chap. vi. 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 
who 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 
