While I was at the court, and in the emperor's palace at Meaco, there were several Spaniards and Portuguese there to pay their obeisance to the emperor, as is their custom every year on the arrival of their ships. There was also a Hollander at the court, who had lived almost twenty years in Japan, and speaks the Japanese language very fluently. In my hearing, and that of others, this fellow began highly to extol their king of Holland, pretending that he was the greatest king in Christendom, and held all the others under his command. He little thought that we understood what he said; but I was not slack in telling him, that he need not be so loud, for they had no king in Holland, being only governed by a count, or rather that they governed him. Nay, if they had any king at all in whom they could boast, it certainly was the king of England, who had hitherto been their protector, and without whose aid they had never been able to brag of their States. This retort made the Spaniards and Portuguese laugh heartily at the poor Hollander, and made him shut his mouth.
And now for the news of this country. The emperor is great enemy to the name of Christians, especially to the Japanese who have embraced the faith; so that all such as are found are put to death. While at Meaco, I saw fifty-five martyred at one time, because they would not forsake the faith, and among them were some children of five or six years old, who were burnt in the arms of their mothers, calling on Jesus to receive their souls. Also, in the town of Nangasaki, sixteen others were martyred for the same cause, of whom five were burnt, and the rest beheaded and cut in pieces, and their remains put into sacks and cast into the sea in thirty fathoms deep: Yet the priests got them up again, and kept their remains secretly as relics. There are many others in prison, both here and in other places, who look hourly to be ordered for execution, as very few of them revert to paganism. Last year, about Christmas, the emperor deposed one of the greatest princes in all Japan, called Frushma-tay, lord of sixty or seventy mangocas, and banished him to a corner in the north of Japan, where he has a very small portion in comparison with what was taken from him, and he had the choice of this or of cutting open his own belly. It was thought that this would have occasioned great troubles in Japan, for all the subjects of Frushma-tay were up in arms, and meant to hold out to the utmost extremity, having fortified the city of Frushma, and laid in provisions for a long time. But the tay and his son, being then at the emperor's court, were commanded to write to their vassals, ordering them to lay down their arms and submit to the emperor, or otherwise to cut open their own bellies. Life being sweet, they all submitted, and those were pardoned who had taken up arms for their tay. The emperor has given their dominions, which were two kingdoms, to two of his own kinsmen; and this year the emperor has ordered the castle belonging to Frushma to be pulled down, being a very beautiful and gallant fortress, in which I saw him this year, and far larger than the city of Rochester. All the stones are ordered to be conveyed to Osaka, where the ruined castle, formerly built by Fico-Same, and pulled down by Ogosha-Same, is ordered to be rebuilt three times larger than before; for which purpose all the tonos or kings have each their several tasks appointed them; to be executed at their several charges, not without much grumbling: For they had got leave, after so many years attendance at court, to return to their own residences, and were now sent for again all of a sadden to court, which angreth them not a little: "But go they must, will they nill they, on pain of belly-cutting."
At this time there runs a secret rumour, that Fidaia Same is alive, and in the house of the Dairo[67] at Meaco; but I think it has been reported several times before this that he was living in other places, but proved untrue. There are some rich merchants here that belong to Meaco, who are much alarmed by this report, lest, if true, the emperor may burn Meaco; and who are therefore in haste to get home. Were Fidaia actually alive it might tend to overthrow the emperor's power, for, though a great politician, he is not a martial man: But be this as it may, things can hardly be worse for us. I advised you in my last of the destruction of all the Christian churches in Japan; yet there were some remnants left at Nangasaki till this year, and in particular the monastery of Misericiordia was untouched, as were all the church-yards and burying-places; but now, by order of the emperor, all is destroyed, all the graves and sepulchres of the Christians opened, and the bones of the dead taken out by their parents and kindred, to be buried elsewhere in the fields. Streets have been built on the scites of these churches, monasteries, and burying-grounds, except in some places, where pagodas have been erected by command of the emperor, who has sent heathen priests to occupy them, thinking utterly to root out Christianity from Japan. There were certain places near Nangasaki where several jesuit fathers and other Christians were martyred, in the reign of Ogosha Same, and where their parents and friends had planted evergreen-trees, and erected altars near each tree, where many hundreds went daily to say their prayers; but now, by command of the emperor, all these trees are cut down, the altars destroyed, and the ground all levelled, it being his firm resolution utterly to root out the remembrance of all matters connected with Christianity.
[Footnote 67: The Dairo was formerly the sovereign of Japan, uniting the supreme civil and spiritual power, committing the military affairs to a kind of generalissimo, who usurped supreme authority, and reduced the Dairo to be a kind of sovereign pontiff or chief-priest.--E.]
In the months of November and December, 1618, there were two comets seen all over Japan. The first, rising in the east, was like a great fiery beam, rent to the southwards, and vanished away in about the space of a month. The other rose also in the east, like a great blazing star, and went northwards, vanishing quite away within a month near the constellation of Ursa-Major or Charles-waine. The wizards of Japan have prognosticated great events to arise from these comets, but hitherto nothing material has occurred, excepting the deposition of Frushma-tay, already related.
I am almost ashamed to write you the news which the Spaniards and Portuguese report, though some of them have shewn me letters affirming it to be true, of a bloody cross having been seen in the air in England; and that an English preacher, speaking irreverently of it from the pulpit, was struck dumb: On which miracle, as they term it the king of England sent to the pope, to have some cardinals and learned men brought to England, as intending that all the people of England should become Roman catholics. I pray you pardon me for writing of such nonsense, which I do that you may laugh; yet I assure you there are many Spaniards and Portuguese here who firmly believe it. I know not what more to write you at this time: But I hope to come to England in the next shipping that comes here; and I trust in God that I may find your worship in good health.
RICHARD COCKS.
SECTION XVI.
Ninth Voyage of the East India Company, in 1612, by Captain Edmund Marlow.[68]
We sailed from the Downs on the 10th February, 1612, in the good ship James, and crossed the equator on the 11th April.[69] The 27th of that month, at noon, we were in latitude, by observation, 19° 40' S. and in longitude, from the Lizard, 11° 24' W. We this day saw an island fourteen leagues from us in the S.E. which I formerly saw when I sailed with Sir Edward Michelburne. It is round like Corvo, and rises rugged, having a small peaked hill at its east end. Its lat. is 23° 30' S. and long. 10° 30' W. from the Lizard; and there is another island or two in sight, seven or eight leagues E.N.E. from this.[70]