issionaries were called upon
to prove their devotion to their cause. In 1593, in consequence of the
indiscreet statements of the pilot of a Spanish galleon, which, being
driven by stress of weather into a port of Tosa, was seized by
Hideyoshi, nine missionaries--namely, six Franciscans and three
Jesuits--were arrested in Kioto and Osaka, and, having been taken to
Nagasaki, were there burned. This was the first execution carried out by
the government.

Hideyoshi died in the following year (1594), and the civil troubles
which preceded the succession of Iyeyasu to the post of administrator,
in which the Christians lost their chief supporter, Konishi, who took
part against Iyeyasu, favored the progress of Christianity in so far as
diverting attention from it to matters of more pressing moment.

Iyeyasu's policy toward Christianity was a repetition of his
predecessor's. Occupied entirely with military campaigns against those
who refused to acknowledge his supremacy, he permitted the Jesuits, who
now numbered one hundred, to establish themselves in force at Kioto,
Osaka, and Nagasaki. But as soon as tranquillity was restored, and he
felt himself secure in the seat of power, he at once gave proof of the
policy he intended to follow by the issue of a decree of expulsion
against the missionaries. This was in 1600. The Jesuit writers affirm
that he was induced to withdraw his edict in consequence of the
threatening attitude adopted by certain Christian nobles who had
espoused his cause in the late civil war, but no mention is made of this
in the Japanese accounts.

So varying, and indeed so altogether unintelligible, was the action of
the different nobles throughout Kiushiu in regard to Christianity during
the next few years, that we see one who was not a Christian offering an
asylum in his dominions to several hundred native converts who were
expelled from a neighboring province; another who had systematically
opposed the introduction of Christianity actually sending a mission to
the Philippines to ask for missionaries; while a third, who had hitherto
made himself conspicuous by his almost fanatical zeal in the Christian
cause, suddenly abandoned his new faith, and, from having been one of
its most ardent supporters, became one of its most bitter foes.

The year 1602 is remarkable for the despatch of an embassy by Iyeyasu to
the Philippines, and for the large number of _religieux_ of all orders
who flocked to Japan.

Affai