igns of activity were apparent on the coast, the provinces in
the interior were alive with political unrest. Particularly the principal
daimyos, who had never since the days of Yoritomo felt a master's power
over them, took the present occasion to extend their dominions over their
neighbors. For centuries the conflicts among them were almost unending. It
is needless to undertake to disentangle the story of their wars. These
daimyos were a far more distinct and pressing reality than the harmless
emperor, or even than the far-removed shogun. While their ceaseless civil
wars rendered the condition of the country so uncertain and so unsettled,
yet the authority of the local rulers tended to preserve peace and
dispense a rude kind of justice among their own subjects. Thus while in
many parts of Japan poverty and desolation had eaten up everything, and
lawlessness and robbery had put an end to industry, yet there were some
favored parts of the islands where the strong hand of the daimyos
preserved for their people the opportunities of life, and kept alive the
chances of industry.(138)

CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE ASHIKAGA SHOGUNS TO THE DEATH OF NOBUNAGA.

In almost the worst period of the Ashikaga anarchy, A.D. 1542, the
Portuguese made their first appearance in Japan. Galvano, who had been
governor of the Moluccas, gives an account of this first visit, when three
fugitives from a Portuguese vessel in a Chinese junk were driven upon the
islands of southern Japan. Concerning the doings(139) of these fugitives
we have no account in any foreign narratives.

But Fernam Mendez Pinto,(140) in his travels, etc., gives a detailed
narrative of the visit which he and his companions made a few years later
in a ship with a Chinese captain and merchandise. The exact year cannot be
ascertained from Pinto's narrative, but Hildreth(141) assumes that it
could not have been earlier than A.D. 1545. Pinto landed on Tane-ga-shima,
an island south of the extreme southern point of the island of Kyushu.
They were received with great cordiality by the prince, who evinced the
utmost curiosity concerning the Portuguese who were on this ship. Pinto
naively confesses that "we rendered him answers as might rather fit his
humor than agree with the truth, ... that so we might not derogate from
the great opinion he had conceived of our country."(142)

As a return for some of the kindnesses which the prince showed them, the
Portuguese gave him a _harq