worthy of all praise.

On the eighth of February, 1627, twelve persons were captured in a
hiding-place about a mile from Nagasaki; they were first branded with a
hot iron on the forehead, and then on each cheek; then because they would
not recant they were burnt to death. Subsequently forty more were
captured, among whom were a father and mother with their three young
children. The children were frightened at the dreadful preparations, and
would have recanted, but their parents refused to permit them to take
advantage of the offers of clemency. After the branding and beating, those
who were not yet driven to recant were sent off to the boiling springs of
Onsen in Arima. Here they were tortured by having the boiling water of the
springs poured upon them, and by being compelled to breathe the
suffocating sulphurous air which these springs emitted.

On the fourteenth of the following May, nine martyrs suffered all the
torments which could be contrived and finally were drowned. August
seventeenth five Christians were burnt and eighteen otherwise put to
death, of whom one was a Franciscan monk and the rest were natives.
October twenty-sixth three Japanese magnates who had joined Hideyori
against Ieyasu were discovered to be Christians, and were shipped off to
Macao. In the following year, 1628, it is said that three hundred and
forty-eight persons were tortured for their faith, including torture by
the boiling springs, beating with clubs, and burning. It had been reduced
to such a science that when they saw a subject becoming weak and likely to
die, they suspended their torments until he revived. Whenever a priest was
captured in any household the whole family by whom he had been concealed
were put to death.

Another new governor was sent to Nagasaki on the 27th of July, 1629. He
came with the high purpose of rooting out every vestige of Christianity.
He set about his work in the most systematic manner. Nagasaki, it must be
understood, is laid out in streets which can be closed up by gates. Each
street had its head man, and every five houses in each street were under
the special charge of a separate overseer. These overseers were
responsible as to what occurred and who were concealed in each of the
houses under his charge. The gates were all closed at night and opened
again in the morning.

The governor went through these streets house by house, and examined every
person in every house. If the occupants were not Christian