th. It happened, too, that Navarrete died
of disease a few days after his arrival in Nagasaki. His successor,
Diego de Losa, recovered the pieces of the deceased priests, which
he put into a box and shipped for Manila, but the vessel and box of
relics were lost on the way.

Diego de Losa returned to Manila, the bearer of a polite letter
and very acceptable presents from the Emperor to the Governor of
the Philippines.

The letter fully expatiated on recent events, and set forth a
well-reasoned justification of the Emperor's decrees against the
priests, in terms which proved that he was neither a tyrant nor a
wanton savage, but an astute politician. The letter stated, that under
the pretext of being ambassadors, the priests in question had come
into the country and had taught a diabolical law belonging to foreign
countries, and which aimed at superseding the rites and laws of his
own religion, confused his people, and destroyed his Government and
kingdom; for which reason he had rigorously proscribed it. Against
these prohibitions, the religious men of Luzon preached their law
publicly to humble people, such as servants and slaves. Not being
able to permit this persistence in law-breaking, he had ordered their
death by placing them on crosses; for he was informed that in the
kingdom where Spaniards dominated, this teaching of their religious
doctrine was but an artifice and stratagem by means of which the civil
power was deceitfully gained. He astutely asks the Gov.-General if
he would consent to Japanese preaching their laws in his territory,
perturbing public peace with such novelties amongst the lower classes?

Certainly it would be severely repressed, argued the Emperor, adding
that in the exercise of his absolute power and for the good of his
subjects, he had avoided the occurrence in his dominions of what had
taken place in those regions where the Spaniards deposed the legitimate
kings, and constituted themselves masters by religious fraud.

He explains that the seizure of the cargo of a Spanish ship was only a
reprisal for the harm which he had suffered by the tumult raised when
the edict was evaded. But as the Spanish Governor had thought fit to
send another ambassador from so far, risking the perils of the sea,
he was anxious for peace and mutual good-feeling, but only on the
precise condition that no more individuals should be sent to teach
a law foreign to his realm, and under these unalterable conditions