The vessel was wrecked in a typhoon off the coast of Echizen, and but forty-six of the company were saved. They were fed and sheltered in Echizen. In A.D. 1779, the Japanese Embassy, returning from China, landed at Mikuni, the sea-port of Fukui. In 883, orders were sent from Kioto to the provinces north of the capital to repair the bridges and roads, bury the dead bodies, and remove all obstacles, because the envoys of China were coming that way. The civil disorders in both countries interrupted these friendly relations in the twelfth century, and communications ceased until they were renewed again in the time of the Hojo, in the manner now to be described.
In China, the Mongol Tartars had overthrown the Sung dynasty, and had conquered the adjacent countries. Through the Koreans, the Mongol Emperor, Kublai Khan, at whose court Marco Polo and his uncles were then residing, sent letters demanding tribute and homage from Japan. Chinese envoys came to Kamakura, but Hojo Tokimune, enraged at the insolent demands, dismissed them in disgrace. Six embassies were sent. and six were rejected.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
