make the Chinese receive them—it being understood that this opposition was from the mandarins alone, and that the common people offered no resistance and would receive them well. While all those in the islands, including myself, held this view, it pleased our Lord to reveal this deception and to deliver us from this error. It so happened that a ship left these islands for Mexico, and reached the coast of China in distress. At first the crew were somewhat ill-treated by the soldiers who guard the coast, because the latter had taken them for thieves or spies; but as soon as they were brought before the mandarin governor and it was learned that they had set out from the Luçones, as they call these islands, the governor treated them well, gave orders to return what the soldiers had taken from them, and punished those who had taken it. They sent the Spaniards in peace to Macan, whence they came to this city. The captain of the ship is living here at the present day, as well as two Augustinians who were on board; and they have told me all that happened to them.
From this time I began to be undeceived, and to understand that the kingdom of China was not so inaccessible as the Portuguese had represented it. Then I wrote to your Majesty the aforesaid letter, asserting that the ill-report concerning the mandarins of China was rather an invention of the Portuguese than a true report. Later on, my belief in this truth was confirmed by certain persons, both religious and laymen, who have gone to China from these islands. When these persons arrived there the Chinese arrested them, in order to find out whence they came and what they were seeking; and when it was learned who they were, they were allowed to return in peace
