the design. The mirror is cast flat, and then rendered convex before polishing, by being so strongly scratched with an iron tool as to cause a buckling of the metal into a convex form, which convexity is afterwards increased by rubbing in mercury repeatedly. The effect of both these processes is greater on the thinner parts of the mirror than on the parts over the raised design. Hence the unequal convexity, which gives the reflection of the design from the face of the mirror.
Books recommended. On the Magic Mirrors of Japan, by Professors Ayrton and Perry, in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society," Vol. XXVII. pp. 127—142. Expansion produced by Amalgamation, by the same authors, in the "Philosophical Magazine," Vol. XXII. p. 327.
Missions. (I. Roman Catholic.) When the first Portuguese reached Japan in 1542, one Anjirō, a native of Kagoshima in Satsuma, who had many sins on his conscience, heard through them of the fame of Francis Xavier, "the Apostle of the Indies," and started for Malacca in quest of this wonderful soul-doctor. After missing Xavier once (he being then in the Moluccas), Anjirō ultimately met him at Malacca in 1547. The reports of Japan brought to Xavier by this Japanese and by certain Portuguese merchants aroused in his breast a desire to evangelise the island empire. Accordingly Anjirō, who already knew something of the Portuguese language, was sent for further instruction to the Jesuit College at Goa, where he and his servant, together with a third Japanese, received baptism. In April, 1549, Xavier, accompanied by these three and by two compatriots of his own,—one of whom was a monk,—left Goa for Japan. The party reached Kagoshima in August of the same year, and during Xavier's twelve months stay in that province about 150 natives were baptised. The total result of his twenty-six months sojourn in Japan was nearly 1,000 converts. In the winter of 1550-1 he made an extremely arduous journey to Kyōto, the capital; but it proved fruitless from a religious point of view. His long stay at Yamaguchi in Western Japan (1551) produced 600 baptisms. At Hirado there were about 200.
