Notwithstanding the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal upon the head of Philip II, a very fierce jealousy and hatred continued to exist between the two nations; and this feeling was particularly violent at Manila, which city, founded in 1572, was almost contemporaneous in its origin with Nagasaki, and whose merchants looked very enviously at the monopoly of the trade to Japan secured to the Portuguese, and to the city of Macao, by the terms of the union between the two crowns.[54] This express exclusion of all Spanish merchants from Japan had been indeed already broken through, in at least two instances, by the arrival of one Jean de Solis from Peru, by way of Macao, and of another Spanish merchant from the Philippines, both of whom, after various adventures, and receiving aid and services from the Jesuit missionaries, had reached Nagasaki. Solis soon after proceeded to Satsuma on the southern coast of Shimo, where he commenced building a vessel in which to trade to China and thence to Peru,—a project in which he was presently joined by the other Spaniard. But to carry out this scheme it became necessary for Solis to get back a sum of money which he had been compelled to deposit in the hands of the Portuguese, at Nagasaki, as security for certain debts which he had contracted at Macao; and because Father Valignani would not help them in this matter, the two Spaniards threatened to give information to the emperor of the large number of Jesuits still in Japan, in violation of his edict, and to denounce the princes who gave them shelter. The emperor, meanwhile, had been a good deal soured and his suspicions excited by some suggestions, thrown out by the enemies of the Jesuits, that Valignani was no real ambassador, that being a mere pretence to secure his entry into Japan. Means, indeed, had been found to quiet him upon this head, to which the representations of Rodriguez greatly contributed; but the answer which he caused to be prepared to the viceroy’s letter, took so high a tone, and was so filled with invectives against the missionaries, that Valignani was unwilling to be the bearer of it. Finally, by the persuasions of the governor of Miyako, an idolater, but favorable to the new religion, the emperor was induced to modify his letter; and he even adopted a crafty suggestion of Rodriguez that the Jesuits whom Valignani had brought with him should remain at Nagasaki as hostages, till the authenticity of his mission was placed beyond question. The letter, as finally modified, a frank exposition of Taikō’s policy, was in the following terms: TAIKŌ-SAMA TO THE VICEROY OF GOA.