LETTER FROM ANTONIO DE MORGA TO FELIPE II
Sire:
At the end of April of the current year I sent your Majesty an account of the state of affairs in these islands, a duplicate whereof is enclosed. I have only to add that some days after I returned to this city, the ship "San Felipe" which left this city in July, 96, was carried by several storms to the coast of Japan, entered the port of Hurando, and was lost there; and the emperor of that country, Taycosama, covetous of the treasure with which it was laden, took it all. The men of the ship and the passengers have come in other vessels. At the same time the said tyrant caused to be crucified in Nangasaqui six barefoot friars of the Order of St. Francis, of the number of those who were there from these islands.[1] He has also crucified eighteen native Japanese Christians of their following. Fuller accounts of the matter will be sent your Majesty by the reports thereon to
- ↑ See Morga's account of the martyrdom of the Franciscans, in his Sucesos (Hakluyt Soc. trans.), pp. 78-84; and that by Santa Inés, in his Crónica, ii, pp. 273-581, 621-644. The latter writer furnishes also biographical sketches of the martyrs (among whom was Pedro Baptista). They were canonized in 1862.
Taikô-sama was a name adopted by Hideyoshi in 1591, when he made a partial abdication of his power in favor of an adopted son. He died in September, 1598.
