32 INTRODUCTION. 



Cliristians were Ijuriecl at Simabara was Bet up, by imperial order, the following impious 

 inscription : "So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian he so hold as to come to 

 Japan ; and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great 

 God of all, if he violate this command, shall pay for it with his head." 



And now, as to what respectable natives really did say about this sad transaction, let us hear 

 one who was on the spot, honest old Kasmpfer. He was the physician in the Dutch service, and 

 thus writes : " By this submissive readiness to assist the Emperor in the execution of his designs, 

 with regard to the final destruction of Christianity in his dominions, it is true, indeed, that we 

 stood our ground so far as to maintain ourselves in the country, and to be permitted to carry on 

 our trade, although the court had then some thoughts of a total exclusion of all foreigners 

 whatsoever. But many generous and noble persons at court, and in the country, judged 

 unfavorably of our conduct. It seemed to them inconsistent with reason that the Dutch should 

 ever be expected to he faithful to a foreign monarch, and one, too, whom they looked upon as a 

 heathen, while they showed so much forwardness to assist him in the destruction of a people 

 with whom they agreed in the most essential parts of their faith, (as the Japanese had been 

 well informed by the Portuguese monks,) and to sacrifice to their own worldly interest those 

 who followed Christ in the very same way, and hoped to enter the Kingdom of Heaven through 

 the same gate. These are expressions which I often heard from the natives when the conversation 

 happened to turn upon this m/)urnful subject. In short, by our humble complaisance and connivance, 

 we were so far from bringing this proud and jealous nation to any greater confidence, or more 

 intimate friendship, that, on the contrary, their jealousy and mistrust seemed to increase from 

 that time. They both hated and despised us for what we had done." This, then, is the 

 testimony as to the opinion of the natives who knew something of the occurrences ; and it is a 

 sad reflection, that, in the work of exchiding Christianity from Japan, Komanists and Protestants 

 alike bore their part. Neither can, with justice, reproach the other. If the worldliness and pride 

 of the Portuguese Christian prompted him to conspiracy, and drove him and his companions 

 from the Empire, the avarice and cruelty of the Dutch professed believer finished the work, and 

 extirpated the last remnant of the faith in the destruction of the native followers of Christ. 

 True Christianity indignantly disowns both. 



In 1641, the Dutch were ordered to remove their factory from Firando_, where they were 

 comfortable and unrestrained, and to confine themselves to the now forsaken station of the 

 Portuguese at Dezima, a miserable little island in the port of Nagasaki, " more like a prison 

 than a factory," says Ktempfer. Here they were placed imder a surveillance the most rigid, 

 and subjected to many a humiliating degradation . "So great' ' (says our honest old German) ' ' was 

 the covetousness of the Dutch, and so strong the alluring power of the Japanese gold, that rather 

 than quit the prospect of a trade, (indeed, most advantageous^) they willingly underwent an 

 almost perpetual imprisonment, for such, in fact, is our residence at Dezima, and chose to sufler 

 many hardships in a foreign and heathen country ; to be remiss in performing divine service on 

 Sundays and solemn festivals ; to leave off praying and singing of psalms ; entirely to avoid the sign 

 of the cross, the calling upon the name of Christ in the presence of the natives, and all the 

 outer signs of Christianity ; and, lastly,' patiently and submissively to bear the abusive and 

 injurious behavior of these proud infidels towards us, than which nothing can be offered more 

 shocking to a noble and generous mind." And to such humiliation have they submitted even 

 to this day. Dezima is shaped like a fan ; and the island is, for the most part, of artificial 



