as been because we considered that the king our sovereign
has a legitimate cause to make war on the Japanese on account of
the faith which they so cruelly persecute; and because all who leave
Japon in order to ship goods have to deny the faith before embarking,
at least to outward appearance, and unite with the heathen in order
to persecute the faith. Thus it is believed that these islands have an
especial reason to consider themselves aggrieved by Japon. 1st. Because
the Japanese have prohibited commerce without other reason than the
faith, and that with so great severity that a ship which sailed
secretly from the districts of Arima and Omura for these islands
having put back, and the Japanese ascertaining whither it was bound,
that resulted in the loss of many lives, and in most cruel injuries
to the Christian people there. 2d. Because the Japanese refused to
receive the ambassadors who were sent from here in order to bring
about peace and harmony between these kingdoms. 3d. Because of the
old-time robberies which were made in the time of Taicosama, and
by his order, of the goods of the galleon 'San Phelipe,' which put
in at their coasts because of bad weather--the Japanese martyring
on that occasion the religious of St. Francis who protested against
the injustice; and Taico declaring war against these islands in the
endeavor to make them tributary, and for some years sending a number
of ships to infest, as they did, these coasts; and although peace
was made afterward in the time of Daifu, and commerce was reopened,
still they never gave satisfaction for the wrong committed, nor did we
obtain damages for it. Consequently, as soon as the peace was broken,
on account of Daifu, and because they deprived us of commerce with
them, it appears that they again revived the past insults and that they
are vigorously demanding their right of procuring redress. 4th. Because
from the time when our ships put in at Japon, and the Japanese had news
of the richness of these islands, they have always tried to conquer
them, by endeavoring to get a foothold on the island of Hermosa,
in order to make it a way-station for the conquest of Luzon. That
has caused the governors of Philipinas to make great expenditures
and vast preparations during the past few years; and but recently
it is learned that discussions of this kind are rife in Japon, and
that their reason for not doing it [_i.e._, conquering the islands]
is not the lack of malice but