Spanish settlements in the East rushed to the rescue of their co-religionists; but it was only by moral support that they dared to act against a warlike sovereign and a people whose desperate courage was respected by all who had intercourse with them. The Emperor answered all such protests calmly and rationally. He replied to the Viceroy of Spain: “Place yourself in my position, the ruler of a great empire, and suppose my subjects were to enter it on pretence of teaching a new doctrine. If you subsequently found that they merely made such professions a mask for subverting your authority, would you not treat them as traitors? Such I hold the fathers to be to my state, and as such I treat them.” Taiko, however, was prudent in the measures he took to discountenance a faith which evidently struck at the root of imperial authority as established in Japan; and, by way of giving vent to a certain pugnacity visible in his Christian subjects, he directed large armies of them to the conquest of the Corean Peninsula, and encouraged them to not only settle there, but if they pleased, to exercise their spirit of propagandism upon the inhabitants of that country. This policy was so successful, that during his reign Japanese influence and authority is said to have become paramount in that little known country, and it was only uprooted by subsequent interference of the Court of Pekin. The forbearance of Taiko-sama was misconstrued by some zealots from the Philippines, who persisted in landing and preaching in spite of his interdict. The Emperor issued a warrant, ordering them to be executed; and twenty-three priests suffered death at Nangasaki in 1797,—a fearful example of Taiko’s power, intended evidently to warn the forty thousand Christians then living in and about that city of the consequences of incurring his displeasure or disobeying his laws.
When, moreover, it is remembered that these twenty European Christians were the only ones executed during the ten years the edict had been in force against them, it would be hardly fair to accuse Taiko of cruelty—and even in this case, political as well as religious reasons may have had much weight in occasioning so large an execution. The authorities of Macao and Manilla had fiercely resented the action of Taiko-sama against their priesthood, and wantonly executed some of his subjects in the former city, as well as committed an act of bloodthirsty piracy upon a Japanese vessel off the shores of the Philippines. These acts were not likely to mollify the temper of an Eastern despot, and perhaps one of the ablest men who ever ruled over Japan. He died soon afterwards, but not before his energy, bravery, and skill had imperishably enshrined his memory in the love and admiration of his countrymen. To this day, the name of Taiko-sama, or the most high and sovereign lord, is, we are told, spoken
A Japanese Hero in the Rain taking off his Hat to a Lady of Surpassing Beauty. (Fac-simile.)
