nor as yet have we heard from it.  The news of the said burning having reached that same city [i.e., Nangasaqui] at a time when the Portuguese were there with the galliots that make that voyage, trading, with their merchandise, the Japanese attempted to attack them, and to force them to pay the value of the merchandise and the junk which were burned; and it is feared that thereupon they would lay an embargo on the three galliots.  However, as yet we do not know with certainty or assurance, except that a suit was pending in the court of the king of Japon, the Portuguese claiming that they could not in justice be forced to repay the damage which the Castilians had done.  Thereupon the city of Macan earnestly begged me to make satisfaction, and send the value of the cargo burned and lost in the said junk, in order to silence the Japanese.  Being desirous of gratifying the people of Macan, and settling the matter, I called an assembly of theologians and jurists, in which I broached the subject.  All agreed that so long as the Japanese persevered in locking the door to commerce with these islands, contrary to justice and reason, there should be no talk of giving satisfaction for the damage inflicted, until advice could be given to your Majesty—­even though it should follow from this, by a casualty not intended, that the Portuguese with whom the said Japanese trade should have to pay for the loss.  This will be seen more in detail in the authentic copy of the said council’s proceedings, which I enclose herewith, so that if perchance the city of Macan should petition your Majesty through the Council of Portugal to have these damages paid, no decision may be made in the matter until you shall have seen the motives which we have here for failing to settle it.  In such case, I petition your Majesty also to be pleased to examine, with this section of this letter, that of another which I wrote in the past year of 628 in regard to the same matter.  It will be considered that if the damage inflicted has to be paid for, it will fall upon those who did it.  That would be the soldiers of this camp and the leader under whom they were, namely, the said commander, Don Joan de Alcarasso, who distinguished themselves greatly in your Majesty’s service in the said expedition of the galleons. [In the margin:  “File, and have the fiscal examine it all.”  “It was all filed and referred to the fiscal.  It is answered on a separate paper.”]

13.  Departure of Don Fernando de Silva, and difficulties that arose in it

Don Fernando de Silva (who is the person whom I found governing in these islands when I arrived here), exercising the permission given him by your Majesty by which he may enjoy for eight years the encomiendas held here by his wife for two lives, undertook to make his voyage this year.  As I thought that a government permit in writing (as is usual with others who have not been governors) was unnecessary so that he might embark, I communicated the matter to the Audiencia