p. 527-547.

[15] "In 1611, Iyeyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long
suspected, viz., the existence of a plot on the part of the native
converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of
a subject state... Iyeyasu now put forth strenuous measures to root
out utterly what he believed to be a pestilent breeder of sedition
and war. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan,
Dominican, and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits,
and hundreds of native priests and catechists, were embarked by force
on board junks, and sent out of the country." (Griffis's _Mikado's
Empire_, p. 256.)

The priests mentioned in our text were put to death in June, 1617,
at Omura (Cocks's _Diary_, i, pp. 256, 258).

[16] Vicente Sepulveda was a native of Castilla, and entered the
Augustinian order in that province; he was a religious of great
attainments in knowledge and virtue. He arrived in the Philippines in
1606, became very proficient in the language of the Pampangos, and
was a missionary among them for five years. In 1614 he was elected
provincial of his order in the islands. "Thoroughly inflexible in
character, he undertook to secure the most rigorous observance of
the decrees and mandates of the latest father-visitor, on which
account he incurred the great displeasure and resentment of many.
By the death of Father Jeronimo de Salas, Father Sepulveda became a
second time the ruler of the province, as rector provincial; but he
did not change in the least his harsh and rigid mode of government. A
lamentable and unexpected event put an end to his already harassed
life, on August 21, 1617." (Perez's _Catalogo_, p. 76.)

[17] Jeronimo de Salas made his profession in the Augustinian
convent at Madrid, in 1590, and reached the Philippines in 1595. He
was a missionary to the Indians for some fifteen years, and was
afterward elected to high positions in his order. "So exceptional
was the executive ability of which he gave proof in the discharge
of these offices that in the provincial chapter held in 1617 he was
unanimously elected prior provincial. Most unfortunately, when so
much was hoped from the eminent abilities of this very judicious and
learned religious, an acute illness ended his valuable life; he died
at Manila on May 17 of the same year." (Perez's _Catalogo_, p. 49.)

[18] Alonso Rincon was one of the Augustinians arriving in the
Philippines in 1606. He was minister