In 1612 he determined to get rid of these ever-disquieting agents, the more excited thereto by finding himself in the meshes of a net out of which he could only break his way by force. He found that the Prince of Arima, one of the warmest and most devoted to the cause of Christianity (whose son had married the granddaughter of Iyeyas), had been intriguing with the officers at court, to win their good offices by bribery, in gaining for him large additions to his territory. He now, for the first time, acted with severity against some of the native Christians about the court. Fourteen were condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to perpetual banishment and confiscation of their estates. This action on the part of Iyeyas himself at once brought out into bolder relief the two parties. Those officers who had hitherto winked at the Christians, and had permitted them to carry on their worship and preaching undisturbed, now saw which way the wind was blowing, and acted accordingly. This severity was carried into the heart of the court--one of the concubines of Iyeyas being confined and banished to the island of Oshima, and thence to the smaller island of Nishima, and thence to a rock, Cozu shima, upon which seven or eight fishermen lived in straw huts, subsisting on what they caught; and these men were ordered to keep this lady. Shortly after this, Don Protase of Arima suffered. His son Michael, who had been brought up as a Christian, fearing to lose possession of his father’s dominions, informed against him, accusing him of crimes, and suborning witnesses against him. Upon the proof offered he was beheaded. This Christian’s son Michael, who had divorced a Christian lady to marry the granddaughter of Iyeyas, then turned apostate, and began a persecution within his territories of all who professed Christianity. He began, in order to please Iyeyas, by putting to death two boys, his own nephews. Here again, where the Jesuits had been most intolerant, the tables were turned upon them. In the province of Boongo, at one time the stronghold of the Roman Catholics, the same action was being taken; and about this time, in Yedo, the Shiogoon, on the representation of informers, put to death some natives who had built a new church, and banished the father out of the country. In 1613, Don Michael of Arima was pressed by his wife and others to renew his severities, and eight Christians were burned near his castle by slow fires.