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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 09 of 55: 1593-1597; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century — John Shaqi

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 09 of 55: 1593-1597; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

Antonio Lopez declares that father Fray Juan Cobo showed the king of
Japon the kingdoms of our king on a globe. He gave this to the king,
with the names of the kingdoms written in Chinese characters, with
the distances between them. The occasion for this arose, because
when the king of Xapon read the letter written from this country,
he saw so many kingdoms, whereupon he asked to have them pointed
out to him in detail, with their size and the distances between
them. The father told him that the Portuguese were subjects of the
king of Castilla. The father wrote this to Hunquin, who requested
it from him in the name of the king. Antonio Lopez says that he
does not know whether it was on the occasion of Hunquin asking the
father why he did not acknowledge subjection to him, or on the other
occasion of the father coming to say that the present which he had
taken to the king of Japon was not sent in the name of our king (for
he did not acknowledge any superior), but that it would be from the
Theatin fathers; but after the father had conversed with the king,
on his return they found the churches destroyed.

Moreover, he says that at some time during this month Luis, a servant
of Joan de Solis, will come here. This man served as interpreter
between the father and the king of Japon, and also Hunquin.

Moreover, Antonio declares that when he was accompanying father Fray
Juan Cobo one day, as they journeyed together, he asked the father:
"Father, shall we have war in Luçon this year?" The father answered:
"No, we shall not." The father said that he was going to Castilla
this year to discuss some matters that only he could discuss there,
as he alone had seen them; and that it would be advisable to send
fathers of St. Francis to Japon this year, for the fathers do not
desire money. The Japanese are tractable in disposition, and they
greatly desired the fathers. The father said it would be advisable
for him to continue diverting them for four years, when the fortresses
in Manila would be completed; and then there would be war.


_Letter from the emperor of Japon to the governor of Luçon_

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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