the trade of the Philipinas with Macan;
and it seemed to him that the plan which had been followed should be
maintained, as it ought to be changed only after having examined and
considered well the pros and cons, and there should be very urgent
reasons for making such change.

Your Majesty will order this to be examined and such measures to be
taken as shall be most satisfactory. Madrid, December 18, 1607.

[_Endorsed, in the king's hand_: "All has been carefully considered,
but the remedy is not easy."]

Passage of Missionaries Via the Philippines to Japan

_Report from the Council of the Indias_

Sire:

The Duke de Lerma has written to me, the Conde de Lemos, that your
Majesty orders to be immediately examined in this Council the enclosed
report from the Council of Portugal concerning the question whether
religious from the Philipinas should pass to Japon; and that, with
the consideration which the matter demanded, you be advised of his
opinion. Complying with what your Majesty orders, it has appeared to
us that, in order that the fundamental facts might be understood, it
is proper to answer the reasons advanced by the Council of Portugal
as a basis for their report, which is in conformity with the decrees
issued by their Holinesses Gregory XIII and Clement VIII, and by
his Majesty who is in heaven, and by your Majesty: these are to the
effect that no religious shall pass to the provinces of Japon from
these kingdoms, or from the Western Indias or from the Philipinas,
except as they go by way of Yndia, and commanding that if any had
passed they should return immediately, and that the governor of the
Philipinas should be immediately notified to put this into execution.

The Council of Portugal states--conformably to what the bishop of
Japon writes, who is one of the Society [of Jesus]--that Dayfusama,
universal lord of those realms, continues in the same suspicion that
his predecessor Taycosama had of the Spaniards from the Philipinas
Islands, and those who go from Nueva Espana, that they ate people
looking for conquests. He thinks that their principal aim is directed
to making themselves lords of the country, as they have done in the
Philipinas themselves and in Nueva Espana; and that what they call
preaching the gospel is an artifice, and a means of conquering,
as Taicosama wrote to the city of Manila. On this account, also,
he had caused the Franciscan religious to be crucified as spies,
whose intenti