Japan and the Japanese

126 JAPAN. A. D. 1507 1509.
of Aniakusa, twelve in Arima and Omura, four in Bungo, arid as
many more in Firando and Gotto, while two others passed into
Corea ; but it was understood that these priests thus left behind,
while ministering to the faithful, should avoid doing anything that
might draw attention upon them.
The aged Father Gnecchi, with two priests and five or six other
Jesuits, remained at Miuko, Father Matthew de Couros being ap-
pointed to fill the place of Father Louis Frocz, lately deceased, in
the office of sending to Home memoirs for the history of Japan.
With these exceptions all the rest of the Jesuits assembled at
Nagasaki, making a show of getting ready to depart. Indeed, the
poop of a Portuguese vessel, which sailed shortly after, appeared to
be full of them ; but most of these seeming Jesuits were only Por-
tuguese merchants, dressed for the occasion in the habit of the
order ; while, to account for the staying behind of any who migh'o
out that some
happen to be detected in the provinces, it was given
had been left because the vessel was not large enough to take all.
Soon after the departure of this vessel, a Spanish gentleman
arrived from Manilla with presents and a letter to the emperor from
a new governor of the Philippines, remonstrating, though in meas-
ured terms, against the confiscation of the San Philip and the
execution of the Spanish ecclesiastics, several of whom had entered
Japan in the character of envoys from his predecessor. The letter
requested the bodies of those martyrs, and, for the future, safety
and kind treatment to all Spanish vessels driven accidentally
to Japan. Taiko-Sama, in reply, justified his proceedings against
the missionaries, not only because they had disregarded his re-
peated orders to leave Japan, but because, insinuating their creed
into the minds of his
subjects, they designed finally to
get possession
of the country as the Spaniards had done of Manilla. His
excuse for the confiscation of the San Philip was that she had
attempted to enter a port of Japan in violation of law. lie refused
to give up any part of her cargo, but offered to restore a number
of slaves which had belonged to her, at the same time expressing a
willingness to consent to a regulated trade with the Spaniards, provided
thuy would promise to bring no priest",.
A report that the emperor was about to visit Nagasaki led to the
destruction in the adjoining provinces of not less than a hundred