At this time there runs a secret rumour, that _Fidaia Same_ is alive, and in the house of the _Dairo_[67] at Meaco; but I think it has been reported several times before this that he was living in other places, but proved untrue. There are some rich merchants here that belong to Meaco, who are much alarmed by this report, lest, if true, the emperor may burn Meaco; and who are therefore in haste to get home. Were Fidaia actually alive it might tend to overthrow the emperor's power, for, though a great politician, he is not a martial man: But be this as it may, things can hardly be worse for us. I advised you in my last of the destruction of all the Christian churches in Japan; yet there were some remnants left at Nangasaki till this year, and in particular the monastery of Misericiordia was untouched, as were all the church-yards and burying-places; but now, by order of the emperor, all is destroyed, all the graves and sepulchres of the Christians opened, and the bones of the dead taken out by their parents and kindred, to be buried elsewhere in the fields. Streets have been built on the scites of these churches, monasteries, and burying-grounds, except in some places, where pagodas have been erected by command of the emperor, who has sent heathen priests to occupy them, thinking utterly to root out Christianity from Japan. There were certain places near Nangasaki where several jesuit fathers and other Christians were martyred, in the reign of _Ogosha Same_, and where their parents and friends had planted evergreen-trees, and erected altars near each tree, where many hundreds went daily to say their prayers; but now, by command of the emperor, all these trees are cut down, the altars destroyed, and the ground all levelled, it being his firm resolution utterly to root out the remembrance of all matters connected with Christianity. [Footnote 67: The Dairo was formerly the sovereign of Japan, uniting the supreme civil and spiritual power, committing the military affairs to a kind of generalissimo, who usurped supreme authority, and reduced the Dairo to be a kind of sovereign pontiff or chief-priest.--E.] In the months of November and December, 1618, there were two comets seen all over Japan. The first, rising in the east, was like a great fiery beam, rent to the southwards, and vanished away in about the space of a month. The other rose also in the east, like a great blazing star, and went northwards, vanishing quite away within a month near the constellation of Ursa-Major or Charles-waine. The wizards of Japan have prognosticated great events to arise from these comets, but hitherto nothing material has occurred, excepting the deposition of _Frushma-tay_, already related.