was informed by the Spaniards, and by one Guillermo Adan [40]—­an Englishman who had been living married in Japon for many years, to whom the emperor turned for information—­that the Dutch were rebel vassals [of the Spaniards] and pirates; and that they could not get the silks if they did not plunder them from the Chinese.  Thus did they establish their factory in the port of Firando, where they have maintained themselves to this very day, taking the silks that they have pillaged from the Chinese, and certain cloth stuffs from Europa, and buying food and supplies for their forces in the Malucas and other islands of those regions.  Governor Don Juan de Silva, having conquered on the coasts of Filipinas the fleet of the Dutch who were robbing the Chinese in the year 610, it was learned from the instructions of Count Mauricio that they were forbidden to plunder the Chinese and other nations, and that they were only permitted to trade with them.  Thus, although they robbed the Chinese, it was on their own responsibility, and incited by greed; and even that they palliated by making a price on the silks, by weighing them, and settling the account for that amount.  Paying for the goods partly in reals—­although only a small part—­they gave to the Chinese due-bills on the factory of La Sunda.  I saw those papers in their own flagship, as I was captured by the Dutch in the said year 610, when I was returning from the wreck at Japon to the Filipinas.  Nor does it contradict this that since then they have continued to plunder the Chinese, since they have given out that they do it because the silks were bought for silver which the Spaniards of Manila are sending to China; and because even supposing that the silks be some belonging to the Chinese, they do not wish the latter to trade with the Spaniards, their enemies.  Consequently, although the Dutch have pillaged them, it has been by affecting this pretext, and giving them to understand that the Dutch were not their enemies.

But what most persuades me to believe that this is the object of the Dutch is because they are not ignorant of the great advantage to them of buying silks from the Chinese and taking their investments to Japon; for it is evident to them from the high profits made by the Portuguese of Macan.  That profit will be greater for them because of the greater ease of making the investment, and their nearer and easier navigation.  Whenever any other nation wishes to trade with the Chinese, that trading must be done entirely with silver; and as the Dutch can take so little silver from Europa, and have no opportunity to get it from Japon unless in exchange for Chinese merchandise, it is certain that, both because of the high profits of this trade and in order to maintain themselves in their factory at Japon—­whence they furnish the forts of the Malucas, Ambueno, and other places with supplies and some food—­they will procure the trade with the Chinese by all possible means, by maintaining a factory in the island of Hermosa.  Thus, becoming wealthy, they will utterly destroy Macan and deprive the Filipinas of the trade of Chinese silks which they had in Japon, which was formerly of so great profit that the investment generally yielded one hundred per cent in eight or nine months.