and surrounding the castle with flying banners, attacked it.
On the fourth day of the ninth month of 1555, a two-masted ship
carrying a crew of some hundreds came to Kinshan-hai, and on the next
day she was followed by eight five-masted vessels with crews
totalling some thousands. They all went on shore and looted in
succession. On the 23d of the second month of 1556, pirate ships
arrived at the entrance to Kinshan-hai. Their masts were like a dense
forest of bamboo."

*Yamato enemies.

**Chinese pronunciation of the ideographs read by the Japanese
"Hachiman" (god of War). The pirates inscribed on their sails the
legend Hachiman Dai-bosatsu.

Further records show that in 1556 the pirates entered Yang-chou,
looted and burned the city; that in 1559 they attacked Chekiang; that
in 1560, they made their way to Taitsang, and thence pushed on
towards Shanghai, Sungteh, etc., looting towns almost daily. There
was no effective resistance. We find also the following appreciation
of Japanese ships:

"The largest of the Japanese vessels can carry about three hundred
men; the medium-sized, from one to two hundred, and the smallest from
fifty to eighty. They are constructed low and narrow. Thus, when they
meet a big ship they have to look up to attack her. The sails are not
rigged like those of our ships which can be navigated in any wind.
But wicked people on the coast of Fuhkien sold their ships to the
foreigners; and the buyers, having fitted them with double bottoms
and keels shaped so as to cleave the waves, came to our shores in
them."

Evidently the Chinese were better skilled in the art of shipbuilding
than the Japanese. As for the defensive measures of the Chinese the
following is recorded:

"The Government troops on sea and on land made every effort to keep
off the pirates. They flew banners at morn and eve and fired guns
seaward, so that the enemy, understanding by the flash and the
detonation that we were prepared to resist, abstained from landing.
But when the pirates handled t