had very great care; for after the events of the year
27, I have managed to give that king to understand
the irregularity of the case, [88] and your Majesty’s
desire for friendship with his kingdoms. My efforts
have already succeeded so well that this matter is
already settled with the inhabitants of Macan, and
the embargo has been removed from their ships.
Having invited the same Japanese to come to trade
with this city of Manila, two ships came last year,
as I wrote in the last despatches. The answers
which we gave to their propositions and letters seemed
somewhat satisfactory to them; for this year they have
again sent two ships, with letters from the governor
of Nagansaqui. In these he tells me that the
trade is open as before, and that ships may go there
from here, and that others will come here from there.
That nation is very cautious, and there is little
confidence to be put in them. If a person should
come here whom they wished to go there to trade, I
would not dare for the present to permit it, until
matters are on a more firm basis; for it is certain
that their hearts are not quiet, nor will they easily
become so. They take vengeance at a fitting time.
May they bring us bread and ammunition, as they are
doing. I gave them good treatment here, so that
it is now procured that the gains which they make
on their merchandise and the lapse of time will accommodate
all things. Their king died, leaving his son
as heir. There are fears of war, that Christianity
may not be so persecuted. I do not think that
it would be a bad thing to have a bit of a revolution
because of their contempt and selfishness. In
these ships were sent one hundred and thirty poor
lepers exiled to these islands, whom the heathen had
tried to make renegades to the faith of Christ (as
many others have become); but their entreaties had
no effect on these people. I called a council
of state to determine whether those lepers should
be received, and in what manner they should be received.
It was not because I hesitated to receive them; for,
even though they might fasten the disease on me, I
would not dare to leave an apparent Christian in the
sight of so many opposed to the faith, and in the
face of the persecution which has been raging in that
kingdom. It was determined that they should be
received immediately, and taken straight to the church;
and that they should be welcomed, entertained, and
supported with the alms which this community desired
to apportion. A beginning has been made in collecting
alms, and a room has been arranged in the hospital
of the natives where they are to be put. Your
Majesty gives that hospital a yearly alms of five hundred
pesos and a quantity of fowls and rice, with which
aid it has now so increased the number of sick [who
are cared for]. For a work so pious, and so worthy
that your Majesty accept it as your own, I do not doubt
that you will have its alms increased somewhat, in
case that the fervor that is now beginning in the
charity of the inhabitants should become somewhat
cooled. [In the margin: “An order
was sent to the governor ordering him to give a certain
alms for six years. Consult with his Majesty.
Let two hundred ducados more be given to him in the
same way, for a limited time and while it lasts.”]