The other galliot perished a few days afterwards, and only
fourteen of the crew escaped. Thus perished the brave Antonio de Faria;
a just judgment, doubtless, for the sacrilegious robbery he intended to
have committed.

No less unfortunate was the end of the city of _Liampo_, where Antonio
had been so nobly received, falling a sacrifice to the base and
insatiable avarice of its inhabitants. Lancelot Pereyra, judge of that
city, having lost a thousand ducats by some Chinese, went out with a
body of troops to rob and plunder others in satisfaction of the debt.
This unadvised and barbarous procedure brought the governor of the
province against the city with 80,000 men, and in four hours burnt it to
the ground, together with 80 ships that were in the port. Twelve
thousand men were slain, among whom were 1000 Portuguese, and three
millions of gold were lost. Thus scarce any thing was left of _Liampo_
but the name; and thus what the Portuguese gained by their valour was
lost by their covetousness. _Liampo_ had above three thousand catholic
inhabitants, almost the half of whom were Portuguese. Those who survived
this cruel execution, obtained leave in 1547, by great presents, to
settle in the province of _Chincheo_, in a village which began to
flourish in consequence of a rich trade, but it came to the same end
with the other.

SECTION III.

_Transactions during the Government of Martin Alfonso de Sousa, from
1542 to 1543_.

In the year 1542, but whether under the government of De Gama or De
Sousa is uncertain, Antonio de Mota, Francisco Zeymoto, and Antonio
Peixoto, while on a voyage to China, were driven by a storm among the
islands of _Nipongi_ or _Nijon_, called _Gipon_ by the Chinese, and
known in Europe by the name of _Japan_. They were well received in one
of these islands, of which they had the honour to be the first
discoverers, though accidentally. These islands of Japan are far to the
eastward of all India, being even beyond China, and lie between the
latitudes of 30 deg. and 40 deg. N[360]. These islands are numerous, the
principal and largest island being that peculiarly called _Niphon_,
_Nifon_, _Nipongi_, or _Japan_, which gives name to the group, and in
which is the city of _Meaco_ the imperial residence. According to the
natives this principal island is 366 leagues in length, but by our
computation only 266[361]. The chief islands around the large one, are
_Cikoko_, _Toksosi_, _Sando_, _Sisime Bacasa_