since. The trade carried on by the
Portuguese did not, however, suffer any interruption. Their vessels
repaired to Hirado as well as to Funai, and the masters and seamen of
the ships appear to have treated the missionaries with such
scrupulous respect that the Japanese formed an almost exaggerated
conception of the civil influence wielded by the religionists. It
further appears that in those early days the Portuguese seamen
refrained from the riotous excesses which had already won for them a
most unenviable reputation in China.

In fact, their good conduct constituted an object lesson in the
interests of Christianity. We learn, incidentally that, in 1557, two
of the fathers, visiting Hirado at the instance of some Portuguese
sailors who felt in want of religious ministrations, organized a kind
of propagandism which anticipated the methods of the Salvation Army.
They "sent brothers to parade the streets, ringing bells, and
chaunting litanies; they organized bands of boys for the same
purpose; they caused the converts, and even children, to flagellate
themselves at a model of Mount Calvary, and they worked miracles,
healing the sick by contact with scourges or with a booklet in which
Xavier had written litanies and prayers. It may well be imagined that
such doings attracted surprised attention in Japan. They were
supplemented by even more striking practices. For a sub-feudatory of
the Hirado chief, having been converted, showed his zeal by
destroying Buddhist temples and throwing down the idols, thus
inaugurating a campaign of violence destined to mark the progress of
Christianity throughout the greater part of its history in Japan.
There followed the overthrowing of a cross in the Christian cemetery,
the burning of a temple in the town of Hirado, and a street riot, the
sequel being that the Jesuit fathers were compelled to return once
more to Bungo."*

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

All this conveys an idea of the guise under which Christianity was
presented originally to the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Portuguese
traders did not allow their commerce to be interrupted by any
misfortunes which overtook the Jesuits. Hirado continued to be
frequented by Portuguese merchantmen, and news of the value of their
trade induced Sumitada, feudatory of Omura, to invite the Jesuits in
Bungo to his fief, offering them a free port for ten years, an
extensive tract of land, a residence for the