and confessed and communicated them. The same he did at the hospital of lepers, which happened to be at that time full of Christians.” This was, as we are told, done quietly, and by the assistance of converts; but, as heretofore, while some of the different orders of the Roman Church were disposed to keep quiet till better times should dawn, and carry on their ministrations in secret, as it were, others were still inclined to show a zeal without knowledge, and thus kept up the ardor of their enemies about the court. During the year 1626 Midzu no and Take naka were sent down to Nagasaki to examine into and report upon the state of the Christian religion; and the government, knowing that the Cross was the symbol of the faith, and an object of the highest reverence among the Christians, resolved to make the question of such reverence the shibboleth or test of the individual strength of faith. In 1636 orders were issued by government that every one in Nagasaki was to assemble each month for the purpose of standing upon, with the object of desecrating, a copper “ita,” or plate, with an engraven representation of the Christian criminal God--_i.e._, of our Saviour. This order was strictly carried out at Nagasaki, while another such plate was (and is) kept at Osaka for the purpose of testing suspected persons. This act of desecration is known as “Yayboomi,” and was carried out till the recent conclusion of treaties with Christian nations. This last device of the government appears to have been successful in separating the Christian element from the heathen; but it terminated in a way which was, perhaps, not expected by the authorities; namely, in driving the poor Christians of the island of Kiusiu to band together, and ultimately in desperation to take up arms in their own defense. Had the Christians resorted to this _ultima ratio_ at first, instead of leaving it as the last card they had to play, the result of the game might have been different from what it turned out to be. Refusing to perform such an act of irreverence and desecration, they were obliged to fly to the hills and band together for the common object of protection. The numbers increased until they amounted to upward of 40,000 men. The most prominent leader among them appears to have been Massida shiro, fourth son of Jimbe, in Kobemura, in Hizen province; and he was assisted by two brothers, Oyano Kozayaymon and O. Kemmootz. These are probably the two brothers to whom Tavernier, the great Eastern traveler, alludes in an appendix to his work, when he mentions, on the authority of one Father Barr, who seems to have been in Japan at the time, that “none were more zealous or faithful to the Christians than the two lords of Ximo, Francis and Charles, sons of the lord of Buzen.”