se rather to die, in order that they might live forever in heaven."

In another letter dated November 10, 1619, the same father writes:
"On the sixth of October, Meaco offered to heaven the richest gift
that has ever been seen in that great and populous city. The gift
consisted of fifty-four Christians, who were burned alive for the
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have already written how there
was in the public prison at Meaco a large number of the faithful,
incarcerated because they would not bend the knee to Baal. Nine
of these died in the prison on account of the excessive labors and
hardships which they suffered there. They died thoroughly resigned to
the divine will, and rejoicing in their happy fate. When the emperor
came to the court of the Dayri, [10] the metropolis of the whole of
Japon, they told him of the imprisoned Christians; and since he is an
implacable enemy of our holy faith, he ordered that they should all be
burned alive. Thereupon twenty-six stakes were set up in a public place
in front of the temple of Daybut, a large and magnificent building,
at a distance from the river that flows by the place. On Sunday,
the sixth of October, they took the holy prisoners from the jail, not
sparing even the tender young girls nor the babes at their mothers'
breasts. They marched them through the principal streets of Meaco,
accompanied by a crier who announced that they had been condemned to
be burned alive because they were Christians. Most of the soldiers of
Jesus Christ were dressed in white, and their faces were so happy and
so resolute that the power of the divine grace which upheld them was
plainly shown. They encouraged one another for the trial, and with
great calmness bade good-by to the friends and acquaintances whom
they met along the way. From time to time they proclaimed aloud that
they were dying for the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. When they had
come to the place where they were to offer their lives to the Lord
as an acceptable sacrifice, they appeared more joyful, as does one
who is about to gain the eternal reward. Two by two they were now
tied to the stakes, the women with their babes in their arms. Some
of our _daiicos_--people of our Society like lay brothers, who aid
us in preaching [11]--as well as other Christians who went to the
place to encourage the martyrs, were present. But the servants of
the Lord showed such remarkable strength that they really encouraged
the spectators. When t