CHAP. vr. THE PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS. 155 



Christians, and received far more ample and explicit informa- 

 tion than I had anticipated. All spoke of the great hardships 

 they had endured, of the unimpeachable tenour of their lives in 

 every respect in which their religion was not concerned : their 

 religion was their only crime. Opinions varied much as to 

 their numbers, some parties expressing themselves as if such 

 had been the severe and decisive character of the measures 

 adopted to prevent the spread of their opinions among the 

 people, that but few remained. Others, however, were of a 

 different opinion, though all agreed in stating that no Chris- 

 tian observances were any longer publicly practised in the 

 country. 



Conversations on this all-important subject were rendered 

 the more interesting to me, as well as more instructive and 

 affecting, from the circumstance of such conversations being 

 frequently maintained with those who had been personally 

 connected with the proceedings to which they referred, and in- 

 volved in all their fearful consequences. Intercourse, the most 

 frank and cordial, was often held in this manner with those 

 Avho had themselves been made acquainted with what these 

 people believed — with the truths of Divine revelation; who 

 had experienced something of the morally transforming influ- 

 ence of that truth, and had cherished the hopes of future 

 blessedness which it alone can inspire. They had also 

 suffered much in the present life for their hopes of the life 

 to come. Some had endured the ordeal of the tangena, or 

 poison-water ; some had suffered degradation, fine, bondage, 

 and convict labour, on account of having been implicated with 

 the Christians. They bore in their bodies the marks of their 

 sufferings. Their communications, therefore, were not mere 

 recitals of crude speculations, nor endeavours to satisfy an 

 aimless curiosity, but related to matters with the importance 

 of which they had been deeply impressed, and in which they 

 had felt a personal and anxious solicitude upon their minds 



