Hildreth's "Japan as It Was and Is": A Handbook of Old Japan, Volume 2 (of 2)Hildreth, Richard
History
Hildreth's "Japan as It Was and Is": A Handbook of Old Japan, Volume 2 (of 2)
Hildreth, Richard
Japan -- History
KINOS[H]ITA: “The Past and Present of Japanese Commerce.”
HUISH: “Japan and its Art.”
REGAMEY: “Japan in Art and Industry.”
OKAKURA: “The Ideals of the East.”
DRESSER: “Japan, Its Architecture, Art and Art Manufactures.”
JARVES: “A Glimpse at the Art of Japan.”
HARTMAN: “Japanese Art.”
DICK: “Arts and Crafts of Old Japan.”
ANDERSON: “The Pictorial Arts of Japan.”
AUDSLEY and BOWES: “Keramic Art of Japan.”
ALCOCK: “The Capital of the Tycoon” (2 vols.).
ADAMS: “History of Japan” (2 vols.).
BLACK: “Young Japan” (2 vols.).
DIXON: “The Land of the Morning.”
MOSSMAN: “New Japan.”
HECR: “The Narrative of a Japanese” (2 vols.).
OFFICIAL: “History of the Empire of Japan”; “Japanese Education.”
“Kojiki,”—English version by Chamberlain, Vol. X, Appendix, of the
“Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.”
NOTE C
USE OF FIRE-ARMS IN THE EAST
Even the inhabitants of southern India, notwithstanding the long
intercourse carried on with them by Arab traders from the Persian Gulf
and the Red Sea, and the invasions of their country by Mahometans
from the north, seem to have been mainly indebted for their first
possession of fire-arms to Europeans; as witness the following extract
from Rickard Eden’s translation, first published in 1576, of the
“Navigations and Voyages of Lewis Vertomanus, Gentleman, of the city
of Rome, to the Regions of Arabia, Egypt, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and
East India, both within and without the river Ganges, &c., in the year
of our Lord, 1503,” contemporary, that is, with the earliest Portuguese
expeditions: “Entering into the city of Calicut, we found there two
Christians, born in the city of Milan; the one named John Maria, the
other Peter Antonio. These were jewellers, and came from Portugal with
the king’s license to buy precious stones. When I had found these men
I rejoiced more than I am able to express. At our first meeting them,
seeing to be white men (for we went naked, after the manner of the
inhabitants), I asked them if they were Christians. They said yea. Then
said I that I was also a Christian, by the grace of God. Then, taking
me by my hand, they brought me to their house, where, for joy of our
meeting, we could scarcely satisfy ourselves with tears, embracing and
kissing; for it seemed now to me a strange thing to hear men speak
mine own language, or to speak it myself. Shortly after, I asked them
if they were in favor with the king of Calicut. We are, said they, in
great favor with him, and very familiar. Then again I asked them what
they were minded to do. We desire, said they, to return to our country,
but we know not the means how. Then, said I, return the same way that
you came. Nay, said they, that may not be; for we are fled from the
Portugals, because we have made many pieces of great ordinance and
other guns for the king of Calicut, and therefore we have good cause to
fear; and now especially, for that the navy of Portugal will shortly
be here.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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