God Bless Their
Honourable And Worshipful Generation!
I would say, God bless me from
them.
To make an end of this matter, I went up this year to the
emperor's court at Meaco, to complain of the abuses offered to us in his
dominions, contrary to the privileges his majesty had granted us. I had
very good words, and fair promises made me that we should have justice,
and that the tono or king of Firando should be ordered to see it
performed: But as yet nothing has been done, though I have many times
made earnest suit on the subject.
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.
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