r, and is always present to see
that they make clean bread. It seems to me that it is very useful
and advantageous for this city that all the ovens be placed together
in the said bakery, and in no other place. It is fitting that your
Majesty should order this; for there are very great difficulties in
the maintenance of ovens in private houses, as they are haunts where
are committed thefts and offenses against God, which are commonly
known. This is my opinion and is based on my forty years' experience
since I have been in these islands. May God protect the Catholic and
royal person of your Majesty, according to the needs of Christianity.

Dated at Manila, on the third of August, 1634.

_Fray Hernando_, archbishop of Manila.

NEWS FROM FELIPINAS, JAPON, AND OTHER PARTS

By the last express the following news arrived in a letter which came
from Manila, dated August 20, 634: "Father Manuel Cuello writes that
he is in Camboja in disguise, in order to pass on to Japon, where the
persecution is so bloody that it is publicly cried that five hundred
pesos will be given to any person who makes known the whereabouts of
any priest. In this way during four months sixteen of our fathers
have been arrested, besides the brothers and dogicos who are being
seized every day. While they were awaiting death, it happened that the
emperor was bedridden, suffering with the leprosy for a long time;
and he could find no remedy in his medicines, nor in the sacrifices
to his idols. He heard many loud cries and wails in the garden,
and commanded his people to learn what it was. When they came back,
they said that the sounds proceeded from a large bamboo, a plant which
is very plentiful in that country. They opened it and found within a
cross, red as if dipped in blood, which caused them great wonder. They
took it to the emperor, who was much more astounded because the day
before he had seen a very brilliant cross in the air, although he had
told no one of it; but, when this portent was found in his garden, he
had his soothsayers called in to tell him what it meant. Some of them
said one thing and some another; but the chief of them said that these
crosses were from the fathers who, although blameless, had been put to
death for teaching the veneration of the cross. This explanation was
confirmed by a bonze, one of his favorites, who added that he believed
that the leprosy which he suffered was owing to his having slain so
many innoce