requested was that one called “Antonio,” which made the voyage without my orders.  This was a very lawless act, and in contempt of me.  Can it be, perhaps, that your Lordship would send to Japon without my permission any vessel that you wished?  Besides this, your Lordship and others have often negotiated about the sects of Japon, and requested many things in regard to them.  This likewise I cannot concede; for this region is called Xincoco [Shinkoku], or “dedicated to the idols.”  These have been honored with the highest adoration from the time of our ancestors until now, and their acts I alone cannot undo or destroy.  Consequently, it is not at all advisable that your religion be promulgated or preached in Japon; and if your Lordship wish to preserve friendship with these kingdoms of Japon and with me, do what I wish, and never do what is displeasing to me.  Lastly, many have told me that many wicked and perverse Japanese, who go to that kingdom and live there for many years, afterward return to Japon.  This makes me very angry.  Consequently, your Lordship will, in the future, allow no one of the Japanese to come here in the vessels that come from your country.  In other matters, your Lordship shall act advisedly and prudently, and shall so conduct affairs, that henceforth I may not be angered on account of them.

The governor, carrying out his dearest wish, was to make the expedition to Terrenate in the Malucos, which should be done quickly, before the enemy could gather more strength than he had then; for he had been informed that the Dutch, who had seized the island and fortress of Amboino, had done the same with that of Tidore, whence they had driven the Portuguese who had settled therein, and had entered Terrenate, where they had established a trading-post for the clove-trade.  Accordingly, as soon as the despatches in regard to this undertaking arrived from Espana, in June of six hundred and five, and the men and supplies from Nueva Espana, which were brought at the same time by the master-of-camp, Joan de Esquivel, the governor spent the balance of this year in preparing the ships, men, and provisions that he deemed necessary for the undertaking.  Leaving behind in Manila sufficient force for its defense, he went to the provinces of Pintados, where the fleet was collected, in the beginning of the year six hundred and six.

By the fifteenth day of the month of March, the governor had thoroughly prepared the fleet—­which consisted of five ships, four galleys with poop-lanterns [galeras de fanal], three galliots, four champans, three funeas, two English lanchas, two brigantines, one barca chata [23] for the artillery, and thirteen fragatas with high freeboard.  There were one thousand three hundred Spaniards, counting regulars, captains and officers, substitutes [entretenidos], and volunteers.  Among them were some Portuguese captains and soldiers, under charge of the chief captain of Tidore, [24] who was at that island when the Dutch