Japan and the Japanese

122 JAPAN. A. D. 15951507.
the fathers for their own support had been the proceeds of a fund
of four thousand ducats, which Louis Almeida, on entering the
order in 1556, and -devoting himself to the Japanese mission,
as mentioned in a former chapter, had set aside tor that
purpose
out of his own private fortune, all the rest of which he had
bestowed in the founding of hospitals. This fund had been en-
trusted by Almeida to certain Portuguese merchants to trade upon
for the benefit of the Jesuits. But, though this trust had been
faithfully executed, the proceeds of it had been quite too small to
support the increasing
number of the missionaries. Some small
pensions, allowed them by the Popes Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V.,
failed to make up the deficiency; and, at length, it was agreed by
the commercial company at Macao, by whom the annual Portuguese
carac was fitted out for Japan, and by means of which the chief trade
between Japan and the Portuguese was now carried on, that out of
the sixteen hundred packages of silks, which formed a part of her
cargo, fifty (afterwards increased to eighty) packages should be
shipped on account of the Jesuits an arrangement to which the
viceroy of the Indies assented. For this business two commercial
agencies were maintained by the Jesuits one at Macao, the
other at Nagasaki. The enemies of the Jesuits insisted that they
sent to Japan yearly goods to the value of a hundred and sixty
thousand ducats, on which their profits were sixty thousand. This
was probably exaggerated ; yet, when Charlevoix pretends that
the whole annual Portuguese trade and profits did not amount
to those sums, his statement is refuted as well by other known facts
as by the vastly larger value of the cargoes of such of the annual
caracs as some years later fell into the hands of the Dutch.
While the unlucky affair of the forfeited Spanish galleon caused
Europe to resound with accusations against the Jesuits, in Japan
itself it had results more speedy and more fatal. The Spanish pilot,
finding that entreaties did not succeed, had attempted to make an
impression upon those who had seized the ship by expatiating on
the power of the king of Spain, the extent of whose dominions in
Europe, Asia, Africa and America, he exhibited on a map of the
world. To the inquiry how such an extent of dominion had been
obtained, the pilot replied that nothing was easier ; that the king
began by sending missionaries into the countries he wished to con-