Answer:
courageous
Explanation:
"Heart of a Samurai" is a novel written by Margi Preus. It tells the story of a poor Japanese fisherman, Manjiro, who ends up in America after a shipwreck.
From this excerpt we can infer that Manjiro is a very brave person because he "choked down" his fear in order to help his friends.
He was afraid, but he didn't run away. He stayed and made a contact with these "odd-looking" people, no matter how potentially dangerous they could have been.
