The decrees which I received last year from your Majesty were obeyed and carried out. The same will be done with those which come this year. I humbly kiss your Majesty's hand for the honor and reward which you have conferred upon me in having an answer written to me with so great promptness to the despatches of the years 28 and 29. In what you charge me, namely, that I preserve friendship with Japon, I have had very great care; for after the events of the year 27, I have managed to give that king to understand the irregularity of the case, [88] and your Majesty's desire for friendship with his kingdoms. My efforts have already succeeded so well that this matter is already settled with the inhabitants of Macan, and the embargo has been removed from their ships. Having invited the same Japanese to come to trade with this city of Manila, two ships came last year, as I wrote in the last despatches. The answers which we gave to their propositions and letters seemed somewhat satisfactory to them; for this year they have again sent two ships, with letters from the governor of Nagansaqui. In these he tells me that the trade is open as before, and that ships may go there from here, and that others will come here from there. That nation is very cautious, and there is little confidence to be put in them. If a person should come here whom they wished to go there to trade, I would not dare for the present to permit it, until matters are on a more firm basis; for it is certain that their hearts are not quiet, nor will they easily become so. They take vengeance at a fitting time. May they bring us bread and ammunition, as they are doing. I gave them good treatment here, so that it is now procured that the gains which they make on their merchandise and the lapse of time will accommodate all things. Their king died, leaving his son as heir. There are fears of war, that Christianity may not be so persecuted. I do not think that it would be a bad thing to have a bit of a revolution because of their contempt and selfishness. In these ships were sent one hundred and thirty poor lepers exiled to these islands, whom the heathen had tried to make renegades to the faith of Christ (as many others have become); but their entreaties had no effect on these people. I called a council of state to determine whether those lepers should be received, and in what manner they should be received. It was not because I hesitated to receive them; for, even though they might fasten the disease on me, I would not dare to leave an apparent Christian in the sight of so many opposed to the faith, and in the face of the persecution which has been raging in that kingdom. It was determined that they should be received immediately, and taken straight to the church; and that they should be welcomed, entertained, and supported with the alms which this community desired to apportion. A beginning has been made in collecting alms, and a room