nt people. When the emperor asked him [what he meant], he
added: 'The fathers and Christians whom your Majesty ordered to be
killed at Nangasaqui. I believe that your Majesty has already seen
that with all our efforts we cannot cure you; and you should call
upon the bonzes of Nanbamcas (as they call our fathers) and perhaps
they may be able to grant and perform this miracle, as they do others.'

"It is a great deal that soothsayers and bonzes, who are so much
opposed to us, should speak so in our favor; but the Lord can do
much greater things, and as it seems that the portent is His work,
[_words illegible_] the interpretation. The result was that the emperor
immediately sent messengers to Nangasaqui and other places to bring
to him the fathers who were in prison. They brought from Nangasaqui
father Fray Luis, of the Franciscan order; and the father-provincial
Christobal Ferreira, and Father Sevastian de Viera, of the Society--the
latter having been for a long time a laborer in that church whence
he was sent to Rome as procurator. When our father invited him to
remain here, as he was so old and had labored so long, he preferred
to end his life with the children whom he had begotten in Christ,
since they were engaged in such wars, rather than enjoy the peace of
Europa. Two years ago he arrived at Manila from Rome; and a little
more than a half a year ago he left Manila for Japon, in the garb
of a Sangley. But as he was so well known, as soon as he secured an
entrance to that country, and the search for the Christians began,
more than a thousand agents were sent over the whole kingdom in search
of him, so great a desire had they to get hold of him. As they were
so numerous, and the reward great, he was unable to escape. He finally
was made a prisoner with the other Christians at Nangasaqui, who were
awaiting death (it was this that made him go back to Japon); and,
although they believed it to be certain when the order came to convey
them to court, all were greatly encouraged to suffer it. But, in place
of that, the ambassador of Macao who is at that court writes that the
kindly treatment which the emperor extended to them was remarkable. He
ordered them to be taken from the prisons and spoke to them with much
gentleness. He told the fathers that if their faith was such truth as
they said, they should obtain from their God the cure of his leprosy,
so that he might recognize its truth; and see that he had done wrong
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