ffer, namely, that Spanish men-of-war would
be sent to Japan to burn all Dutch ships found in the ports of the
empire. If in the face of proposals so contumelious of his authority
Ieyasu preserved a calm and dignified mein, merely replying that his
country was open to all comers, and that, if other nations had
quarrels among themselves, they must not take Japan for
battle-ground, it is nevertheless unimaginable that he did not
strongly resent such interference with his own independent foreign
policy, and that he did not interpret it as foreshadowing a
disturbance of the realm's peace by sectarian quarrels among
Christians."*

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.

The repellent aspects under which Christianity thus presented itself
to Ieyasu were supplemented by an act of fraud and forgery
perpetrated in the interest of a Christian feudatory by a trusted
official, himself a Christian. This experience persuaded the Tokugawa
ruler that it was unsafe to employ Christians at his Court. He not
only dismissed all those so employed, but also banished them from
Yedo and forbade any feudal chief to harbour them. Another incident,
not without influence, was connected with the survey of the Japanese
coast by a Spanish mariner and a Franciscan friar. An envoy from New
Spain (Mexico) had obtained permission for this survey, but "when the
mariner (Sebastian) and the friar (Sotelo) hastened to carry out the
project, Ieyasu asked Will Adams to explain this display of industry.
The Englishman replied that such a proceeding would be regarded in
Europe as an act of hostility, especially on the part of the
Spaniards or Portuguese, whose aggressions were notorious. He added,
in reply to further questions, that 'the Roman priesthood had been
expelled from many parts of Germany, from Sweden, Norway, Denmark,
Holland, and England, and that, although his own country preserved
the pure form of the Christian faith from which Spain and Portugal
had deviated, yet neither English nor Dutch considered that that fact
afforded them any reason to war with, or to annex, States which were
not Christian solely for the reason that they were non-Christian.'"*
Hearing these things from Will Adams, Ieyasu is said to have
remarked, "If the sovereigns of Europe do not tolerate these priests,
I do them no wrong if I refuse to tolerate them."

*Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition; article "Japan," by
Brinkley.

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