[70] This letter is given by Purchas, vol. i, p. 406. It has neither date nor signature, nor does it appear who is responsible for the correctness of the translation.
[71] It must have been in the next year (1609).—K. M.
[72] Most likely this “box” was formed by movable screens. See Chapter XXXVIII.
[73] Iyeyasu was sixty-six years old in 1609.—K. M.
[74] It is customary among the Japanese, on receiving a present from a superior, to touch the top of the head with it. This custom is alluded to in the king of Bungo’s letter to the Pope, pages 107 and 108.
[75] Descriptions of it will be found in Chapter XXXV, and also a census taken in 1690.
[76] This image was first set up in the year 1576 by the Emperor Taikō. The temple in which it was placed was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1596. The rebuilding was commenced in 1602. The colossus, however, was seriously injured by another earthquake in 1662, after which it was melted down, and a substitute prepared of wood covered with gilt paper. For a description of it, see Chapter XXXVII.
[77] The total number of baptisms in Japan, in 1606, according to the annual letter of that year, was almost three thousand. According to the letter of 1603, the number of confessions heard that year was eighty thousand. It appears from these letters that many female converts were made, among the higher classes, by the reputed efficacy of relics and the prayers of the church in cases of difficult labor.
[78] Don Rodrigo published in Spanish a narrative of his residence in Japan. Of this very rare and curious work an abstract, with extracts, is given in the “Asiatic Journal,” vol. ii, new series, 1830. The Spaniard is rather excessive in his estimates of population, but appears to have been sensible and judicious. His accounts are well borne out, as we shall see, by those of Saris, Kämpfer, and others. His whole title was Don Rodrigo de Vivero y Velasco.
[79] There is a narrative of this journey, rather a perplexed one, apparently written by Spex himself, added to the Relation of Verhœven’s voyage in Recueil des Voyages qui out servi a l’establisement de la Compagnie des Indes Oriental dans les Provinces Unies. A full abstract of it is in the great collection, “Hist. Gen. des Voyages,” vol. viii.