Sire:
It is well known that the emperor of Japon is powerful in men and arms,
and that his people are of great courage. He was making ready two
hundred ships, and casting quantities of artillery. Japon is distant
from the realm of the Philipinas four hundred leagues, which is a
voyage of fifteen or twenty days by sea. On his friendship depends
the preservation of the Philipinas, and of two hundred thousand
Christians in that same kingdom of Japon, as well as of the rest
of its people, who are being christianized from day to day. We have
great hopes that all of them will become Christians, because it is
known surely that many of the principal people of Japon would become
Christians, if they were not hindered by their fear of the said
emperor's indignation. He ordered me [21] to say to your Majesty,
on his part, that, if your Majesty would make friends with him,
he would always provide the governor of the Philipinas with what
assistance was necessary, even to ten thousand men. When the governor
of Meaco (who is the person who governs all that kingdom) delivered
me the letter which he brought for your Majesty, he told me to tell
your Majesty that the emperor was your friend, and that on his part
the friendship would not fail; and that your Majesty should not,
because he was so far away, consider it as of little account. Gomez
Perez de Las Marinas, governor of the Philipinas, sent me with
father Fray Pedro Baptista and three other fathers of St. Francis,
to take a letter to that emperor in response to the one which he had
written. We went with this arrangement, that the fathers would remain
in Japon (as they did) and that I should return with the answer that
the governor desired. Having delivered the letter to the emperor,
when he learned from the letter that the governor of the Philipinas
wished to notify your Majesty of this emperor's intentions, he said,
without giving me an answer, that since the governor wished to advise
you, he could not do it better than through me. That I might be the
better able to do so, he ordered that I should examine his fortresses,
cities, and rich palaces, and the indications of his great power, so
that I could give your Majesty a good account of it all, as well as of
the kind treatment that was always given to me, and to the Franciscan
fathers who remained there. These fathers asking him for a small piece
of ground on which to build a house and church, he told them that he
would give them a large piece in the place where they were, and also
furnish them food. Then he ordered that the site and house that they
might select should be given to them. And because the land was so cold,
he ordered the fathers (who are barefooted) to be shod and clothed;
and said that he would give them these things and would treat them
as his children if they would obey him as their father. He sent me
word to say that he would await your Majesty's answer. While we were
in Japon at that time, the fathers and myself knew for certain that
some of the Japanese chiefs asked the emperor's permission to go to
subjugate the Philipinas, and make him lord of them, without any cost
to him. The latter replied that he would have nothing to do with it,
until he saw your Majesty's response. It is quite necessary that your
Majesty should send an order to the bishop of Great China at Macan, and
the fathers of the Society of Jesus, to the effect that all the ships
should leave there and go to Japon. These should investigate, and look
to it that they carry no people who have not a good understanding of
Christianity and fidelity; because that emperor is desirous of meeting
people who will teach him to construct ships and artillery in our
manner. All this will be of considerable harm and inconvenience; for,
although he has artillery and ships, they are less effective than ours.
They tell me that on this coast is father Fray Miguel de Venavides,
[22] of the order of St. Dominic, by whom your Majesty can be very
well informed of all these matters, because he has dealt with some
Japanese, and has gone through Great China.
_Pedro Gonzalez de Carbajal_