The devotion to the Immaculate Conception of the most sainted Virgin has greatly increased among all the people. As soon as the ship from Nueva Espana arrived, bringing the news of the elaborate demonstrations that had been made in all Espana in honor of this Lady, they began to place on all the corners and upon the doors of churches notices that read, "Praised be the most holy sacrament and the Immaculate Conception of the most holy Virgin, conceived without blot of original sin." There was no lack of persons who tried to efface one of these notices that was on the door of the church of Santo Domingo, a fact which caused the people to burn with greater devotion to this Lady. It was arranged that for two nights there should be a procession of masked figures. In it a banner with an image of the Immaculate Conception was displayed; lamps were placed throughout the city; the cathedral bells began to chime; and the orders formed in line of march. One devout person placed on the corners eighteen images of the Conception of our Lady, with a legend reading, "Without blot of original sin." Other pious people adorned these images with gilded ornaments and lights that burn all night. The children continually recited before these images, in loud voices, various couplets in praise of the Immaculate Conception, thus fulfilling that saying of David, _ex ore infantium e lactentium_ ["out of the mouths of babes and sucklings"], etc. Concerning the persecution in Japon, I can only say that with the death of Daytusama, who was the chief cause of the expulsion of our fathers, [15] it was hoped that the persecution would cease or at least would abate. On the contrary it has increased under the new administration of his son, who is so hostile to the law of Christ our Lord that simply because of our holy faith he has martyred one religious from each of the four orders there. These four religious, among many others, had gone about secretly, as in England, with great labor cultivating that vineyard. This event occasioned much rejoicing in the hearts of all the people of this city, the laity as well as the religious. They talked of making fiestas and public rejoicings in thanksgiving that our Lord had adorned the four orders that are in these islands with four martyrs so distinguished. But in order not to further provoke to wrath the ruler of Japon, who had ordered their death, and for other reasons, it was thought best to suspend for the present all kinds of fiestas. Among those who suffered this fortune or fate was a father of our Society named Juan Bautista Tavora, a native of the island of Tercera. He died in company with a father of San Francisco. Afterward they martyred two others, one of Santo Domingo, and the other of San Agustin, and in order that respect might not be paid by the Christians to their bodies, the heathen threw them into the sea. The bodies of the father of our Society and the father of Santo Domingo were placed