It was at Macao that Valignani and his companions learned the news of the edict for the banishment of the Jesuits. It was said at Macao that the emperor was a good deal mollified, and seemed inclined to wink at the general disregard of his edict; yet as Valignani was himself a Jesuit, and had once already visited Japan in that character, he did not judge it best to proceed to Japan till he had first obtained express permission to do so. On the representations of the Christian princes, who put forward Valignani’s character as ambassdor, the emperor readily consented to receive him; and, accompanied by the returning Japanese envoys and some twenty Jesuits, he landed at Nagasaki, in June, 1590, where he was received with great affection by the converted princes of Shimo, and by Father Gomez, who, on the death of Cuello, had succeeded to the post of vice-provincial. The emperor, in the late redistribution of the kingdoms of that island, had liberally provided for Konishi Settsu-no-kami, the grand admiral, and for Kodera, his general of horse, both of whom, notwithstanding their continued adhesion to the new faith, still retained his favor. To Konishi he had given the kingdom of Higo, and to Kodera that of Buzen, so that almost the whole of the island of Shimo was now ruled by converted princes. Even the changeable Yoshimune, not finding his apostasy so advantageous as he had expected, soon sought and presently obtained a reconciliation to the church. The king of Hirado was not friendly, but he was kept in check by the number of converts among his subjects, especially by a very zealous converted wife, a sister of the prince of Ōmura—whom he complained of as having more influence over his kingdom than himself,—and also by his fear of driving off the Portuguese merchants, who still occasionally visited his island.