blood as has been shed there by His faithful ones, in testimony of His holy law. May He act as He shall see best in this matter. It appears that in the year 1629 the orders were moved to send religious to Japon at their own cost. These were the Dominican fathers, the Franciscans, our Recollects, and those of our own order. They furnished the expenses on shares, built a champan, hired sailors, and paid a pilot. But that expedition could not have been for the best, for the Lord proceeded to defeat it, by allowing their champan to be wrecked. Afterward, although they bought another in China (or rather in Ilocos), it had no better success. Ours spent more than five hundred pesos. The father reader, Fray Pedro de Quesada, [82] and father Fray Agustin de Chauru went. The sufferings of the religious from storms, rains, roads, and famines would not be believed. It seems that they can say with St. Paul: _Omnia superamus propter eum qui dilexit nos._ [83] They had to return because their superiors thus ordered, for in any other way they would not have done it; as they know very well how to suffer with Christ and for Christ, whose hardships were sweet to them, as to another St. Paul: _Mihi autem absit gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu Christi._ [84] That same year certain splendid feasts were celebrated in Manila for the holy martyrs of Japon who were canonized by his Holiness Pope Urban VII. There were twenty-one of them. Three were dogicos of the Society; the others belonged to the order of our father St. Francis. The religious marched in glittering vestments, all at the cost of the pious and religious inhabitants of Manila. The orders invited one another. There was a general procession in which the altars were excellent. As for that of our house, if it were not the best one, none of the others were ahead of it. It is certain that the dances, comedies, and the other things which made the festival magnificent, could have been envied by the best cities of Espana, to the honor and glory of its sons; for they have so pacified this earth that even at the limits of the world may be seen so many grandeurs to the honor and glory of the Author of all. Of this not a little redounds to the Catholic sovereigns of Espana; for by their expenses of men and money the banners of the Church have floated over the most remote and unknown parts of the world. Our kings of Espana deserve much, no doubt, since God has made use of them for so great affairs in His service.