seven hundred men were burned, besides the many who were drowned.  All this augured evil.  And thus we sent you a memorial asking that you should give audience on matters concerning the good government of the kingdom, according to the will of Heaven.  You answered, “Now it is cold, now hot; I am indisposed and unable to do it; I shall choose another day to go out, or you may choose it.”  We the mandarins, together, chose the seventh day of the same moon, which was convenient.  You, however, did not answer favorably, but instead threw the memorial into the fire.

Furthermore, we learned from the province of Xansinque, this third moon, that a man suddenly appeared dressed in yellow, with a green cap [bonete], and a little fan of feathers in his hand.  He called out, “Vanlle (which is the name of the king here) [66] is a king without a government, although he has ruled a long time.  He is always asleep in his palace, wherefore the kingdom is about to be lost.  The men of the people must perish of hunger, and the great captains must die by the sword and the lance.”  With this he disappeared.  The viceroy, Chaien, and the mandarins were greatly terrified, and made vigorous efforts to find him and to learn who he was and where he lived, but they never found further trace of him.

And now, when we learn of the calamities of all the provinces, when from all of them we hear news of the great famine being experienced, and when we see that many renowned mandarins, captains, and soldiers have been killed in this war, we are well able to understand that this man was an omen from Heaven, and the whole affair causes fear.  If you, our king, wish to go forth to encounter the Tartars you cannot do so unless you have several millions of men, and thousands of thousands of wagon-loads of supplies.  We humbly beg that you undertake to release the above mentioned mandarin, who is so unjustly detained in prison.  We also beg that you shall be pleased to open the treasuries to raise an army.  If you do so, much of the trouble will be removed.

Of Cochinchina

The new mission of Cochinchina, near China, where they formerly endured great hardships, is now prosperous, and there are good prospects that a splendid Christian community will grow up in that realm. [67] The people there, induced by their false priests, had rebelled against our fathers, saying superstitiously that it had failed to rain because of the presence of preachers of the holy gospel.  In this way they forced the king, against his will, to order the fathers out of the country for a time.  But the fathers, in obedience to an order from their superior, did not leave until they had almost completely christianized a Japanese settlement which is there; and they so subdued these Japanese that, although formerly they had been very rebellious and had given much trouble to the king, they now became peaceable.  The king was so pleased with this that he recalled the fathers with the same