EXCERPT OF A LETTER FROM THE
VICEROY OF INDIA
One of the things that have seemed most surprising in Don Juan de Gama is the following. When decrees were published by order of the viceroy, Don Duarte,[1] in your Majesty's name, prohibiting navigation to China and Luçoens [Luzón], which he [Juan de Gama] as captain-general should have executed, he did the contrary. Jheronimo Pereira, captain of the expedition to Japon, had already done likewise; thus those in authority, who were under obligation to execute your Majesty's laws and commands, were the first to break them, to the great scandal of all. Therefore, as soon as possible, I ordered a remedy for such disorders. For this purpose I appointed certain chief magistrates, who excused themselves, either through fear of Don Juan or dread of the sea. Things came to such a pass that, it was necessary to send by schooner, outside the monsoon season, the licentiate Ruy Machado who came from the kingdom this year, and who had been ap-
- ↑ The Portuguese admiral Don Duarte de Meneses—who had been present in the negotiations between Legazpi and Pereira in 1569 (VOL. II, pp. 295, 298, 310)—was viceroy of India from November, 1584 until his death, May 15, 1588. He was succeeded in that office by Manuel de Sousa Coutinho, the writer of this letter. See Linschoten's Voyage (Hakluyt Society's trans., London, 1885), pp. 174, 200–203.
