[15] "In 1611, Iyeyasu obtained documentary proof of what he had long suspected, viz., the existence of a plot on the part of the native converts and the foreign emissaries to reduce Japan to the position of a subject state... Iyeyasu now put forth strenuous measures to root out utterly what he believed to be a pestilent breeder of sedition and war. Fresh edicts were issued, and in 1614 twenty-two Franciscan, Dominican, and Augustinian friars, one hundred and seventeen Jesuits, and hundreds of native priests and catechists, were embarked by force on board junks, and sent out of the country." (Griffis's _Mikado's Empire_, p. 256.) The priests mentioned in our text were put to death in June, 1617, at Omura (Cocks's _Diary_, i, pp. 256, 258). [16] Vicente Sepulveda was a native of Castilla, and entered the Augustinian order in that province; he was a religious of great attainments in knowledge and virtue. He arrived in the Philippines in 1606, became very proficient in the language of the Pampangos, and was a missionary among them for five years. In 1614 he was elected provincial of his order in the islands. "Thoroughly inflexible in character, he undertook to secure the most rigorous observance of the decrees and mandates of the latest father-visitor, on which account he incurred the great displeasure and resentment of many. By the death of Father Jeronimo de Salas, Father Sepulveda became a second time the ruler of the province, as rector provincial; but he did not change in the least his harsh and rigid mode of government. A lamentable and unexpected event put an end to his already harassed life, on August 21, 1617." (Perez's _Catalogo_, p. 76.) [17] Jeronimo de Salas made his profession in the Augustinian convent at Madrid, in 1590, and reached the Philippines in 1595. He was a missionary to the Indians for some fifteen years, and was afterward elected to high positions in his order. "So exceptional was the executive ability of which he gave proof in the discharge of these offices that in the provincial chapter held in 1617 he was unanimously elected prior provincial. Most unfortunately, when so much was hoped from the eminent abilities of this very judicious and learned religious, an acute illness ended his valuable life; he died at Manila on May 17 of the same year." (Perez's _Catalogo_, p. 49.) [18] Alonso Rincon was one of the Augustinians arriving in the Philippines in 1606. He was minister in various Indian villages until 1617, when he was appointed prior of the Manila convent. He was sent as procurator to Spain and Rome in 1618, and returned to Manila four years afterward. He died there in 1631. [19] The Ventura del Arco transcript ends here; but it is followed by a note, thus: