A patache which left Macan some days after our galleon "San Juan Baptista," arrived from that city on May 4, and they expected to find the galleon here; however, experienced persons say that it is not late. There are six brothers in the galleon--students who are to be ordained--and Father Bartolome is coming with them as superior. That patache brings two Franciscan friars, Castilians, who have been driven from China. They say that the Chinese have driven them away through love of us, saying that Ours preach Christ risen, and those fathers Christ crucified--a reason that I do not understand. The statement of the pilot of the patache is that they have been driven out because they proceeded in the preaching with but little caution, and I regard that as true. Some nine months ago, I heard a prudent and experienced man say that a great persecution was feared in China, because of the little caution of the preachers. One week after the arrival of the patache, I received a letter from Father Antonio Cardin, [10] commissary of the Holy Office for Macan and China, who gives me the following news: "Section of a letter from Father Antonio Cardin, dated Macan, April 15, 1638 "I shall relate here the news of the missions that your Reverence desires to know. Japon is a thing of the past if God do not, in His mercy, aid it. China was increasing greatly in Christianity during these years, but with the entrance of the friars, it is being thrown into confusion; for all the religious have been exiled in Chincheo, and the churches destroyed, where they and we were [laboring] in a flourishing Christian church. For as the friars treat of conquests, saying openly that China can be conquered with four thousand Spaniards, such talk can have no good effect on the natives, who immediately tell it to their mandarins, and we are all lost.