But he was ordered subtly to divert the king’s mind from similar desires and propositions, and not to facilitate any of them; for although perhaps there were no hidden deceit in the then reigning monarch, or any interest greater than that of friendship, it might cause great harm in times of a less well-intentioned successor, who might abuse the navigation, and turn it against those who taught it to them.  The governor promised to send another ship soon to trade.  Fray Geronymo was to give the king hopes that some Spanish masters of Spanish boats would sail in it.  Dayfusama was to be patient, and should consider how offended he would be, if his servants were to open up any new commerce without consulting him, or without his order.

With this despatch Chiquiro returned to Japon in his ship....

[A storm however overtakes him near Formosa, and his ship is wrecked and he and his men drowned, the event being learned only long after.  “Daifusama, being persuaded by Fray Geronymo, had granted leave for our religion to be preached in his kingdoms, to build our churches, and for all who wished to profess our religion with public authority.”  Accordingly the orders send various missionaries to different districts of Japan.  “Many persuaded Don Pedro not to send away these religious, but, although those persuasions were well founded, and obstacles put in the way of their departure, it was determined to allow them to go....  These religious did not find in the provinces proof of the desires that had been told them.  Very few Japanese were converted, and fewer were disposed toward it, for the king and tonos [chiefs] ... did not love our religion.”  Don Pedro sends the promised ship to Japan laden with “dye-wood, deerskins, raw silk, and various other articles.”  Thus Japanese demands are met, and the emperor is satisfied with the diplomatic answer returned to him.  Meanwhile “Don Pedro’s thought bore on the recovery of the Malucas.”  Letters pass between him and the Portuguese commander Andrea Furtado de Mendoza in regard to the expedition, and aid from the Philippines, and the hostilities of the Dutch. (The Jesuit brother Gaspar Gomez had been sent by Acuna from Mexico to Spain, to show the necessity and advantages of the expedition; after various delays it was set on foot, and Furtado obtained many successes in Amboina, where he had some encounters with the Dutch.  The king of Ternate asked help from Java and Mindanao.)]

The season and necessity compelled General Furtado to request urgently the help that was being prepared in Filipinas.  Amboino is eighty leguas from those islands.  Accordingly he sent Father Andres Pereyra, a Jesuit, and Captain Antonio Brito Fogaco, in May of the year one thousand six hundred and two.  They reached Cebu July twenty-five.  They sailed thence for Manila, August six, and entered that city September five.  Don Pedro de Acuna rejoiced greatly over their arrival.  He asked them—­so great was his desire and interest, or rather, his