their own to enter into Japon, giving as a reason that
others would not know the method which must be followed in preaching
to those heathen, whose perversity has need of cunning to overcome
it. This the fathers say they know, as they have been occupied in this
conversion for fifty years; and they say that there would be great
occasion for weakening the belief of the natives in the doctrine which
is preached to them, if they saw a diversity in the vestments, rules,
and ceremonies. Accordingly, with these arguments they obtained by
entreaty the above-mentioned briefs; and, having been opposed by the
Dominicans and Franciscans before his Holiness, they finally obtained
a brief that in case religious of other orders were to go, it must
be by way of Yndia. This is the same as prohibiting it altogether;
for in the domains of Portugal the missionaries are not supplied with
maintenance, including everything that they need on the journey,
as they are in Castilian lands. The road, too, is much longer, and
strewn with difficulties; and in it care is taken to embarrass them,
and not let them pass--as has been seen several times when religious
have gone by way of Yndia, several Dominicans and Augustinians having
been stopped at Goa, even after part of their sea-stores had been
placed on the ship. In the year 1602 the Franciscan friars of Yndia
said in response to Fray Pablo de los Martires, who came to seek
friars, that they could not send them to Japon. This is answered
by saying that the Catholic faith is already old and widely spread
in Japon, and it would be a dangerous thing to exclude from its
preaching the method which Christ our Lord has left in His gospel,
which the mendicant orders observe, and through which have been
converted the nations of the greatest power, genius, and learning
in the world--among them the Romans, who held dominion over it. And
it appears that not without much harm to conscience can obstacles be
put in the way of ministers who preach in 66 countries, disposed to
receive them, where it is impossible that the fathers of the Society
should be sufficient, even to maintain the faithful who are there;
for it is understood that [in Japan] they number more than 600,000,
and they have not had in past years even 150 fathers, for which reason
it was necessary for them to say daily three masses each, and then fail
in the service of the sacraments on account of the great number of the
faithful and the distance bet