[14] It is difficult to understand by what mistake Charlevoix, in his “Histoire du Japan,” ascribes this discovery to the same year, 1542, as that of the three Portuguese mentioned by Galvano. Pinto’s chronology is rather confused, but it is impossible to fix this voyage to Japan earlier than 1545. [15] Probably a corruption of _Tenjikujin_, or the people of _Tenjiku_ (India).—EDR. [16] The terms _Chengecu_ and _Chenghequu_ are represented in two letters, one dated in 1651 (“Selectarum Epistolarum ex India,” Lib. i.), addressed to Xavier by a companion of his; the other, dated in 1560, and written by Lawrence, a converted Japanese and a Jesuit (_Ibid._, Lib. ii), as commonly employed in Japan to designate Europe. Golownin mentions that at the time of his imprisonment (1812) he found a prophecy in circulation among the Japanese that they should be conquered by a people from the north. Possibly both these prophecies—that mentioned by Pinto and that by Golownin—might be a little colored by the patriotic hopes of the European relaters. [17] A tael is about an ounce and a third English. The tael is divided into ten mas; the mas into ten kandarins; the kandarin into ten kas; and these denominations (the silver passing by weight) are in general use throughout the far East. Sixteen taels make a katty (about a pound and a third avoirdupois), and one hundred katties a picul,—these being the mercantile weights in common use. [18] See Appendix, Note C. [19] The kingdom or province of Bungo is situated on the east coast of the second in size and southernmost in situation of the three larger Japanese islands, off the southeast extremity of which lies the small island of Tanegashima, where Pinto represents himself as having first landed. The name “Bungo” was frequently extended by the Portuguese to the whole large island of which it formed a part, though among them the more common designation of that island, after they knew it to be such (for they seem at first to have considered it a part of Nippon), was Shimo.[A] This name, Shimo, appears to have been only a modification of the term _shima_ (or, as the Portuguese wrote it, _xima_), the Japanese word for island, and as such terminating many names of places. On our maps this island is called Kiūshiū, meaning, as Kämpfer tells us, “Country of Nine,” from the circumstance of its being divided into nine provinces, which latter appears to be the correct interpretation. There are in use in Japan Chinese as well as Japanese names of provinces and officers (the Chinese probably a translation of the Japanese); and not only the names Nippon and Kiūshiū, but that of Bungo (to judge from the terminal n of the first syllable), are of Chinese origin. A: _Shimo_ is not the modification of _Shima_ (Island), but a word meaning “lower” geographically.—K. M.