many of them were seen to die with emotions of
joy and pleasure, some even to go singing to the place of execution;
and when although thirty and sometimes one hundred were put to death
at a time, and it was found that their numbers did not appear to
diminish, it was then determined to use every exertion to change
their joy into grief and their songs into tears and groans of misery.
To effect this they were tied to stakes and burned alive; were
broiled on wooden gridirons, and thousands were thus wretchedly
destroyed. But as the number of Christians was not perceptibly
lessened by these cruel punishments, they became tired of putting
them to death, and attempts were then made to make the Christians
abandon their faith by the infliction of the most dreadful torments
which the most diabolical invention could suggest. The Japanese
Christians, however, endured these persecutions with a great deal of
steadiness and courage; very few, in comparison with those who
remained steadfast in the faith, were the number of those who fainted
under the trials and abjured their religion. It is true that these
people possess, on such occasions, a stoicism and an intrepidity of
which no examples are to be met with in the bulk of other nations.
Neither men nor women are afraid of death. Yet an uncommon
steadfastness in the faith must, at the same time, be requisite to
continue in these trying circumstances.

The intrepidity of the native converts was rivalled by the courage of
their foreign teachers. Again and again these latter defied the
Japanese authorities by visiting Japan--not for the first time but
occasionally even after having been deported. Contrary to the orders
of the governors of Macao and Manila, nay of the King of Spain
himself, the priests arrived, year after year, with the certainty of
being apprehended and sent to the stake after brief periods of
propagandism. In 1626, when the campaign of persecution was at its
height, more than three thousand converts were baptized by these
brave priests, of whom none is known to have escaped death except
those that apostatized under torture, and they were very few,
although not only could life be saved by abandoning the faith but
also ample allowances of money could be obtained from the
authorities. Anyone denouncing a propagandist received large reward,
and the people were required to prove their orthodoxy by trampling
upon a picture of Christ.

CONTINUATION OF THE FEUDS BETWEEN THE