centre] at Sakai, we learn that before that date two Portuguese had seen Kyoto, which they reported to be a city of 96,000 houses, larger than Lisbon; and in an earlier epistle of his we are told that a certain Portuguese had lived 'a long time' in Satsuma previous to 1548. We hear of Captain da Gama's vessel at Hiji in Bungo in 1551; before 1549 there had been at least three separate voyages to Kagoshima, or at all events to Satsuma. These ventures have come to our knowledge mainly because they were all intimately connected with the introduction of Christianity into Japan, and so have all been referred to in the early missionary letters, and put on record by the historians of the Church. . . . As every one is supposed to know, it was Francis Xavier and his companions who were the pioneers of the many hundred Christian missionaries who laboured in Japan."-J. Murdoch and I. Yamagata, History of Japan, pp. 33, 38."The Apostle of the Indies, was both the leader and director of a widely spread missionary movement,

ST. FRANCIS XAVIER

1549. On the 24th of June he sailed for Japan, along with Angero and his two companions, in a Chinese junk belonging to a famous pirate, an ally of the Portuguese, who left in their hands hostages for the safety of the apostle on the voyage. After a dangerous voyage they reached Kagosima, the native town of Angero, under whose auspices Xavier was well received by the governor, magistrates, and other distinguished people. The apostle was unable to commence his mission at once, though, according to his biographers, he possessed the gift of tongues. 'We are here,' he writes, like so many statues. They speak to us, and make signs to us, and we remain mute. We have again become children, and all our present occupation is to learn the elements of the Japanese grammar.' His first impressions of Japan were very favourable. . . . Xavier left Japan on the 20th November, 1551, after a stay of two years and four months. In his controversies with the Japanese, Xavier had been continually met with the objection-how could the Scripture history be true when it had escaped the notice of the learned men of China? It was Chinese sages who had taught philosophy and history to the Japanese, and Chinese missionaries who had converted them to Buddhism. To China, then, would he go to strike a blow at the root of that mighty superstition. Accordingly he sailed from Goa about the m.ddle of April, 1552. . . . Being a prey to continual anxiety to reach the new scene of his labours, Xavier fell ill, apparently of remittent fever, and died on the 2nd of December, 1552. . . . The result of Xavier's labours was the formation of a mission which, from Goa as a centre, radiated over much of the coast of Asia from Ormuz to Japan. ... The two missionaries, whom Xavier had left at Japan, were soon after joined by three others; and in 1556 they were visited by the Provincial of the Order in the Indies, Melchior Nunez, who paid much attention to the Japanese mission and selected for it the best missionaries, as Xavier had recommended. . . . The Jesuits attached themselves to the fortunes of . . . Bungo, a restless and ambitious prince, who . . . became master of a large part of the island of Kiusiu. In his dominions Christianity made such progress that the number of converts began to be counted by thousands. . . . The missionaries perseveringly sought to spread their religion by preaching, public discussion, the circulation of controversial writings, the instruction of the youth, the casting out of devils, the performance of those mystery plays so common in that age, by the institution of 'confréries' like those of Avignon, and, above all, by the well-timed administration of alms. Nor need we be surprised to learn that their first converts were principally the blind, the infirm, and old men one foot in the grave. There are, however, many proofs in their letters that they were able both to attract proselytes of a better class and to inspire them with an enthusiasm which promised well for the growth of the mission. In those early days the example of Xavier was still fresh; and his immediate successors seem to have inherited his energetic and self-denying disposition, though none of them could equal the great mental and moral qualities of the Apostle of the Indies. They kept at the same time a watchful eye upon the political events that were going on around them, and soon began to bear a part in them. The hostility between them and the Bonzes [Buddhist priests] became more and more bitter."-Hundred years of Christianity in Japan (Quarterly Review, Apr., 1871). Against the enmity of the Bonzes the Jesuit priests found an ally in the great Shogun

conducted by a rapidly increasing staff, not only of Jesuits, but also of priests and missionaries of other orders, as well as of native preachers and catechists. Xavier reserved for himself the arduous task of travelling to regions as yet unvisited by any preachers of Christianity; and his bold and impatient imagination was carried away by the idea of bearing the Cross to the countries of the farthest East. The islands of Japan, already known to Europe through the travels of Marco Polo, had been reached by the Portuguese only eight years before, namely, in 1541, and Xavier, while at Malacca, had conversed with navigators and traders who had visited that remote coast. A Japanese, named Angero (Hansiro), pursued for homicide, had fled to Malacca in a Portuguese ship. He professed a real or feigned desire to be baptized, and was presented to Xavier at Malacca, who sent him to Goa. There he learned Portuguese quickly, and was baptized under the name of Paul of the Holy Faith. . . . Having carefully arranged the affairs of the Seminary of the Holy Faith at Goa and the entire machinery of the mission, Francis Xavier took ship for Malacca on the 14th April,

Nobunaga, who was engaged in a quarrel with the Buddhist priesthood. "It is extremely interesting to arrive at an analysis of the motives which may have prompted the fierce and haughty and inaccessible Nobunaga to take the poor and ill-clad missionaries under his protection. Apart from their religion, they could tell him much of the great world to the west and of its science, for they were men of a fine culture who had travelled far and with alertly observant eyes. Furthermore, they are men of an exquisite tact-a quality that was then, as it is now, appreciated nowhere more highly than in Japan. Nobunaga was quick to discern that he could afford to unbend in their presence without the slightest risk of compromising his dignity, or of meeting with any ill-bred presumption on their part. There was no need for him to be under any constraint when conversing with them, as there was when dealing with his subordinates, his own people, and the subject lords whom he ruled by inspiring them with an abject terror of his name. This he doubtless felt as a relief, and when he had really although not confessedly, once convinced himself of their sincerity, which, as we can see from the letters of the Fathers, he was not slow to test on various occasions and in various ways, it is not difficult to understand why they were admitted to his presence when great lords were denied an audience. In adition to all this, however, was the fact that he and they were knit together by the sympathetic bond of a common hate. The Buddhist priests were Anathema Maranatha to him quite as much as they were to the foreigners, and his ostentatious favours to the priests from over-sea constituted a studied slight to the bonzes, who, in spite of their mutual hostility, were yet eager to enter into his good graces."-J. Murdoch and I. Yamagata, History of Japan, pp. 185-186.Thus reënforced, the Jesuit Mission flourished down to the assassination of Nobunaga on June 21, 1582. "In several of the provinces of Kyushu the princes had become converts and had freely used their influence, and sometimes their authority, to extend Christianity among their subjects. In Kyoto and Yamaguchi, in Osaka and Sakai, as well as in Kyushu, the Jesuit fathers had founded flourishing churches and exerted a wide influence. They had established colleges where the candidates for the church could be educated and trained. They had organized hospitals and asylums at Nagasaki and elsewhere, where those needing aid could be received and treated."-E. J. Reed, Japan, p. 301.With the assassination of Nobunaga, the Jesuits lost their patron, and fell on evil days. Nobunaga's able work of organizing the Japanese empire, was carried on by his still more brilliant retainer Hideyoshi. When he brought under his control the island of Kyushu, which had become the stronghold of Christianity, the situation of the missionaries seems still to have been "of the fairest. But there was another side to the picture, and Charlevoix's summary of the situation limns that with great accuracy:-'Everything then smiled upon the missionaries: never had they been more in credit. The Imperial armies were commanded by Christians, and the revolution just accomplished in Kyushu had given as masters to the provinces of which the Regent had disposed in virtue of his right of conquest, Lords who were either zealous partisans or declared protectors of Christianity. But, on the other hand, the Christian "kings" were no longer sovereign, and it is certain that the coup that degraded them shook the foundations of the Church of Japan, for . . . before the reduction of Kyushu, if the "Emperors" (Shoguns) had thought fit to issue edicts against Christianity, this

JAPAN, 1542-1593

great island would always have been an assured retreat for the missionaries, and a land of freedom for the Christians.'"-J. Murdoch and I. Yamagata, History of Japan, pp. 237-238.-At the same time other hostile forces began to work against the Jesuits. The Buddhist priests were still active and virulent, and the arrogance of some of the Jesuits in dealing with the native religions, the scandalous mode of life of the Portuguese traders, and the detestable habit, on the part of Portuguese ships, of carrying off Japanese to be sold as slaves, gave some justification to the enemies of the new faith. To meet the objections against the foreigners Hideyoshi presented the following questions to Coehlo, the leader of the Jesuits: "1.-Why, and by what authority, he (the Vice-Provincial) and his religieux constrained his (Hideyoshi's) subjects to become Christians? 2.-Why they induced their disciples and their sectaries to overthrow temples? 3 Why they persecuted the bonzes? 4-Why they and the other Portuguese ate animals useful to man, such as oxen and cows? 5-Why he allowed the merchants of his nation to buy Japanese to make slaves of them in the Indies?' . . . [The answers were given in writing, and when] Hideyoshi ran his eye over them he made no reply beyond sending word to the Vice-Provincial to retire to Hirado, to collect all his religieux there, and to quit the country within six months. On . . . July 25th, 1587, the following Edict . . . was published and posted up in Hakata:-'Having learned from our faithful councillors that foreign religieux have come into our estates, where they preach a law contrary to that of Japan, and that they had even had the audacity to destroy temples dedicated to our Kami and Hotoke [ancestral spirits and native gods]: although this outrage merits the most extreme punishment, wishing nevertheless to show them mercy, we order them under pain of death to quit Japan within twenty days. During that space no harm or hurt will be done them. But at the expiration of that term, we order that if any of them be found in our States, they shall be seized and punished as the greatest criminals. As for the Portuguese merchants, we permit them to enter our ports there to continue their accustomed trade, and to remain in our estates provided our affairs need this. But we forbid them to bring any foreign religieux into the country, under the penalty of the confiscation of their ships and goods.' At the same time orders came from Hideyoshi that they were all to embark on the large Portuguese ship then on the point of sailing from Hirado, and to be gone at once. In a general council, however, it was resolved not to obey these instructions, and only a few priests needed for service in China departed. What made it possible for the religieux to act in this fashion was the practical sympathy of the Christian princes of Kyushu,-especially that of Konishi, of Arima, and of Omura. Into the territories of the two latter Hideyoshi had sent troops with orders to dismantle the principal fortresses, to raze the churches, to obliterate all signs of Christianity, and to seize the port of Nagasaki. Arima and Omura appealed in person to Hideyoshi at Hakata, and met with a very bad reception; but on returning to their domains they found that the Regent's commissioners were by no means adamant when approached in a judicious manner. Under the genial influence of substantial bribes they developed a wonderful amount of 'sweet reasonableness'; only one fortress and a few churches in Omura were demolished, while those in Arima and in Nagasaki were not touched."-J. Murdoch and I. Yamagata, History of Japan, pp. 243, 247. -See also MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN: Japan.

Internal administration. - Nobunaga's rise to power.-Hideyoshi.-Invasion of Korea. - Iyeyasu as shogun. - Power of Daimyos broken.-Access to emperor forbidden. -Beginning of Tokugawa era.-"Although Nobunaga never assumed the position of Shogun, he was afterwards ruler under a less imposing title until his death in 1582, which occurred as a result

TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI

of treachery on the part of one of his generals. A feature of his administration was his persecution of the Buddhists and the tolerant treatment he extended to St. Francis Xavier and the monks who, following upon the discovery of the country, arrived at Kagoshima in the year 1549. Sir Francis Adams points out that while with all his talents he was never able completely to subdue the great chieftains, he broke the power of the Buddhist priesthood and favoured the Christian religion as a counterpoise to the extravagant pretensions of the native monasteries. As soon as Nobunaga had passed from the scene, his principal general, Hideyoshi the son of a humble peasant, who, having enlisted in his service had won distinction on the field of battle, immediately became allpowerful. After avenging his master's death, he took upon himself the task of pacifying the country, and fought several campaigns with the leading families, in all of which he was completely victorious. . . . After restoring peace at home, Hideyoshi turned his attention to foreign affairs. His ambition, encouraged by many military successes at home, was now unbounded. He wished not only to conquer the neighbouring kingdom of Korea, but also to make war upon the Ming dynasty of China. Between the years 1582 and 1592 he formulated various demands upon Korea, the principal of which involved the resumption of tributary payments to Japan. Upon Korea refusing to become a vassal state, he landed a huge army upon its shores, marched northwards, captured Seoul, and practically became master of the whole country. He was on the point of invading China when the Chinese allied themselves with the Koreans, and after a long campaign, with success resting first on one side and then on the other, which was notable for the second defeat of the invading fleet, the Japanese were driven south to their base where, after being besieged, they were relieved eventually and withdrawn from the peninsula. Hideyoshi is perhaps the most strik

JAPAN, 1549-1605

ing figure in Japanese history. Although of peasant origin, he managed, by sheer force of ability and strength of will, to rise to a position of supreme power in a land where the feudal system was at its height. He was altogether an exception. He stood alone. His like had never been seen before in Japan, and one cannot record the existence of any personality since who can compare with him. He was certainly the ablest general of earlier times, and the memories of his brilliant victories in the field have done much to inspire the patriotism of modern Japan. After the long centuries of almost incessant strife he brought peace to the land, and his invasion of Korea gave Japan for the first time a genuine international status in Asia. Not only as a soldier but also as a statesman he won the highest distinction. After he had exacted respect from the nobility, his policy towards them was conciliatory even to the suggestion of weakness. He realised that his plebeian birth was a bar against his occupation of the office of Shogun. In this respect, however, he was wise enough not to overreach himself; he was content to wield the solid power and to leave the glorious title to the Minamoto family, whose privilege for many generations it had been to provide the Shoguns for Japan. To remove some of the disabilities under which he laboured, he secured adoption into a branch of the Fujiwara family. This advanced his rank sufficiently to enable him to become Kuam-baku, or regent. During his administration he instituted many new and wise laws, abolished corruption, and upheld justice. His persecution of the Christians was the outstanding blot upon his career. He further sought to lessen the social breach which existed between him and the higher nobility by marrying his child-son to a granddaughter of Iyeyasu Tokugawa, a member of the Minamoto family. . . . In 1591 he resigned the regency, but not the power, and assumed the title of Taiko, which meant 'great councillor,' and was usually assigned to ex-regents. As, however, the

which entitled her to be ranked with the Empress Jingo and the lady Masa among the great women of the land. Iyeyasu, who, largely out of fear, had remained quiet during the time of Hideyoshi, soon challenged Hideyori for the supremacy of power. In the fighting that followed, the cause of Hideyori was completely defeated, and both the capital of Kyoto and the fortress of Osaka were reduced. ... In 1603 Iyeyasu became Shogun, and founded a dynasty which lasted for 265 years and provided a line of fifteen Shoguns. Two years later he abdicated in favour of his third son, Hidetada. From that time, Yedo was constituted the capital of the Shoguns. While surrendering the position Iyeyasu retained and exercised the power, and his rule was rendered famous in Japanese history owing to his insistence that the various chieftains should acknowledge the authority of the Shogun at Yedo (Tokyo). Chamberlain describes Iyeyasu as an able general, unsurpassed as a diplomat and administrator, and in recording his achievements, writes: 'He first quelled all the turbulent barons, then bestowed a considerable portion of their lands on his own kinsmen and dependents, and either broke or balanced, by a judicious distribution of other fiefs over different provinces of the empire, the might of those greater feudal lords such as Satsuma and Choshu, whom it was impossible to put altogether out of the way. The court of Kyoto was treated by him respectfully, and investiture as Shogun for himself and his heirs duly obtained from the Mikado. In order further to break the might of the Daimyos, Iyeyasu compelled them to pass every alternate year at Yedo, which he had chosen for his capital in 1590, and to establish their wives and families there as hostages.' . . . Next to the Daimyos came the hatamotos or men under the flag, who were estimated to number altogether about eighty thousand. Each of these headed from three to thirty retainers, and in return for grants of land provided contingents of soldiers. They belonged exclusively to old families, and were given a share in the executive government. Upon them, subsequently, devolved the important duty of representing Japan in her relations with foreign powers. Next in precedence to the hatamotos were the gokenin, and together it is estimated that these two military classes numbered nearly half a million. They constituted the personal following of the Shoguns, and with their families and dependents were maintained out of the properties of their lords. The Samurai were a class immediately below the gokenin.... Much was written concerning the spirit of the old Samurai. We were told that they were men of scrupulous honour, ever ready to defend the weak and to fight with the strong, and who scorned a mean action. History has exaggerated their achievements and hidden their blemishes. It is certain that they were more picturesque than principled, and their chief rôle during the Tokugawa régime seems to have been that of semiofficial swashbucklers. . . . Iyeyasu, in his rule, was more drastic towards the court and the Daimyos than any of his predecessors had been. He relegated the Emperor and the Kuge to the solitude and inactivity of life within the walls of a palace, and reduced the territorial lords to complete submission. In a series of laws and regulations which he promulgated, he decreed that, 'The ruling Emperor shall no longer leave his own palace, except when he betakes himself to visit in his palace the Emperor who has abdicated.' He also announced that 'all families and lords were subordinate to himself in the capacity of Shogun, and recorded his right to act without the Em

JAPAN, 1593-1625

peror's assent in all State matters. . . . He declared that: . . . As the Kuge carried on the government carelessly and were unable to maintain order in the country, all that could be done was for the Emperor to order the Buke to take over the ancient government. But with inadequate revenues it is impossible to govern the country, to feed the people, and to perform the public services. Thus the Kuge would commit a great wrong should they seek to detract from the Buke.' Iyeyasu, having reduced the revenue of the Emperor and the Kuge to a beggarly sum compared with his own and that of the Daimyos, justified himself by pleading the demands and responsibilities of government. At the same time, he took every precaution to prevent intrigues and plots at court. Hitherto, the feudal lords had been able to gain access to the Emperor, and to solicit his influence for the purpose of promoting civil war. Iyeyasu not only forbade them all approach to the royal palace, but would not allow them to visit the capital without first obtaining his permission."L. Lawton, Empires of the Far East, v. 1, pp. 91-98.

1593-1625.-Attempts of Spanish to gain foothold. Fraudulent entrance of three Franciscans from Manila.-Dissension and jealousy between Spanish Franciscans and Portuguese Jesuits. Crucifixion of Franciscans by Iyeyasu. -Attempts of Iyeyasu to open up trade with Manila frustrated by Spanish Catholic propaganda.-Establishment of Dutch traders.-Fear of Spanish designs of conquest through medium of the church.-Expulsion of Spaniards."Among the converts made by the Jesuits was a certain Harada, who later on had found his way to the Philippines as a trader, and had taken full note of the weakness of the Spaniards in their new possessions. In that weakness he saw his own account, and he made haste to return to Japan, where he struck up an acquaintance with one Hasegawa, a courtier of Hideyoshi. . . . Harada... determined to avail himself of the Franciscan jealousy of the Jesuit monopoly of religious teaching in Japan, and drew up a memoir of the reasons for which he pretended Hideyoshi had sent him. In this document the chief articles were that Hideyoshi desired to be on friendly terms with the Spaniards in the Philippines, that he wished to establish a commerce between them and his subjects, and that he asked for Franciscan Fathers, of whose sanctity and contempt for the things of the world he had heard the best report. This memoir Harada first communicated to the monks, and then, seeing that they took the bait, to the Governor. The Franciscans did much to allay the latter's suspicions about the letter, and the result was that Don Gomez dispatched an embassy with a dispatch to Hideyoshi on May 20th, 1593. The embassy consisted of Caravajal, Father Baptiste, and three other Franciscans, who thus succeeded in evading the letter of the Bull of 1585 [which forbade any priest or monk of the Catholic church to enter Japan] by entering Japan not as missionaries but in the quality of ambassadors! The Governor's dispatch was commital; his Excellency could not comply with Hideyoshi's demand without first communicating with his master the King of Spain, but meanwhile he was anxious to see a trade between Japan and the Philippines instituted. . . . [Once on Japanese soil the Franciscans] built a fine church as well as a house, opened it with as much circumstance as if they had been in the middle of Spain, and from that time continued to sing in the choir, to preach publicly, and to discharge

non

all their functions 'with an incomprehensible confidence.' The Christian commonalty was consequently much edified, and began to institute comparisons at the expense of the Jesuits, and dissensions in the Christian fold were imminent. At the end of 1594 they had been joined by three more friars from Manila, with presents from the Governor for the Taiko, [Hideyoshi] which were accepted, and with a letter which was pronounced to be unsatisfactory. Thus reinforced, the Franciscans established the convent of Bethlehem in Osaka, and at the same time sent two of their number to Nagasaki. The latter seized upon a church of the Jesuits, now used only secretly and clandestinely by its owners, and began to celebrate the holy offices in it with the utmost publicity. The Governor of Nagasaki, however, promptly checked this ill-advised zeal on their part and compelled their return to Kyoto. The Franciscans were not slow to accuse the Jesuits of having been the real prompters of this rebuff, nor to publish the accusation among the Christians of Kyoto, and to endeavour to enlist their sympathy against the Company of Jesus. This caused the appearance of a schism among the faithful of which the consequences were very baneful. On this subject we have a very beautiful letter of Father Gnecchi to Father Acquaviva, his General, in which that venerable old man, whom all Japan so very justly regarded as the greatest worker there had been for long in the empire deplores his misfortune at being obliged to witness every day, without being able to remedy them, things which filled his heart with bitterness,-to see the best-founded hopes of soon seeing Christianity dominant in the Empire vanishing by reason of this fatal disunion.' . . . [Taking advantage of the disagreements between the religious orders, the enemies of Christianity once more began their work.] Masuda, another minister of iniquity, loaded the Christians with fresh suspicions and false reports on account of the passengers of that ship, specially mentioning that among them were some religieux who had come as spies of the Christian princes to promulgate their law. Thus the King already spontaneously roused, now poured forth all his wrath upon the faithful. . . . [The wrath was expressed in the following edict:] 'I have ordered these foreigners to be treated thus, because they have come from the Philippines to Japan, calling themselves ambassadors, although they were not so; because they have remained here for long without my permission; because, in defiance of my prohibition, they have built churches, preached their religion, and caused disorders. My will is that after being thus exposed to public derision, they be crucified at Nagasaki.' This sentence was duly carried out, only Ishida ventured to restrict the mutilation to the lobe of one ear. From Sakai' they had to make a terrible overland journey to Nagasaki in the dead of winter, and here all the twentysix of them (two had been added to their number on the way down) were crucified in the Japanese fashion on February 5th, 1597. . . . The Governor [of Manila] . . . ventured on a mild expostulation about the fate of the Franciscans. Hideyoshi's reply (inserted in the histories of Guzman and Bartoli) was very moderate. It pointed out that the religieux had broken their promise and had been guilty of causing grave disorders in the State, asked the Governor how he would have acted towards Japanese priests preaching an aggressive Shintoism in the Philippines, and, inviting him to imagine himself in Hideyoshi's place if he wished to understand the reasons for the execution of the Franciscans, assured him that if any of the

numerous Japanese subjects then in the Philippines infringed the laws of Spain, His Excellency had the amplest liberty to deal with them without any risk of interference on the part of the Japanese Government. It is to be specially marked that Hideyoshi never attempted to interfere with the religion of the foreign merchants in Japan; we have seen that he more than once admitted that it was only reasonable that priests for their service should be allowed to reside in Nagasaki. And this, it must be remembered, was also the position of the Tokugawa Government in its early days; we shall presently see that it has only because the Portuguese captains would persist in smuggling religieux into the country, in defiance of the prohibition to do so, that they ultimately drove the Shogunate to shut its ports against them. [When after the death of Hideyoshi, Iyeyasu fell heir to the problem of foreign intercourse, he attempted to open negotiations with Manila for an exchange of trade, and sent an envoy to Manila to that end. The Spaniards were determined that with their trade should go their religion.] A vessel with presents for Iyeyasu and some Franciscans on board put in to a harbour of Kii in 1604; and on the captain sending word that he had not proceeded to Yedo [now Tokyo] by reason of the dangerous navigation, Iyeyasu offered to send an English pilot (Will Adams) to bring the ship round safely, as he had just brought round another Spanish ship a little time before. When the captain declined this offer, Iyeyasu gave orders for all the Franciscans he had brought to be seized, put on board the ship and sent back again.... And at the same time he judged it well to endeavour to open up commercial relations with other foreigners besides those of Manila, who seemed bent not so much upon the prosecution of trade as upon the propagation of their religion and posibly the conquest of new territories. Luckily the means of doing so lay ready to hand . . [in a] Kentishman, Will Adams, pilot of the Dutch ship de Liefde, whose eighteen or twenty pieces of artillery may have done good service in the great campaign of 1600. Accordingly the 'Capten,' Quaeckernaeck, who by the way was accompanied by the Cape merchant Santvoorts when he departed, took with him the Shogun's licence for the Dutch nation to trade in Japan. This practically amounted to an invitation to the Dutch East India Company to establish a factory in the Empire, for three years before (1602) the States-General had ordered all the rival companies (especially the Zealand and the Holland associations) to amalgamate. . . . Iyeyasu, having the Dutchmen in Hirado, and having. received the most encouraging assurances of trade not only with Manila but also with New Spain, now thought it well to administer a strong hint to the Portuguese that they were no longer so indispensable to him as they fancied themselves to be. ... [But the Spaniards were as hostile to the secular Dutch interests in Japan as to the Portuguese Jesuits. A Spanish embassy preferred a demand in writing] 'that The Emperor forbid the Hollanders to trade in the countries subject to him; in which case the King of Spain would send men of war to Japan to burn the Dutch ships.' . . . [In answer to this Iyeyasu] emphatically asserted that 'the lands of His majesty being open to all foreigners, none ought to be excluded from them; if the respective princes of foreign States were at war it was expected that they should be left to decide their differences in their own countries, and no exclusion (from Japan) could be made.' In this position, it is to be observed, from first to last