(^354) THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
nological assistance in a tough political arena. For a time, even the
topmost leaders, Oda Nobunaga (dominated 1568-82) and then Toy-
otomi Hideyoshi (1586-98), went along.
It couldn't last. Older religious interests gnawed at this tolerance and
planted seeds of suspicion about the motives of these foreign intrud
ers. Their charges were reinforced by the innuendoes of non-Catholic
rivals of Spain and Portugal—the Dutch of course—who painted
Roman missionary activity as preparation for Iberian political and com
mercial ambitions. And truth to tell, Portuguese and, even more, Span
ish captains and merchants gave color to these fears by their boastful
and minatory behavior. They had picked up bad habits and sharp
tongues to match in the Americas, the Philippines, and the Indonesian
archipelago.
Example: In 1597 a rich Spanish galleon fetched up on Japanese
shores. The Japanese wanted to keep the cargo. The pilot appealed to
the taiko Hideyoshi, chiefest of warlords, and sought to intimidate
him with the might of his master King Philip. Taking out his globe, he
showed the worldwide extent of Spanish dominions, from the Ameri
cas to the Philippines. How come so small a nation has such extensive
dominions? asked the taiko. Oh, said the incautious seaman, His Very
Catholic Majesty would first send out priests to christianize the popu
lation, and these converts would then help the Spanish forces in their
conquest. With that kind of encouragement, Hideyoshi refused to re
turn the cargo and ordered the crucifixion of twenty-six Christians, sev
enteen of them Japanese, the others Jesuits and Franciscans from
Europe.*
Besides, in this snakepit of conflict and intrigue, the one test that the
Christians could not pass was that of earthly loyalty. For the rulers of
Japan, no obligation stood higher than the personal allegiance a man
owed his lord; no command more absolute than that of lord to man—
even to the point of taking his own life. Even a hint that suicide was ad
visable amounted to a death sentence. How else prove one's loyalty
than to take the hint? (The ability of Japanese superiors to compel
subordinates to commit hara-kiri and their readiness to exercise this
power are fairly stupefying. When warlords Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda
- As reported by Father Martinez, then bishop of Japan. In a letter of 1602, Martinez
lamented the bellicose penchant and intentions of the Spanish: their "religious preach
ing is merely an instrument of conquest. ... All the calamities that the Church is now
exposed to have their beginning in the arrival of these clerics from Luzon"—Elisseeff,
Hideyoshi, p. 229.