Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 09).pdf/51

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1593–1597]
EMBASSY TO JAPAN
45

diers; and even if the Japanese should kill many of them at first, many others would come afterwards. When he asked the father if he were afraid to have them come here, to Luçon, he said that the father answered: "No, even if many hundreds of Japanese should come." He declares that it was after the father had talked with the king that the churches were destroyed.

Antonio Lopez declares that father Fray Juan Cobo showed the king of Japon the kingdoms of our king on a globe. He gave this to the king, with the names of the kingdoms written in Chinese characters, with the distances between them. The occasion for this arose, because when the king of Xapon read the letter written from this country, he saw so many kingdoms, whereupon he asked to have them pointed out to him in detail, with their size and the distances between them. The father told him that the Portuguese were subjects of the king of Castilla. The father wrote this to Hunquin, who requested it from him in the name of the king. Antonio Lopez says that he does not know whether it was on the occasion of Hunquin asking the father why he did not acknowledge subjection to him, or on the other occasion of the father coming to say that the present which he had taken to the king of Japon was not sent in the name of our king (for he did not acknowledge any superior), but that it would be from the Theatin fathers; but after the father had conversed with the king, on his return they found the churches destroyed.

Moreover, he says that at some time during this month Luis, a servant of Joan de Solis, will come here. This man served as interpreter between the