had been confiscated. In the absence of the captain, the pilot endeavoured to overawe the local Japanese authorities. He produced a map of the world, and pointed out the vast extent of the Spanish monarch's dominions. On being asked how it was that so many countries had been subjected to a single ruler, he replied: "Our kings begin by sending into the countries they "wish to conquer priests who induce the people to embrace our religion; and when these have made considerable progress, troops are despatched who combine with the new Christians, and then our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest.[1]" This speech was reported to Hideyoshi, whose fury knew no bounds. The immediate outcome was that six Spanish Franciscans, together with seventeen of their native converts and three Japanese Jesuits, were crucified at Nagasaki on the 5th February, 1597.
To this first outbreak of persecution there succeeded a respite of several years, traceable partly to the civil wars and other distractions that accompanied the establishment of the Shōgunate in the family of Tokugawa Ieyasu. This powerful ruler suppressed Christianity for political reasons in 1614, ordering the deportation of all the foreign ecclesiastics. But 47 contrived to remain behind at Nagasaki and elsewhere, and the others quickly returned. Meantime, some of the native Christian lords had been seeking to establish relations abroad, the most noted of these efforts being the despatch of envoys from the Kyūshū Princes to the Pope in 1582, and that of Date, Lord of Sendai, to the King of Spain and the Pope in 1613. When Ieyasu finally triumphed over all his political enemies, with some of whom the Catholics had been associated, a duel to the death began between the Japanese authorities who were resolved to maintain the political integrity
- ↑ Though not to be taken literally, there was doubtless a foundation of fact for the statement thus imprudently blurted out:—the rulers of Spain and Portugal, as we know full well from their proceedings in other quarters of the globe, were anything but single-minded in their dealings with native races. History repeats itself; for the conduct of Europe towards China in our own day exhibits precisely the same medley of genuine piety on the part of the missionaries, and shameless aggression on the part of the countries which send them out.
