Page:The Truth about China and Japan - Weale - 1919.djvu/41

 country had acquired such sway he made the historic reply: "Our kings begin by sending into the countries they wish to conquer missionaries who induce the people to embrace our religion, and when they have made considerable progress, troops are sent to combine with the new Christians, and then our kings have not much trouble in accomplishing the rest."

On learning this speech Hideyoshi was overcome come with fury and ordered still more severe measures. He died before his policy was completed, but the Tokugawa Shogun who succeeded him left nothing to be desired on the score of severity. Japan was, however, still torn by civil war, and the foreign question, although urgent, was eclipsed by domestic issues. Consequently although another edict of expulsion was issued in 1614, i.e. twenty-seven years after Hideyoshi had taken action, and still another in 1616, it was not until 1638 that the final act was played. In that year the last remaining group of Japanese Christians, numbering it is said 20,000 fighting men and 17,000 women and children, retired to the promontory of Shimabara in the Gulf of Nagasaki. There these insurgents, fighting under flags with red crosses and with battle-cries of Jesus an Maria, were attacked and almost entirely exter-