30 [Assembly 



tice of virtue, in purity of life, and outward devotion, they far 

 out do christians. They are careful for the salvation of their 

 souls, scrupulous to excess in the expiation of their crimes, and 

 extremely desirous of future happiness. Their laws and consti- 

 tutions are capital, and observed with great strictness, the severest 

 penalties being put upon the least transgression of any. Without 

 them, such a populous and wealthy Empire could not flourish. 



Japan might at this day have been a christian country, had the 

 Portuguese priests or ministers devoted themselves entirely to 

 their calling, instead of interfering with the affairs of government. 

 In the year 1583, Taico, a man of humble condition in life, by his 

 own conduct and merit, raised himself to be one of the most pow- 

 erful monarchs in the world at that time. He first reduced the 

 powers of all the princes of the empire, whose insolence had be- 

 come so great that it was almost impossible to control them. He 

 next began to put a stop to the Portuguese interest, and the pro- 

 pogation of the Christian faith, and dying soon after, his succes- 

 sors ordered that all Portuguese, with their clergy, and Japanese 

 kindred, should leave the country; that the natives of Japan 

 should for the future stay at home, and that those who had em- 

 braced the doctrine of Christ, should renounce the same, these 

 Christians were persecuted for many years, and the finishing 

 stroke was given with unparalleled cruelty ; in one day all the 

 sacred remains of Christianity in Japan were exterminated, and 

 thirty-seven thousand christians butchered. Thus the Japanese 

 empire was thoroughly cleared and shut up. The Portuguese 

 afterwards sent over a splendid embassy, of sixty-one persons, all 

 of whom were beheaded by a special command of the Emperor. 

 The Dutch East India Company was made an exception. They 

 had carried on a trade with Japan since the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century, had always been loyal, and taken part with 

 the Japanese against all their enemies. Besides the liberty of 

 trade had been secured to them by two imperial privileges, one 

 of which they obtained from the Emperor Ijejas, in 1611, the 

 other from his successor Fide-Tadda, in 1616. 



The houses of Japan are invariably built of wood, never more 

 than two stories high, the upper one being generally used as a 



