rs remained _in statu quo_ for the next two or three years, during
which the Christian cause was weakened by the death of two men which it
could ill afford to lose. One of these was the noble called Kondera by
Charlevoix, but whose name we have been unable to trace in Japanese
records. The other was Organtin, who had deservedly the reputation of
being the most energetic member of the Jesuit body.

The number of Christians in Japan at this time is stated to have been
one million eight hundred thousand. The number of missionaries was of
course proportionally large, and was increased by the issue in 1608 of a
new bull by Pope Paul V allowing to _religieux_ of all orders free
access to Japan.

The year 1610 is remarkable for the arrival of the Dutch, who settled in
Hirado, and for the destruction in the harbor of Nagasaki of the annual
Portuguese galleon sent by the traders of Macao. In this latter affair,
which rose out of a dispute between the natives and the people of the
ship, Arima-no-Kami was concerned, and his alliance with the
missionaries was thus terminated.

In 1611 no less than three embassies arrived in Japan from the Dutch,
Spanish, and Portuguese respectively, and in 1613 Saris succeeded in
founding an English factory in Hirado, where the Dutch had already
established themselves. It was early in the following year that
Christianity was finally proscribed by Iyeyasu. The decree of expulsion
directed against the missionaries was followed by a fierce outbreak of
persecution in all the provinces in which Christians were to be found,
which was conducted with systematic and relentless severity.

The Jesuit accounts attribute this resolution on the part of Iyeyasu to
the intrigues of the English and Dutch traders. Two stories, by one of
which it was sought to fix the blame on the former and by the other on
the latter, were circulated, and will be found at length in Charlevoix's
history.

We have no wish to enter upon a defence either of our countrymen or of
the Dutch, and fully admit the possibility of such intrigues having
occurred. Indeed, considering in what relations both Spanish and
Portuguese stood at that time to both of the other nations, and how high
religious feeling ran in the seventeenth century, it would be strange if
some intrigue had not taken place. Still we should like to point out
that there were, we think, causes, other than those to which the Jesuit
writers confine themselves, quite sufficie