, and four others, were burned
with him. After this, eleven other Japanese were beheaded. Later on,
in January, 620, Brother Ambrosio Fernandez, a Portuguese who was
the companion of Father Carlos Espinola, died in jail from hunger,
and excessive cold, and the hardships and discomforts of the prison,
and thus gained the martyr's crown. He was seventy years old.

Although so many in Japon have thus become blessed martyrs, two persons
bent the knee to Baal and miserably recanted for fear of torture. A
Japanese religious who was in Rome and Spain, and who is now an
apostate, did the same thing. He often says that when he was in Madrid
he knew that certain religious were persuading the king to conquer
Japon, but that our fathers dissuaded him from this. He adds that,
although it is a fact that religion is our primary motive for entering
Japon, yet it is our intention through religion to prepare matters
for conquering the country. With this and other lies this apostate
has done great harm to Christianity. The governors and principal men
of Japon are so thoroughly convinced of our evil intentions that they
say that one of the principal reasons for keeping the Hollanders in
Japon is for their own greater security and to annoy us. They even
have begun to discuss the possibility of conquering the Filipinas,
in order not to have the Spaniards so near. On the other hand, it is
said that in Japon they are thinking of driving out all Europeans
from that kingdom--Spanish, Hollanders, Portuguese and English. If
this is done it will not be possible for any of our fathers to remain
there. At present they escape notice among other Europeans by wearing
European dress--I mean that of Castilians and Portuguese; but if the
Europeans are driven from Japon this will no longer be possible.

Passing from spiritual affairs to those temporal affairs of Japon that
concern these islands, let me say that on the twelfth of July, 619,
there arrived at Firando, a port of Japon designated for the trade of
the Hollanders, four of their ships, which, as I informed you last
year, have been off the coast of Manila. When our fleet prepared to
sally out, the Dutch ships withdrew in good order, carrying with
them a great many sick, beside the large number who had died from
disease and from an infection which they say was given them in Bigan,
a village on the coast of Manila. Since this is not known here, it must
be their own imagination. Many of their people w