Note 1 — Letter from Antonio de Morga to Felipe II

At the end of April of the current year I sent your Majesty an account of the state of affairs in these islands, a duplicate whereof is enclosed. I have only to add that some days after I returned to this city, the ship “San Felipe” which left this city in July, 96, was carried by several storms to the coast of Japan, entered the port of Hurando, and was lost there; and the emperor of that country, Taycosama, covetous of the treasure with which it was laden, took it all. The men of the ship and the passengers have come in other vessels. At the same time the said tyrant caused to be crucified in Nangasaqui six barefoot friars of the Order of St. Francis, of the number of those who were there from these islands1. He has also crucified eighteen native Japanese Christians of their following. Fuller accounts of the matter will be sent your Majesty by the reports thereon to Page 18be written by the governor. So far as I can learn, the said king of Japan is a proud and covetous barbarian, who does not keep his word or observe the peace that he promises. As for the Portuguese present in those islands, they desire to see us ousted from there, and have done us no kindness in the affair of the said ship. The religious had as little assistance in what was done to them; and a little before had received great injuries from the religious of the Society who were there and from their bishop, whose purpose was to cause them to abandon that kingdom, as has been done—leaving the members of the Society alone in this work of conversion, as they are, much to their satisfaction. Yet the barefoot friars and their following met death with great fervor for the faith and the defense thereof, and God has since worked many marvels and miracles by means of their bodies. Therefore we of this country have reason to be consoled and happy to have produced in it such fruit for heaven and such honor for Christianity. The loss of this ship was a very great one. She was worth a million and a half—a mighty loss for so small a country; hence it is more needy than ever and more wretched, and your Majesty will have pity on it.