ts were made in Arima. His successor, however,
was a believer in Buddhism. He caused the Christian churches to be
destroyed and the crosses to be thrown down; he ordered the Jesuits
to quit his dominions, and he required the converts to return to
Buddhism. Under this pressure about one-half of the converts
apostatized, but the rest threatened to leave Kuchinotsu en masse.
However this would have meant the loss of foreign trade, and as a
result of this circumstance the anti-Christian edicts were radically
modified.

Just at that time, also, a fortunate incident occurred. It had become
the custom for a large vessel from Macao to visit Japan every year,
and the advent of this ship had great importance from a commercial
point of view. It chanced that she made the port of Kuchinotsu her
place of call in 1578, and her presence suggested such a pleasing
outcome that the feudatory embraced Christianity and allowed his
vassals to do the same. By this "great ship from Macao" the Jesuit
vice-general, Valegnani was a passenger. A statesman as well as a
preacher, this astute politician made such a clever use of the
opportunity that, in 1580, "all the city was made Christian, and the
people burned their idols and destroyed forty temples, reserving some
materials to build churches."

RESULTS OF THE FIRST THREE DECADES OF PROPAGANDISM

The record achieved by the Christian propagandists up to this time
was distinctly satisfactory. In the Annual Letter of 1582 we find it
stated that, at the close of 1581, that is to say, thirty-two years
after Xavier's landing in Japan there were about 150,000 converts. Of
these some 125,000 were in Kyushu; the remainder in Yamaguchi, Kyoto,
and the vicinity of the latter city. As for the Jesuits in Japan,
they then numbered seventy-five, but down to the year 1563 there had
never been more than nine. "The harvest was certainly great in
proportion to the number of sowers. But it was a harvest mainly of
artificial growth, forced by despotic insistence of feudal chiefs who
possessed the power of life and death over their vassals, and were
influenced by a desire to attract foreign trade."

BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY

"To the Buddhist priests this movement of Christian propagandism had
brought an experience hitherto almost unknown in Japan--persecution
solely on account of creed. They had suffered for interfering in
politics, but the cruel vehemence of the Christian fanatic may be
said to have now becom