The pirate trader who brought Pinto to Japan cleared twelve hundred per cent of this cargo, and the three Portuguese returned, loaded with presents, to China. This new market attracted hundreds of Portuguese adventurers to Japan, who found a ready welcome at the hands of the impressible people. The daimios vied with each other in attracting the foreigners to their shores, their object being to obtain the weapons, and get the wealth which would increase their power, as the authority of the Ashikaga shoguns had before this time been cast off, and each chief was striving for local supremacy.
In 1549, Xavier and a brother priest, with two Japanese converts, landed at Kagoshima, in Satsuma. Xavier, after studying the rudiments of the language, beyond which he never advanced, soon left the capital of this war-like clan, for the city had not been favored with the commerce of the Portuguese; and, as the missionaries had not come to improve the material resources of the province, they were not warmly welcomed. He then went to Bungo and Nagato. Besides having an interpreter, though unable to preach, he used to read the Gospel of Matthew translated into Japanese, and Romanized. There trade was flourishing and enriching the daimios, and he was warmly received by them. His next step was a Journey to Kioto. The mikados authority, he found ,was merely nominal; the shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru, ruled only over a few provinces around the capital. Every ones thoughts were of war, and battle was imminent. He attempted to preach several times in the streets, but not being master of the language, failed to secure attention, and after two weeks left the city. Not long after, he departed from Japan, disheartened by the realities of missionary work.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
