ABSTRACT
Meanwhile the Western daimyos were not the only ones who saw the advantages of encouraging trade with Europe, for in 1613 Date Masamune, the “One-eyed Dragon” of Sendai, contrived to send one of his councillors, Hasekura Rokuemon, on an embassy to the Pope, accompanied by Father Sotelo, a Franciscan monk, who had been condemned to death for coming back to Edo and preaching there after this was prohibited by the Shogun, but whose pardon Date had obtained for purposes of his own. Sotelo had a knowledge of medicine, then as now used as a bait for religion in the East, and had cured one of Date’s ladies of some disease, which pleased him greatly, so that he offered the father a large reward in gold and silver and silk, which the priest refused, declaring that these things were done for the sake of his “Way.” Whereupon Date received him and some other missionaries in audience as a great honour, and they presented him with many pounds of bread and cloves and candles and pepper, and became very friendly with him, and he gave them a temple in Sendai, and even deigned to go and hear Sotelo preach. The friar seems to have spoken Japanese very well. Then Date suggested that he should conduct a mission to Rome on his behalf, and consulted leyasu about the matter, and he agreed. In this way Date saw a chance of opening up trade relations with New Spain, which lay directly opposite his fief, and it is also not impossible that he thought he might thereby get assistance to overthrow leyasu, or anyhow he was suspected of some such design, and was certainly cunning enough for anything. But leyasu, as usual, thought he too saw an opportunity of using Date to encourage this commerce for his own benefit. Father Sotelo thought he would use the pair of them to get the means of proceeding to Europe as Ambassador to the Pope, and so get himself appointed Archbishop of Japan. And there was yet another person who wanted to use this mission to get a free passage home, and that was Sebastian Viszcaino. He was a Spaniard who had been sent out to bear a message of thanks to leyasu for his kindness to Don Roderigo, and at the same time to search for the Isles of Gold and Silver which were supposed to exist in or near Japan. He brought various presents to Ieyasu of portraits of the King and Queen of Spain, clothes, wine, and the famous clock which is still preserved at Kunozan, but he did not bring what Ieyasu had so specially asked for, experts in mining. However, when he asked for permission to survey the Japanese coasts to find this El Dorado he obtained it, and Ieyasu had a letter given to him requesting the coastal daimyos to give him every facility. When they heard of this the English and Dutch said it was only an act of espionage on the part of Spain, and a preparation for sending an army to conquer Japan. Ieyasu replied that he did not fear foreign countries, for he had quite enough troops to deal with any of them if they did come. He would have been very pleased if Viszcaino had at his own expense found islands of these precious metals, for if they had been in Japanese territory he would have claimed them. And if not, he still saw possibilities of trade with New Spain. So Viszcaino surveyed the coast from Akita to Nagasaki, and in so doing he met Date, always on the alert, and was persuaded to act as the commander of the ship as he had such experience in navigation. It goes without saying that he found no treasure islands, all he met was people like Ieyasu and Masamune, of little use to anyone like him. And so he was distinctly disgruntled, and his feelings towards the Japanese were anything but friendly. So he was not sorry to be engaged as captain of the ship by Date perhaps only for want of a better, and he did his best to quarrel with everyone on board. With some reason does Tokutomi describe this ship’s company as directed by a combination of those who wished to use trade for the Kingdom of Heaven and of those who wished to use the Kingdom of Heaven for trade.
