me the principal stage for European intercourse
during the second half of the sixteenth century.

THE JESUITS

There were, at that time, not a few Jesuits at Macao, Goa, and other
outposts of Western commerce in the Far East. But not until 1549 was
any attempt made to proselytize Japan. On August 15th of that year,
Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, landed at Kagoshima. Before his
coming, the Portuguese traders had penetrated as far as Kyoto, which
they reported to be a city of some ninety-six thousand houses, and
their experience of the people had been very favourable, especially
with regard to receptivity of instruction. Xavier was weary of
attempting to convert the Indians, whom he had found "barbarous,
vicious, and without inclination to virtue," and his mind had been
turned towards Japan by a message from a Japanese daimyo (whose
identity and reasons for inviting him have never been explained), and
by a personal appeal from a Japanese, whose name appears in
Portuguese annals as "Anjiro," and who, having committed a serious
crime in Japan, had taken refuge in a Portuguese vessel, whose master
advised him to repair to Malacca and confess his sins to Xavier.

This man, Anjiro, already possessed some knowledge of the Portuguese
language, and he soon became sufficiently proficient in it to act as
interpreter, thus constituting a valuable aid to the Portuguese
propagandists. Xavier, with two fellow countrymen and Anjiro,
repaired to Kagoshima, where the Satsuma baron gave them unqualified
permission to preach their doctrine. Not that he had any sympathy
with Christianity, about which he knew nothing, but solely because he
wished to secure a share in the oversea commerce which had brought so
much wealth to his fellow barons on the main island. He thought, in
short, that the Jesuits would be followed by merchant ships, and when
Portuguese trading vessels did actually appear in the Satsuma waters,
but, instead of making any stay there, passed on to the comparatively
petty principality of Hirado, Xavier and his comrades were quickly
ordered to leave Kagoshima. It seems, also, that Xavier's zeal had
outrun his discretion. The Buddhist priests in Kagoshima were ready
at first to listen respectfully to his doctrines, but were quickly
alienated by his aggressive intolerance. They urged upon the Satsuma
baron the dangers that attended such propagandism, and he, already
smarting from commercial disappointment, issued an edict, in