Japan and the Japanese

SPANIARDS IX JAPAN. 109
Jesuits of Manilla ; and, in consequence of this refusal, Firanda did
not venture to carry the letter himself, but sent it by another
band. Valignani wrote, however, by a simultaneous opportunity, to
the Jesuits of Manilla, informing them of this affair, suggesting itg
delicate character, and the expediency, while due care was had of
the honor of the Spanish crown, of not giving to the emperor of
Japan any pretence for renewing his persecution
aries.
of the mission-
Notwithstanding the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal,
upon the head of Philip II., a very fierce jealousy and hatred continued
to exist between the two nations ; and this
feeling was particularly
violent at Manilla, which city, founded in 1572, was almost
and whose merchants
contemporaneous in its origin with Nagasaki,
looked very enviously at the monopoly of the trade to Japan secured
to the Portuguese, and to the city of Macao, by the terms of the
union between the two crowns. This express exclusion of all
Spanish merchants from Japan had been indeed already broken
through, in at least two instances, by the arrival of one Jean de Solis
from Peru, by way of Macao, and of another Spanish merchant
from the Philippines, both of whom, after various adventures, and
receiving aid and services from the Jesuit missionaries, had reached
Nagasaki. Solis soon after proceeded to Satsuma on the southern
coast of Ximo, where he commenced building a vessel in which to
trade to China and thence to Peru, a project in which he was
presently joined by the other Spaniard. But to carry out this
scheme it became necessary for Solis to get back a sum of money
which he had been compelled to deposit in the hands of the Portu-
guese, at Nagasaki, as security for certain debts which he had con-
tracted at Macao ; and because Father Valignani would not help
them in this matter, the two Spaniards threatened to give informa-
tion to the emperor of the large number of Jesuits still in Japan,
in violation of his edict, and to denounce the princes who gave
them shelter.
The emperor, meanwhile, had been a good deal soured and his
suspicions excited by some suggestions, thrown out by the enemies
of the Jesuits, that Valignani was no real ambassador, that being
a mere pretence to secure his entry into Japan. Means, indeed,
had been found to quiet him upon this head, to which the repre-
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