ly answer was returned to it, and from this time it may be
understood that the relations between the two countries were placed on a
satisfactory basis. These steps were taken on the part of Korea with the
knowledge and approval of China, which now claimed to hold a protectorate
over the peninsula of Korea. The same negotiations therefore which
resulted in peaceful relations with Korea brought about a condition of
amity with China which was not disturbed until very recent times.

The ruinous effects of this invasion, however, were never overcome in
Korea itself. Her cities had been destroyed, her industries blotted out,
and her fertile fields rendered desolate. Once she had been the fruitful
tree from which Japan was glad to gather her arts and civilization, but
now she was only a branchless trunk which the fires of war had charred and
left standing.

[Illustration]

Tokugawa Crest.

CHAPTER XI. CHRISTIANITY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

To the readers of the story of Japan the most interesting episode is that
of the introduction and subsequent extirpation of Christianity. We have
therefore given an account of the first arrival of the Jesuit missionaries
with the sainted Xavier at their head, and we have seen their labors
crowned with a very wide success. During the times of Nobunaga and
Hideyoshi the question had assumed something of a political aspect. In
several of the provinces of Kyushu the princes had become converts and had
freely used their influence, and sometimes their authority, to extend
Christianity among their subjects. In Kyoto and Yamaguchi, in Osaka and
Sakai, as well as in Kyushu, the Jesuit fathers had founded flourishing
churches and exerted a wide influence. They had established colleges where
the candidates for the church could be educated and trained. They had
organized hospitals and asylums at Nagasaki and elsewhere, where those
needing aid could be received and treated.

It is true that the progress of the work had met with a severe setback in
A.D. 1587, when Taiko Sama issued an edict expelling all foreign religious
teachers from Japan. In pursuance of this edict nine foreigners who had
evaded expulsion were burnt at Nagasaki. The reason for this decisive
action on the part of Taiko Sama is usually attributed to the suspicion
which had been awakened in him by the loose and unguarded talk of a
Portuguese sea captain.(203) Bu