[1] It has already been mentioned that the contents of this
valuable document have not been discussed by Señor Ortega,
Father Andrade or Señor Lera, who erroneously states in a
footnote on page 23 of his monograph that the texts of the
two letters from the Japanese sovereigns are contained in
Vol. VIII of the collection of unedited documents; whereas
this contains only the texts of Spanish letters addressed
by General Viscaino to the emperor and shogun.
The memory of Don Sebastian Viscaino is intimately associated with
California, for, in 1596, he was commissioned by the King of Spain
to make a voyage of discovery to California, and, as is well known,
sailed from the Port of Acapulco with three vessels and reached the
Port of La Paz, where he established himself, built a church and
dispatched a series of expeditions westward. This expedition ended
somewhat disastrously on account of the discontent of the soldiers
under his command, but in 1602 he was appointed Captain General of an
expedition sent by order of Phillip III and fitted out by the Count
of Monterey, viceroy of Mexico. During this voyage, which lasted
nine months, the whole coast of Southern California was carefully
surveyed. After reaching Cape Mendocino, they proceeded as far north
as 45 degrees north latitude, but he was forced to return to Acapulco
on account of illness and mortality amongst his men.
The account of his embassy to Japan, evidently written under his
dictation by the secretary of the expedition, is divided into twelve
chapters, and fills ninety-seven printed pages in the collection of
unedited documents to which I have already referred. This document,
which is full of interesting and valuable information concerning
the avowed and secret aims of his mission, gives a detailed account
of its history. It enables one clearly to recognize moreover the
manifold causes and events which within a few years wrought so
complete a change in Iyeyasu’s views, and which culminated in the
banishment of foreigners, the extirpation of Christianity, and the
complete isolation of Japan for centuries.
On the 22nd of March, 1611, Viscaino sailed in a vessel named the
“San Francisco” from Vera Cruz, accompanied by the Japanese nobleman
now known as Don Francisco de Velasco, twenty-two Japanese merchants,
a commissary and six friars of the Franciscan order, a captain named
Palacios and a crew of fifty-two.
Before launching into Viscaino’s report, of which I shall give a
literal translation, excepting where abbreviations and commentaries
are necessary, let us read the Japanese records of the foregoing
events, which were indirectly communicated by the well-known scholar,
Mr. Ernest Satow, to Señor Nuñez Ortega, in 1879. They demonstrate
that in the 17th century, as now, the official records of Japan were
written with a brevity and reticence which causes so many modern
Japanese war dispatches to read more like our weather reports:--
“The Sairan Igen of Arai Haku Seki (B. 1657, D. 1725) says:
In the 15th year of Keycho (1600) a merchant vessel belonging
to New Spain was driven by a storm on the east coast of Japan
and considerably damaged. The government ordered that it
should be repaired, and provisions having been supplied it was
started to depart. In the summer of the 17th year (1612), an
ambassador came from that country on a complimentary mission,
to return thanks. Amongst the presents was a self-sounding
bell (clock), and our manufacture of this article commenced
from this date.”[2]
FOOTNOTE:
[2] This clock is still preserved in the temple of Kino-San,
near Shizouka, Province of Suraga. An inscription records
its history, and a small metal plate, fastened to it,
records that it was made in Madrid.
The same annals preserve the following report, made to their
government by the Japanese merchants on their return from New Spain:--
“Some of our sailing merchants departed in company with this
embassy. They (the merchants) returned in the following
year, and stated that the country visited was populous and
productive. They also reported that the foreigners had thanked
them, saying: ‘Our countries are far apart and navigation is
difficult. Pray do not come again.’”
It is, of course, evident that this blunt intimation that their
presence was not desired in New Spain emanated from the same
monopolists who had caused the rupture of negotiations in 1602, and
who, later on, obtained a royal decree, limiting the traffic between
Mexico and Japan to one galleon a year, and putting restrictions upon
the value of the cargo it carried.
From Viscaino’s report we learn that the relations between the
Japanese merchants and the Spanish crew of the “San Francisco”
were decidedly strained. He relates that, at the beginning of the
voyage, the Japanese gave trouble on account of their haughtiness
and rudeness to the sailors--especially “concerning matters of the
kitchen,” and by their high-handedness. The general put an end to
this state of affairs by ordering that no Spaniard was to interfere
with a Japanese, nor lay hands on him, nor give occasion for dispute,
under penalty of death. The same threat was made to the Japanese,
and they were enjoined to be civil, and to come to him whenever any
difficulty presented itself, and to avoid all disputes and quarrels
with the sailors. Viscaino likewise threatened that if any Japanese
were insolent, he would have him hanged from the yardarm, and would
report him to the Japanese emperor, of whom it was known that he
did not like his vassals to be insolent--especially when they were
being treated to such a good voyage. Whereupon, it is recorded, the
Japanese were so filled with fear that they “restrained their pride
and haughtiness, became more docile than lambs,” and gave no cause
for complaint during the remainder of the voyage. Their leader was
the first to set an example of changed behavior. Viscaino invited him
to his table, considering it expedient, as he says, to please and
satisfy him, in view of the fact that upon his report to the emperor
would depend the manner of reception accorded to the Spaniards by
his Imperial Majesty, and the dispatch with which permission would be
obtained to set out from said Empire of Japan for the discovery of
said islands of gold and silver, which constituted the principal aim
of this expedition.
It is interesting to note that in the letters which General Viscaino
sent by messengers to the emperor and his son, on his arrival in
Japan after a voyage of eighty days, he emphasized how much respect
and honor had been accorded to the Japanese merchants during the
voyage, but refrained from all mention of the islands of gold and
silver, which it was his main object to discover.