ing into
the countries they wish to conquer missionaries who induce the people
to embrace our religion, and when they have made considerable
progress, troops are sent who combine with the new Christians, and
then our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest.'"**

*Charlevoix, referring to this incident, says, "This unfortunate
statement inflicted a wound on religion which is bleeding still after
a century and a half."

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

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MARTYRS IN JAPAN

The words of the San Felipe's master were immediately reported to
Hideyoshi. They roused him to hot anger. He is reported to have
cried: "What! my States are filled with traitors, and their numbers
increase every day. I have proscribed the foreign doctors, but out of
compassion for the age and infirmity of some among them, I have
allowed their remaining in Japan. I shut my eyes to the presence of
several others because I fancied them to be quiet and incapable of
forming bad designs, and they are serpents I have been cherishing in
my bosom. The traitors are entirely employed in making me enemies
among my own subjects and perhaps in my own family. But they will
learn what it is to play with me... I am not anxious for myself. So
long as the breath of life remains, I defy all the powers of the
earth to attack me. But I am perhaps to leave the empire to a child,
and how can he maintain himself against so many foes, domestic and
foreign, if I do not provide for everything incessantly?"

Then, finally, the Franciscans were arrested and condemned to have
their noses and ears cut off;* to be promenaded through Kyoto, Osaka,
and Sakai, and to be crucified at Nagasaki. "I have ordered these
foreigners to be treated thus," Hideyoshi is recorded to have stated,
"because they have come from the Philippines to Japan, calling
themselves ambassadors, although they were not so; because they have
remained here for long without my permission; because in defiance of
my prohibition they have built churches, preached their religion, and
caused disorders." These men were the first martyrs in Japan.

*The mutilation was confined to the lobe of one ear.

They numbered twenty-six, namely, six Franciscans, three Jesuits, and
seventeen native Christians who were chiefly domestic servants of the
Franciscans. They met their fate with noble fortitude. Hideyoshi did
not stop there. He took measures to have