Since we do not find a port of China in Macan it will be right for us to enter the interior, and we shall tell what is passing [there] in the spiritual and temporal.  Christianity continues to increase.  There are twenty-two members of the Society in all China, established at the court of Pequin and other chief cities.  Ours go about there with more liberty and publicity than they have ever done.  Happy times are expected if the uncle of the king who is now reigning enters into the kingdom, as is heard, and if the king is held in guardianship, as he is a boy.  The latter succeeded his brother who died. [45] Immediately upon entering his kingdom, he exiled from his court a eunuch, a prime favorite of his brother, who had command of everything and even played the tyrant; he also exiled other favorites.  The seas of that kingdom of China are infested with pirates from China itself, and they are so numerous that it is said that there are more than a thousand ships of them.  They pillage everything and infest all places, and have sacked and burned many maritime places of that great kingdom.  They have been the cause this year of very few ships coming to these islands to trade; for the mandarins have put an embargo on all ships, in order to build a large fleet to oppose the said pirates.  A large stone was found in the interior of China with Chinese and some Chaldean characters, which tell how preachers of the gospel came to China a thousand years ago and preached the gospel.  They had bishops, and many churches and Christians, and the mysteries of our faith were established there.  As it is a long matter I shall not relate it here, but shall only say that after having examined the circumstances, it appears to be true, without ground for doubt of it. [46]

Father Juan Adan, of the Society of Jesus, wrote the following.  He lives in Pequin.

“The affairs of this kingdom of China are in a condition of perfect peace.  A rumor was current many days ago that the Tartar king, the fear of this empire, was dead. [47] As he had many sons, and had conquered many lands from his other neighbors, the sons will be kept quite busy for some few years in coming to terms with one another, and in dividing and maintaining what their aged father left them.  A few days ago, a mandarin related to Father Nicolas Longobardo [48] that he had seen in the palace an image of a woman with two small boys and an old man.  It must be David who was playing the harp for them.  It is not an idol of the Chinese, for the image is about a thousand years old, and was a present from foreigners in the time of Tam-Chao, when our holy law entered China, as your Reverence will already know from the stone which was found, and the painting of the old man on linen, a figure which resembles us.  This point needs investigation, in order that we may know what it is with greater certainty.”  The father continues, making mention of an earthquake that happened in China.