The first step towards the execution of his plan had been his request to Viscaino to transfer to him the emperor’s license to build a vessel, and it would seem as though the whole affair had been kept a profound secret from his father and from General Viscaino. As soon as the latter had departed, presumably for New Spain, the rigging and fitting up of the vessel, which seems to have been purposely delayed, were rapidly completed. Five weeks after Viscaino’s departure, Friar Sotelo sailed from Uraga for New Spain with credentials appointing, him the shogun’s ambassador, and with a numerous suite of Japanese. They had barely reached the open sea, however, when they were overtaken by a storm which drove their ship upon the rocky coast and completely wrecked it. The fact that when building it the dimensions planned by Viscaino had been altered and the probability that the Japanese were as yet unskilled in the navigation of similar vessels may in part account for the loss of the vessel. The shogun, who, for unknown reasons, cast the entire responsibility and blame for the disaster upon Friar Sotelo, had him cast into prison and sentenced to death. He released and pardoned him, however, at the instance of Masumane, who took Friar Sotelo to his court and made him his chief counsellor. While all this was occurring at Uraga, General Viscaino was cruising about in search of the two islands, for it had never been his intention to sail for New Spain until he had accomplished what he and his father, the viceroy, had decided to be the principal aim of his voyage, namely, the discovery of the islands described by the Portuguese mariners. To his chagrin, he had had to give up setting out with the second ship, as he had planned from the beginning, for it had been built of a greater capacity, and although he had seen it actually afloat at Uraga, it could not be finished before he left.