In the Tenza, or five provinces[64] nearest to Miyako, and including, also, the cities of Sakai and Ōsaka, the ancient imperial domain, the adherents of the new religion were seldom molested, and the governor of Miyako even built a magnificent church for the Jesuits in the upper city, in addition to one which they already possessed in the lower city. An observatory at Ōsaka had gained additional credit for their religion by displaying their scientific knowledge. A seminary for nobles was reopened at Nagasaki, and, by the special zeal of Father Gnecchi, hospitals for lepers, which had been from the first a favorite charity, were set up at Ōsaka and in several other cities. By the favor of particular princes, Jesuit missionaries even penetrated into the more remote and hitherto unvisited provinces. Persecution, however, still went on within the jurisdiction of several of the local rulers, especially in the island of Shimo; and some of the converted princes, having apostatized, became themselves persecutors. But the bishop, having made a journey to Miyako in 1606, was very favorably received by the Kubō-Sama,—a circumstance not without its influence in all the local courts. Such was the state of things in Japan when the hold of the Portuguese and the Jesuits upon that country, already shaken by the consolidation of the empire under one head, and by the intrusion of Dominican and Franciscan friars and Spanish merchants and negotiators, encountered a still more alarming disturbance from the appearance of the Dutch flag in the eastern seas.[65] [Illustration: IMAGE OF IYEYASU From _Official History of Japan_] CHAPTER XX _Attempt of the English and Dutch to discover a New Route to the Far East—Voyages round the World—Attempted English Voyage to Japan—English and Dutch Voyages to India—First Dutch Voyage to Japan—Adams, the English Pilot—His Adventures and Detention in Japan[66]—A. D. 1513-1607._ For a full century subsequent to the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, the commerce of the Indian seas, so far as Europe was concerned, remained almost a complete monopoly in the hands of the Portuguese. The ancient Venetian commerce with India, by the Red Sea, had been speedily brought to an end, while the trade carried on overland, by way of Aleppo and the Persian Gulf, was mainly controlled by the Portuguese, who held possession of Ormus, through which it mostly passed. Nor did the Spanish discovery of another passage to India, by the Straits of Magellan, and the lodgment which the Spaniards made about the year 1570, in the Philippine Islands, very materially interfere with the Portuguese monopoly. The passage by the Straits of Magellan was seldom or never attempted, the Spanish trade being confined to two annual ships between Acapulco and Manila.