Note 49 — Chapter XLIII

[In Japon the persecution was increasing in fierceness, and very few letters were received. One of these, from father Fray Domingo de Erquicia, gives an account of the death of the emperor and the succession of his son, who was even more cruel than the father.49 He tells of the deaths over a slow fire of a father of the order of the calced Augustinians, and of two discalced; of a Japanese Franciscan priest of the tertiary order, and of a Franciscan brother; and of a Japanese father of the Society of Jesus—the remains of all being burned, and the ashes cast into the sea. On another occasion two Augustinian Recollects were burned. Two Franciscan fathers were captured, while two Dominicans were hidden in caves or cisterns, and did not see the sun or the moon for many days. From a Dominican at Macao, Fray Antonio del Rosario, testimony was received as to the great achievements of father Fray Domingo Erquicia.]