of Xapon, and reached this port and bay but yesterday, and who was in Xapon when father Fray Joan Cobos arrived there—­where this witness was building a ship (the one in which he came hither), and work on which he left and abandoned, in order to go to see, protect, and serve the said father Fray Joan Cobo, and to instruct him in the customs and usages of the country, as the father came in behalf of his Majesty—­he will relate here what he knows.  While this witness was in the kingdoms of Xapon last year, the emperor resolved to send an embassy here.  This he entrusted to Faranda Queymon, but as the latter fell sick at the time of his intended departure from that country, he sent in his stead a Christian Xaponese, named Gaspar, otherwise called Faranda.  This witness says that what he heard and was told regarding that matter—­not only by the emperor himself, with whom he conversed several times, but by other personages and nobles of the emperor’s court—­was always that the intention of the king of Xapon was only to ascertain, by means of this embassy, whether these Philippines Islands were friendly or hostile to him; for if they were friendly, then he wished friendship and alliance with the governor and the Spaniards, and trade and intercourse.  If they were not friendly, then he would consider them as enemies, and would attack them.  This was the object of the embassy, and the emperor’s intention, as he himself declared three or four times in the presence of this deponent, in the following formal language:  “It is true that I sent Quiemon on that embassy, for, as a man who knows that land, he gave me an account of it.  But what I wished was friendship, and trade and intercourse with the Castilians, as I have been informed of the good treatment given to my Xaponese there.  I do not want silver, gold, soldiers, or anything else, but only to keep them as friends.”  This witness, as he knew the emperor’s nature, and his veracity, and the punctiliousness with which he keeps his word, thinks that he does not claim vassalage, tribute, or any recognition from this community and kingdom, nor does he intend to commit any wrong toward this kingdom; but rather this witness believes and knows that the emperor will aid this kingdom with soldiers, and whatever else might be asked from him.  Therefore he thinks that he who interpreted the letter could not read or interpret it, if he asserted that the emperor demanded vassalage; for the characters used in their writing are difficult to understand.  Likewise this witness declared, in regard to the arrival of father Fray Joan Cobo in the kingdoms of Xapon, that he saw that Father Cobo went from the port of Chandomar to Nangoya, where the emperor was residing, and that this witness accompanied and entertained him through the entire journey—­about one hundred leguas.  This witness saw with his own eyes that the city of Nangoya is a city of one hundred thousand or more inhabitants.  This city was built and settled in five months.  It is three leguas