The above account Marco Polo no doubt derived from the Mongols, who endeavored, as far as possible, to gloss over with romantic and improbable incidents a repulse that could not be denied. The Chinese annalists, who have no partiality for their Mongol conquerors, tell a much less flattering story. According to their account, as given by Père Amiot, in his “Mémoires concernant les Chinois,” the fleet consisted of six hundred ships, fitted out in the provinces of Kiang-nan, Fou-kien, Ho-nan, and Chan-tong. The army, sailing from Corea, landed first on the island of Kuchi [?], whence they proceeded to that of Tsushima, where they learned that the Japanese had long been expecting them with a great army. On approaching the coast of Japan, they encountered a furious tempest, which sunk their vessels; so that of the whole army scarcely one or two in every ten persons escaped.

In the “Histoire Général de la China,” compiled by Father Malela from Chinese sources, the story is thus told: “The sixth month (1281) Alahan set out on the expedition against Japan; but scarcely had he reached the port of embarkation when he died. Atahai, appointed to succeed him, did not arrive till the fleet had already set sail. In the latitude of the isle of Pinghou [Hirado], it encountered a violent tempest, by which most of the vessels were driven on shore. The officers, selecting those least damaged, themselves returned, leaving behind them in that island more than a hundred thousand men. The soldiers, finding themselves thus abandoned, chose a leader, and set themselves to work to cut down trees to build new vessels, in which to escape. But the Japanese, apprised of their shipwreck, made a descent upon the island with a powerful army, and put them to the sword. They spared only ten or twelve thousand Chinese soldiers, of whom they made slaves; and, of the whole formidable invading army, hardly three persons returned to China.”

Father Gaubil, in his “Histoire de la Dynastie des Mongoux,” compiled also from Chinese sources, states the number of Chinese and Corean prisoners at eighty thousand, and of the Mongols who were slain at thirty thousand.

Kämpfer, in his elaborate work on Japan, gives the following as from the Japanese chronicles, Nippon Ōdaiki, and Nippon Ōkeizu: “Go-Uda succeeded his father in the year of Jimmu 1985, of Christ 1275.” “In the ninth year of his reign, the Tartar general, Mōko, appeared on the coasts of Japan, with a fleet of four thousand sail, and two hundred and forty thousand men. The then reigning Tartarian emperor, Lifsu [Kublai Khan], after he had conquered the empire of China, sent this general to subdue also the empire of Japan. But this expedition proved unsuccessful. The Kami, that is, the gods of the country, and protectors of the Japanese empire, were so incensed at the insult offered them by the Tartars, that, on the first day of the seventh month, they excited a violent and dreadful storm, which destroyed all this reputed invincible armada. Mōko himself perished in the waves, and but few of his men escaped.”

Entrance to the Temple of Jimmu Tennō

Siebold, in his recently published “Archives of Japan,” gives the following as the account of this invasion contained in the esteemed Japanese chronicle, Nikongi:[7] “So soon as Kublai Khan had ascended the Mogul throne, he turned his eyes upon distant Japan. This nation, like Kaou-le (one of the kingdoms of Corea), must become tributary. Accordingly, in the year 1268,[8] he summoned the ruler of Nippon to acknowledge his sovereignty. No notice was taken of this summons, nor of others in 1271 and 1273, the Mongol envoys being not admitted to an audience, but always dismissed by the governor of Dazaifu. Hereupon a Mongol fleet, with a Corean contingent, appeared off Tsushima

A Japanese encyclopædia, of quite recent date, quoted in Siebold’s work, besides giving Kublai Khan’s letter of summons, asserts that the Mongol fleet was met and defeated, after which, other Mongol envoys being sent to Japan, they were summoned into the presence of the Shōgun, by whom a decree was promulgated that no Mongol should land in Japan under pain of death. And it is even pretended that under this decree the persons composing two subsequent missions sent by Kublai Khan, in 1276 and 1279, were all put to death. This was followed, according to the same authority, by the appearance of a new Mongol-Corean fleet, in 1281, off the island of Hirado. This fleet was destroyed by a hurricane. Those who escaped to the shore were taken prisoners and executed, only three being saved to carry to Kublai Khan the news of this disaster. All these additions, however, to the story—the letter of Kublai Khan, the murder of the ambassadors, and the double invasion—may safely enough be set down as Japanese inventions.[9]

CHAPTER II

Portuguese Empire in the East—Discovery of Japan—Galvano’s Account of it—Fernam Mendez Pinto’s Account of his First Visit to Japan, and Adventures there—Japanese Account of the First Arrival of Portuguese, A. D. 1542-1545.