_Progress of the Missions under Fathers De Torres and Nugnes
Barreto—Mendez Pinto a Fourth Time in Japan—A. D. 1551-1557._
The apostle of the Indies returned no more to Japan. He died in
December, 1552, at the age of forty-six, on his way to China, at the
island of Sancian, a little way from Macao, partly, it would seem,
through vexation at having been disappointed, by the jealousy and
obstinacy of the governor of Malacca, in a more direct mission to that
empire, on which he had set his heart, and for which he had made every
arrangement.
But already, before leaving for China, he had despatched from Malacca
three new missionaries to Japan, Balthaza Gago, a priest, and two
brothers, Peter d’Alcaceva and Edward de Sylva, who landed at
Kagoshima, in August, 1552, whence they proceeded to Bungo, where,
as well as at Yamaguchi, a site had been granted for a residence
and a church. Father de Torres, now at the head of the mission, in
a sort of general assembly of the faithful, to which the principal
converts were admitted, regulated the policy of the infant church.
To meet the objection of the bonzes, that the new converts had left
their old religions to escape the usual contributions of alms, it was
resolved to establish hospitals for the sick and poor, as well pagan
as converted,—and the more so as poverty in Japan was regarded as
peculiarly despicable, and the poor as condemned by the gods. To suit
the taste of the Japanese for spectacles, an impressive burial service
was agreed upon.
Great attention, according to the policy of the Catholic Church,
and especially of the Jesuits, was bestowed on the education of the
young. Not to be outdone by the bonzes, the missionaries practised
great austerities; regular whipping of themselves in church by all the
converts made a stated part of their religious exercises; but what most
contributed to the spread of the new faith was, so we are told, the
exceeding zeal, self-denial, and disinterestedness of the new converts,
including among the number several bonzes of the old religions, some of
whom were made Jesuits, and even ordained priests, and who soon gave
examples of sublime piety, which even the missionaries themselves found
it difficult to imitate.
Meanwhile, Peter d’Alcaceva, one of the newly arrived Jesuits, having
been sent back to Goa for further aid, on his way to that capital found
at Malacca the body of Xavier, preserved in quicklime, and also on
its way to Goa, whither he attended it. At Goa he encountered Fernam
Mendez Pinto, who, having amassed great wealth in the Indies, was
about to return to Portugal. Preliminary to this voyage Pinto made a
general confession to Father Nugnes Barreto, the vice-provincial of the
Jesuits; after which, falling upon the subject of Xavier, whose dead
body lying at Goa was reported to work numerous miracles, he related
to his confessor many wonderful stories of the prodigies which he
himself had witnessed while with Xavier at Bungo. Passing thence to
the zeal and merits of the Japanese converts, he strongly urged Nugnes
to proceed thither to take Xavier’s place, even offering himself to
go as his companion, and to devote the whole of his fortune (except
two thousand crowns to be sent to some poor relations in Portugal),
partly to the founding of a seminary at Yamaguchi, whence the faith
might be diffused through the whole of Japan, and partly in purchasing
magnificent presents for the princes of the country, which he thought
would be a good means of securing their favor for the new religion.
Pinto was accordingly appointed ambassador from the Portuguese viceroy
to the king of Bungo, and Nugnes sailed for Malacca in his company,
taking with him Father Gaspard Vilela, four brothers, not yet priests,
and five young orphans from the Seminary of the Holy Faith, to act as
catechists. Before setting out, Nugnes and his brother Jesuits renewed
their vows, according to a rule of the order, which required such a
renewal once every six months. Pinto was present at this ceremony,
and his excitable temperament was so wrought upon by it, that, seized
with a sudden impulse, he insisted upon himself repeating the vows,
with an additional one to consecrate his person and his goods to the
Japanese mission. As he was the viceroy’s ambassador, it was resolved
that he should not adopt the Jesuit habit till after he had fulfilled
his mission—a delay which proved a lucky thing for Pinto, whose zeal
speedily began to evaporate. He served, indeed, for some time in the
hospitals of Malacca, where they arrived in June, 1554, and where, by
the sickness of Nugnes and other accidents, they were detained upwards
of a year; and, according to the letters of Nugnes, he gave great
edification, the people admiring to see so rich a man, and one lately
so fond of display and good living, clothed in rags and begging alms
from door to door, having given up all his wealth that he might the
better obey the Lord.
Sailing from Malacca, Nugnes and his company, after perils from
pirates, were driven by storms first to Sancian, and then to Macao,
whence, in the spring of 1556, Nugnes proceeded to Canton, where he
made many unavailing efforts for the introduction of Catholicism into
China. Meanwhile, he received letters from Goa, urging his return,
enclosing one from Loyola himself, disapproving of such long voyages by
the vice-provincials of the order; but he was still induced to Japan by
a pressing letter from the prince of Hirado, who hoped by this means
to attract the Portuguese trade from Bungo to that port. He sailed
accordingly for Hirado, but was compelled by stress of weather to find
a harbor in Bungo.
Meanwhile, the parts of Japan occupied by the missionaries had
been the seats of serious commotions. The king of Bungo had indeed
confirmed his power by suppressing an insurrection; but his brother,
the king of Nagato, had been driven from his throne and defeated and
slain by Mōri Motonari, a relative of the late king; and during this
civil war the city of Yamaguchi had been sacked and burnt, and the
missionaries obliged to flee for their lives to Bungo. There, too,
a new insurrection had been attempted, but again without success;
though the king still kept himself shut up in a fortress at a distance
from his capital. He returned, however, to receive Nugnes, which he
did very graciously, but resisted, on grounds of expediency, all
his exhortations to make an open profession of Catholicism. Thus
disappointed, Nugnes, after sending Gago to establish himself at
Hirado, thought it best to return to Goa.
[Illustration: THE KINTAI BRIDGE, SNŌ]
On arriving in Japan, the zeal of Pinto had speedily declined, and
he had begun to sigh for his liberty. Perhaps he was alarmed at the
appearance of Cosme de Torres, who, from being plump and portly, had,
under the thin diet of the country, and the labors of the mission,
grown to be exceedingly lean and haggard. At all events, it was
found impossible to revive his fervor, and, as the Jesuits wanted no
unwilling members, it was decided to release him from his vows. He
returned with Nugnes to Goa, whence, not long after, he sailed for
Lisbon. In his book he relates his last visit to Japan, but with no
mention of his having joined the Jesuits,—of which our knowledge is
drawn from the published letters of the missionaries, including one
dated in 1554, and written by Pinto himself, from the college at
Malacca, addressed to the scholars of the college of Coimbra, and
giving a sketch of his travels in the East.
Having arrived at Lisbon, September 22, 1558, he delivered to the
queen regent a commendatory letter from the viceroy of Goa, and had
the honor to explain to her what his long experience suggested as of
most utility for the affairs of Portugal in the East, not forgetting
also some private application for himself. The queen referred him to
the minister, who gave him high hopes; but at the end of four or five
years of tedious solicitation, which became more insupportable than
all his past fatigues, he concluded to content himself with the little
fortune which he had brought from India, and for which he was indebted
to nobody but himself. Yet he piously and loyally concludes that, if
he had been no better rewarded for twenty-one years’ services, during
which he had been thirteen times a slave, and seventeen times sold,
it could only be attributed to the divine justice, which disposes of
all things for the best, and rather to his own sins than to any want
of royal discernment. He died about 1580, leaving his narrative behind
him, which was not printed till 1614, and which was written, as he
says at the beginning of it, in his old age, that he might leave it
a memorial and heritage to his children to excite their confidence
in the aid of Heaven by the example of his own sufferings and
deliverances.[42]