Japan and the Japanese

LETTER OF THE KING OF BUXGO. 8>
acknowledge in the person of the Pope the vioar of Jesus Christ,
and to render obedience to him in the name of the princes of whom
they were the envoys, and also 1'or themselves. The Father de
Mesquita expressed in Latin what they had said ; but the appearance
of the young men themselves, who had essayed so many dangers
and fatigues to corns to pay their homage to the holy see, was more
expressive than any words; and it drew tears and sobs from the
greater part of the audience. The Pope himself, greatly agitated,
hastened to raise them up, kissed their foreheads, and embraced
them many times, dropping tears upon them. They were then conducted
to an alcove, while the secretary of the
consistory read the
letters from the Japanese princes, which Father de Mescjuita had
translated into Italian, and of which the following may serve as a
specimen :
" LETTER OF THE KING OF BCNGO,
" To him who ought to be adored, and who holds the place of the king of
heaven, the great and most holy Pope.
" Full of confidence in the grace of the supreme and almighty God, I
write, with all possible submission, to your Holiness. The Lord, who governs
heaven and earth, who holds under his empire the sun and all the celestial
host, has made his light to shine upon one who was plunged in ignorance and
buried in deep darkness. It is more than thirty years since this sovereign
Master of nature, displaying all the treasures of his pity in favor of the
inhabitants of these countries, sent thither the fathers of the Company of
Jesus, who have sowed the seed of the divine Word in these kingdoms of
Japan ; and he has pleased, in his infinite bounty, to cause a part of it to fall
into my heart : singular mercy, for which I think myself indebted, most
holy Father of all the faithful, as well to the prayers and merits of your
Holiness as to those of many others. If the wars which I have had to sustain,
my old age and my infirmities, had not prevented me, I should myself
have visited the holy places where you dwell, to render in person the obe-
dience which I owe you. I would have devotedly kissed the feet of your
Holiness, I would have placed them on my head, and would have besought
you to make with your sacred hand the august sign of the cross on my heart.
Constrained, by the reasons I have mentioned, to deprive myself of a consola-
tion so sweet, I did design to send in my place Jerome, son of the king of
Fiunga, and my grand-son ; but as he was too far distant from my court,
and as the father-visitor could not delay his departure, I have substituted
for him Mancio, his cousin and my great nephew.
" I shall be infinitely obliged if your Holiness, holding upon earth the place
of God himself, shall continue to shed your favor upon me, upon all Christians,
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